NRC-CISTI launches Canadian research data registration service

DataCite Canada service makes research data easier to find, access and reuse

Ottawa, ON, May 31, 2012 – NRC’s Canada Institute for Scientific and Technical Information (NRC-CISTI) has launched a research data registration service for Canada that will help the research community address a long-standing challenge to make valuable research data easier to find so they can be leveraged and exploited for other research purposes.

The DataCite Canada service enables organizations and libraries to register their data and assign digital object identifiers (DOIs) to them. DOIs are persistent identifiers that provide long-term links to data and allow published articles to link to their underlying data.

In essence, DOIs help data producers take control of their data, share and get credit for them. In addition, they make research data easier to access, reuse and verify, thereby making it easier to build on previous work, conduct new research and avoid duplicating already existing work.

DataCite Canada’s services are offered in cooperation with DataCite, an international consortium of national-scale libraries and research organizations committed to increasing access to research data on the Internet. DataCite Canada is DataCite’s DOI allocating agent for Canadian research data.

"The launch of this service represents a significant step forward in NRC-CISTI’s efforts to help ensure that the valuable data generated by Canadian researchers can be re-used and leveraged for additional social and economic benefit," says Pam Bjornson, Director General NRC Knowledge Management and DataCite’s Deputy President. DataCite Canada’s DOI registration services will be offered to Canadian not-for-profit organizations and government departments at no charge until March 2015, at which time this policy will be re-evaluated.

For further information, see DataCite Canada's web page. If you have questions or comments, please contact the DataCite Canada team at datacite.cisti@nrc-cnrc.gc.ca.