Many things have happened since the DataCite Metadata Working Group last released a new version of its schema in the summer of 2019. Indeed, amongst a long list of transformations brought about by the ongoing global pandemic, the paramount importance of accessing research data has been made clear to all as a requirement to accelerate trustworthy and evidenced-based science.

We are happy to announce that we are taking the final steps on our way to providing you with all the relevant information you need. We outlined this transition already last year, meaning to move away from our current mailing lists to mailing lists that will be based on member information available in DataCite Fabrica. We are excited to announce that this step will happen this week.

Last month I shared our Vision 2021 that puts into action the goals set out in our strategic plan. In this post I want to share about our strategic visioning activity that we will collectively embark on as a community. As a community we are driven by our mission and vision: Our Vision: Connecting research, identifying knowledge. Our Mission: DataCite’s mission is to be the world’s leading provider of persistent identifiers for research.

DataCite Open Hours are an opportunity for anyone in the community to hear the latest updates, ask questions and engage with DataCite staff and other community members. Sometimes there’s even a festive pub quiz! Open Hours also provides an informal, interactive forum to learn from and share with the DataCite community and gather feedback for our roadmap, which is essential to our mission.

For the last 3 years, we have been sending an annual survey to our members (for previous results, see https://doi.org/10.5438/0x81-y943 and https://doi.org/10.5438/99ne-g618) to receive input which helps us reflect on how we did and how we can improve moving forward. In this blog post, we want to share the outcomes of the 2020 survey and also take the opportunity to look at some of the changes we see compared to previous surveys.

At the end of last year, we had the opportunity to reflect on 2020 (@https://doi.org/10.5438/dc6e-ht89) as a year and plan for 2021. It was certainly a challenging year for all of us in the community and it is during these times that we realize our collective strength! Despite the challenges that we had, DataCite continued to grow as a global community working together.

In a recent conversation with Dr. Isabella Peters, she mentioned: Can we make the same statements about data citation and data publication behavior? And If so, what are data citation patterns in each discipline?. These questions are at the center of the ‘Meaningful Data Counts’ project that Dr. Stefanie Haustein and Dr. Isabella Peters lead.

The DataCite EZ API was first introduced in 2017 to assist those of our Members who transitioned from the California Digital Library (CDL) EZID service. Users were able to make the same API calls they used to make to EZID, just using the DataCite endpoint instead. This was introduced as a temporary solution to support easy transition of services. Finally, 4 years later, it is time to retire the DataCite EZ API.

As 2020 comes to a close, we reflect back on a year of global uncertainty and many challenges faced by our entire community. It can only be described as a year of the unexpected, and it demonstrated the importance of communities working together. Despite the challenges we faced this year, DataCite also had a year with lots to celebrate and it is important to reflect on some of the highlights.

Hi there! I’m the latest addition to the DataCite team in the role of Adoption Manager for ROR and DataCite. An ardent open knowledge and persistent identifier enthusiast, I spent the past 6 years at ORCID wearing hats ranging from member support to technical lead. A librarian by training and a software developer by necessity, I thrive at the intersection of people, processes and technology.

DataCite is pleased to welcome Suzanne Vogt to our team. Suzanne joined DataCite as an application developer in November 2020. Can you tell us a little bit about what you did before you started working for DataCite? I have been a software developer for a number of years, my very early experience is in operating systems and networking.