**Recommendation 4.1 **

Recommendation to Organizations to support IGSN deployment

Description

Status: Draft 22.5.2025

Motivation for this Recommendation:

Registering IGSNs benefits organizations by ensuring that physical samples are uniquely identifiable, traceable, and citable, which improves data quality, provenance, and reproducibility. It supports FAIR data practices by linking samples to related datasets, publications, and instruments, enhancing visibility and reuse. Organizations also gain better oversight of sample use and impact, which supports collaboration, reporting, and compliance—ultimately strengthening their role as trusted stewards of research data.

Recommendation

It is recommended, that organizations [Note: in the similar ORCID the recomenndation goes to the center management. This should be addressed in a uniform manner] should:

1. provide a way to allow personnel to register IGSNs by either signing up with DataCite or partner with an organization or service, which allows registration of IGSNs.

2. assign a person or unit within their organization, who is responsible to maintain and curate the centres IGSNs. These could e.g. be members of a local data management team or sample curators.

Binding Convention:

mandatory	conditional	optional
Helmholtz FAIR Principle

Precondition for Implementation:

Related Recommendations

Parent: 4.0

Dependent: none

Other: none

Contributors

Manu

Content

1. Explanation of the Background and Benefits of the Recommendation

About

History and structure

Current Use of …

Motivation

Registering IGSNs benefits organizations by ensuring that physical samples are uniquely identifiable, traceable, and citable, which improves data quality, provenance, and reproducibility. It supports FAIR data practices by linking samples to related datasets, publications, and instruments, enhancing visibility and reuse. Organizations also gain better oversight of sample use and impact, which supports collaboration, reporting, and compliance—ultimately strengthening their role as trusted stewards of research data.

2. Possible alternative solutions

Organizations may recommend other solutions, e.g. those discussed in the recommendation to use IGSN alternative solutions chapter.

3. Consideration of the advantages and disadvantages of implementing the recommendation

(quality of content, limitations, interoperability, sustainability: expected future dissemination / technical availability / funding)

4. The Recommendation

It is recommended, that organizations [Note: in the similar ORCID the recomenndation goes to the center management. This should be addressed in a uniform manner] should:

1. provide a way to allow personnel to register IGSNs by either signing up with DataCite or partner with an organization or service, which allows registration of IGSNs.

2. assign a person or unit within their organization, who is responsible to maintain and curate the centres IGSNs. These could e.g. be members of a local data management team or sample curators.

5. Naming of communities that have already implemented the recommendation

6. Documentation of the test to validate correct implementation

7. Examples of Instances

8. Further Information

References

Relevant Community Recommendations

9. History of this document