Alternative Identifier (R, 0-n)

datacite:alternateIdentifier

The alternateIdentifier serves two purposes:

• Collecting all or many identifiers other than the primary identifier applied to the resource being registered (same instance - same location, same file).
• Registering two especially relevant kinds of web pages dedicated to the resource, namely landing pages and download pages.

Property alternateIdentifier (R, 0-n)

Allowed values, other constraints:

• Secondary identifiers preferably should be durable, and also comprise local identifiers. All existing identifiers for the resource are appreciated.
• The format is free text - any alphanumeric string which is unique within its domain of issue and follows the respective specifications.
• Web pages dedicated to the resource, i.e. landing pages or download pages, are given as URLs. PIDs are fine, but should be prefixed with their respective resolver URL.

Attribute alternateIdentifierType (M, 1)

The type of the alternateIdentifier.

Exemplary values for secondary identifiers (established and non-standard identifier types):

• ARK - Archival Resource Key (resolvable via http://n2t.net/)
• DOI - Digital Object Identifier (resolvable via http://dx.doi.org/)
• EAN13 - European/International Article Number, a superset of the UPC
• Handle - (resolvable via http://hdl.handle.net/)
• IGSN - International Geo Sample Number
• LSID - Life Science Identifiers
• PMCID - PubMed Central identifier
• PMID - PubMed identifier
• PURL - Persistent URL (resolvable via http://purl.org/)
• UPC - Universal Product Code
• URN - Uniform Resource Name (resolvable via http://nbn-resolving.org/)
• local - a local accession number
• URL - Uniform Resource Locator

Controlled values for specific, important web pages dedicated to the resource:

• LandingPage - landing pages
• DistributionLocation - distribution locations

Examples

Secondary identifiers:

<datacite:alternateIdentifiers>
   <datacite:alternateIdentifier alternateIdentifierType="DOI">
      10.5447/IPK/2015/9
   </datacite:alternateIdentifier>
</datacite:alternateIdentifiers>

<datacite:alternateIdentifiers>
   <datacite:alternateIdentifier alternateIdentifierType="local">
      oai:hup.sub.uni-hamburg.de.giga:article/491
   </datacite:alternateIdentifier>
</datacite:alternateIdentifiers>

Landing pages and download pages:

<datacite:alternateIdentifiers>
   <datacite:alternateIdentifier alternateIdentifierType="DistributionLocation">
      http://some-distribution-location.org
   </datacite:alternateIdentifier>
</datacite:alternateIdentifiers>

<datacite:alternateIdentifiers>
   <datacite:alternateIdentifier alternateIdentifierType="LandingPage">
      http://hdl.handle.net/10316/33181
   </datacite:alternateIdentifier>
</datacite:alternateIdentifiers>

Context

Do Not Confuse With

• Identifier (M, 1) (Use identifier for the primary identifier of the same resource instance.)
• Related Identifier (MA, 0-n) (Use relatedIdentifier for identifiers of related resources.)

DataCite v4.3 Differentiation

• alternateIdentifier_ is recommended in OpenAIRE instead of optional in DataCite.
• OpenAIRE uses alternateIdentifier_ also for the specific web targets landing page and distribution location.
• OpenAIRE allows for more identifier types than DataCite.

OpenAIRE Data Guidelines v Differentiation

• Registering landing pages and download pages is newly introduced in the current guideline version.
• alternateIdentifier_ is recommended in this version instead of optional.