The DataCite Metadata Store is a rich source of information and insights about research outputs, resources, and activities. Discovery systems and services worldwide rely on this metadata to build and enhance their platforms and workflows, forming critical pieces of scholarly infrastructure.

In 2023, we launched the DataCite Global Access Fund (GAF), supported by the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, to help organizations worldwide make their research outputs discoverable and connect to global open infrastructure. Today, we are excited to announce the second cohort of organizations and projects receiving GAF funding!

We are pleased to announce the election of Jamie Wittenberg as DataCite’s new Board President, effective January 1, 2025. Jamie currently serves as Assistant Dean for Research & Innovation Strategies at the University of Colorado Boulder in the USA. She brings a wealth of experience and leadership to this role, having been an active member of the DataCite Board for several years.

In the digital era, making research easily discoverable and accessible cannot be overstated. In this context, the Digital Object Identifier (DOI) system has emerged as a global persistent identifiers (PIDs) standard for identifying and linking digital content. However, many institutions in Tunisia, as well as institutions in other developing countries, have been slow to adopt this system due to various challenges.

The Zimbabwe University Libraries Consortium (ZULC) recently concluded a comprehensive outreach programme, funded by the Global Access Fund. The programme was aimed at raising awareness of persistent identifiers (PIDs) among Zimbabwean higher education institutions.

As DataCite’s Board President, I’ve seen firsthand the powerful insights that diverse voices bring to our global community of research institutions. Each member of our Board represents unique experiences, backgrounds, and perspectives that help shape our decisions and drive our mission forward.

As DataCite continually works to support our growing community, updating the DataCite Metadata Schema to better represent community use cases supports our goals of driving metadata quality and completeness.  Today, we’re excited to share the release of DataCite Metadata Schema 4.6, which expands the resourceTypeGeneral, relatedIdentifierType, relationType, contributorType, and dateType controlled lists in response to community feedback.

As 2024 comes to a close, we reflect on a year marked by milestones, progress, and the ever-deepening collaboration with our global community. This year, we celebrated 15 years of DataCite, a journey built on the collective dedication of members, partners, and stakeholders who share our vision of a connected and equitable research ecosystem.

As DataCite marks 15 years, we not only celebrate our achievements but also reflect on our journey of growth and resilience. Since our 10th anniversary, DataCite has evolved in remarkable ways. We now stand as a more inclusive and responsive membership organization, serving a global community of research institutions, from universities and libraries to funding bodies and national research organizations.

This is a guest blog post by Dawid Potgieter. Dawid leads the TWCF-funded Accelerating the Reach of Research on Consciousness (ARRC) project and shares some of the insights from the project in this blog post. Beyond Journal Articles: How PID Graphs Could Revolutionize Research Reporting In today’s academic landscape, journal articles are the primary way researchers share their work.

Through the partnership between DataCite and IGSN e.V., DataCite services can be used to register International Generic Sample Numbers (IGSN IDs) for material samples. The blog series ‘IGSN ID Implementation Exemplars’ showcases sample management workflows developed by the community that incorporate IGSN ID registration. In each post, we offer practical guidance on how to work alongside disciplinary sample experts to register IGSN IDs within DataCite services.

Following the IGSN–DataCite partnership, the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) and AuScope in Australia have been working in parallel to develop sample management systems that include IGSN ID registration. The CSIRO and AuScope systems are based on different repository platforms: Specify versus CKAN. The systems also have different audiences/remits: an internal sample management for national collections versus an open researcher catalogue. Here, we present both to enable the community to compare and contrast these systems.

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