Registering DataCite DOIs for Awards

Using DataCite DOIs for awards

This page provides general guidance on registering DataCite DOIs for awards, grants, and comparable entities.

DataCite DOIs are suitable for a wide range of research outputs and resources, including awards and grants.

Registering DOIs for awards and grants:

  • Enables research funding organisations to keep track of awards and grants.
  • Makes awards and grants easily citable by recipients.
  • Facilitates tracking of outputs from funded activities through connected metadata.
  • Supports landscape analysis for awards and grants

For more information on how DOIs and other persistent identifiers can be used by research funding organisations, see the Guide for funders to support FAIR workflows & enable research tracking.

Metadata Recommendations

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This is an initial recommendation to begin registering DOIs for awards and grants with DataCite.

Our intention is to refine this based on feedback; please get in touch with us at [email protected] with your suggestions, questions and comments.

Terminology

For the purpose of these recommendations, we define the following terms:

  1. Award: An umbrella term for a specific instance of funding, grant, investment or non-monetary resources provided to researcher(s) or research organization(s) in support of a defined piece of work.
  2. Award scheme: An umbrella term for a funding program, prize, or award category etc. - a framework for recognition and resource provision that support scholarly work, such as the ERC grants or the Nobel prizes.
  3. Award issuer: The provider (organization) and manager (individuals) of the resources defined in an award scheme.
  4. Award DOI issuer: The creator and publisher of the award DOI metadata.
  5. Award recipient: A person or organization being awarded the resources defined in the award.
  6. Award project: A planned set of work defined by a project plan or proposal that is selected to be funded by an award.

Applying the DataCite Metadata Properties to Awards

DataCite PropertyUsage Notes for GrantsDataCite CardinalityRequired
1. Identifier An identifier is a unique string that identifies a resource; here, the identifier is the DOI for the award.1-nYes
2. CreatorAward issuer: The provider (organization) and manager (individuals) of the resources defined in an award scheme.1-nYes
3. TitleThe available and appropriate title(s) the award is known for. These could be:

- The title of the specific award (following a naming convention decided by the award DOI issuer)
- The title of the project funded by the award, specified in the title type field as AlternativeTitle.
1-nYes
4. PublisherAward DOI issuer: The creator and publisher of the award DOI metadata.1Yes
5. Publication YearThe year in which the award was first issued.1Yes
7. ContributorThe recipient(s) of the award, which can be one or more people, teams, or organizations.0-nNo
8. DateAny relevant dates and time periods pertaining to the award, e.g.:

- The period of time covered by the award. Enter two dates separated by a slash to indicate a date range and use dateType “Valid”.
- Extension period: Add an additional date property to indicate additional time period covered by an award extension. Enter two dates separated by a slash to indicate a date range, with dateType “Update”, and “Extension” in the dateInformation field.
0-nNo
10. Resource TypeAs of Schema 4.5, we recommend “Award” or “Grant” for the free text ResourceType value.1Yes
10.1 resourceTypeGeneralAs of Schema 4.5, we recommend resourceTypeGeneral “Other”.

A more specific value for resourceTypeGeneral may be added to the DataCite Metadata Schema in the future.
1Yes
11. Alternate IdentifierA local or internal award number may be included in AlternateIdentifier.0-nNo
12. Related IdentifierRelated identifiers of related research outputs and resources, including:

- The identifier for related awards when there is a DOI.
- Identifiers for outputs resulting from the award funding.
- One or more project identifiers for projects funded by the award.
- Identifiers for instruments used in the research funded by the award. See Connecting Awards to Related Entities table for specific relationType recommendations.
0-nNo
13. SizeWhere applicable, include a quantity of resources provided by the award, including the numerical value + unit.

Size can be used for monetary awards or other types of quantifiable resources, such as computing time.
0-nNo
17. DescriptionThe description of the award. Depending on the award type, this may be a short summary used in the funding proposal or an outline of the funding purpose.0-nNo
19. Funding ReferenceWhen registering a DOI for a sub-award, use FundingReference to indicate the parent award and funding organization, including the awardTitle and awardNumber attributes where applicable.

If the parent award has an identifier, we recommend both including this the awardNumber attribute for the FundingReference and adding a RelatedIdentifier. See See Connecting Awards to Related Entities table for specific relationType recommendations.
0-nNo
20. Related ItemThe award scheme (for example, a named funding program/category) through which the award is issued. The RelatedItem sub-properties can be applied as follows:

- Indicate that the award is issued through the award scheme with the relationType “IsPartOf”.
- Include the name of the award scheme in the Title sub-property.
- Include the award issuer (responsible for administering the award scheme) in the Creator sub-property.
- Where available, include an identifier for the award scheme in relatedItemIdentifier and add a corresponding RelatedIdentifier property. For more information, refer to the general guidance on Using RelatedItem for publication information and related resources.
0-nNo

There may be additional fields of interest depending on the nature of the award, such as “geoLocation” for facility based awards, “subject” for grants designed to support work in specific disciplinary domains.

Connecting Awards to Related Entities

The DataCite Metadata Schema can be used to connect awards to related entities—including works, people, and organizations. This table shows several connections that can be specified:

ConnectionDataCite Metadata PropertyConnecting Sub-propertyRecommended PIDNotes
Award → award managerCreatorCreator - nameIdentifierORCID iD for person

ROR ID for organization
Award → recipientsContributorContributor - nameIdentifierORCID iD for person

ROR ID for organization
Award → award DOI issuerCreatorCreator - nameIdentifierROR ID for organization
Award → award DOI issuerPublisherPublisher - PublisherIdentifierROR ID for organization
Recipients → affiliationsContributor - affiliationContributor - affiliation - affiliationIdentifierROR ID for organization
Award → award schemeRelatedIdentifier with relationType: IsPartOf-DOI
Award → projectRelatedIdentifier

- When award and project have a 1-1 correspondence: relationType Requires

- When the award is one component of a larger project: relationType IsPartOf
-DOI
Award → outputRelatedIdentifier with relationType: References-DOIIdeally, the connection should be established by the recipient by acknowledging the award when sharing outputs (enter award DOI in the FundingReference property of each related output DOI).
Award → data management plan (DMP)RelatedIdentifier:

- When DMP is required as part of the application: relationType Requires

- When DMP is a planned output shared after grant award: relationType IsSupplementedBy
-DOI/DMP-ID
Award → other resourcesRelatedIdentifier

- For an instrument or facility: relationType: Requires
-DOIWhen the award is not monetary, but an allocation of resource i.e. usage of instruments or facilities, the issuance of the award “requires” the instrument or facility.
Award → other awardRelatedIdentifier

- For parent-award/sub-awards: relationType IsPartOf/HasPart

- For follow-up or extension awards: relationType Continues/IsContinuedBy

- For other related awards, without a hierarchical or sequential relationship: relationType References
-DOI