For the last 3 years, we have been sending an annual survey to our members (for previous results, see https://doi.org/10.5438/0x81-y943 and https://doi.org/10.5438/99ne-g618) to receive input which helps us reflect on how we did and how we can improve moving forward. In this blog post, we want to share the outcomes of the 2020 survey and also take the opportunity to look at some of the changes we see compared to previous surveys.

At the end of last year, we had the opportunity to reflect on 2020 (@https://doi.org/10.5438/dc6e-ht89) as a year and plan for 2021. It was certainly a challenging year for all of us in the community and it is during these times that we realize our collective strength! Despite the challenges that we had, DataCite continued to grow as a global community working together.

In a recent conversation with Dr. Isabella Peters, she mentioned: Can we make the same statements about data citation and data publication behavior? And If so, what are data citation patterns in each discipline?. These questions are at the center of the ‘Meaningful Data Counts’ project that Dr. Stefanie Haustein and Dr. Isabella Peters lead.

The DataCite EZ API was first introduced in 2017 to assist those of our Members who transitioned from the California Digital Library (CDL) EZID service. Users were able to make the same API calls they used to make to EZID, just using the DataCite endpoint instead. This was introduced as a temporary solution to support easy transition of services. Finally, 4 years later, it is time to retire the DataCite EZ API.

As 2020 comes to a close, we reflect back on a year of global uncertainty and many challenges faced by our entire community. It can only be described as a year of the unexpected, and it demonstrated the importance of communities working together. Despite the challenges we faced this year, DataCite also had a year with lots to celebrate and it is important to reflect on some of the highlights.

Hi there! I’m the latest addition to the DataCite team in the role of Adoption Manager for ROR and DataCite. An ardent open knowledge and persistent identifier enthusiast, I spent the past 6 years at ORCID wearing hats ranging from member support to technical lead. A librarian by training and a software developer by necessity, I thrive at the intersection of people, processes and technology.

DataCite is pleased to welcome Suzanne Vogt to our team. Suzanne joined DataCite as an application developer in November 2020. Can you tell us a little bit about what you did before you started working for DataCite? I have been a software developer for a number of years, my very early experience is in operating systems and networking.

Humanity will remember 2020 for lots of reasons. Maybe one of them will be that it was the year that conferences and meetings around the globe went online. Maybe this trend won’t last, but for many, the challenge of bringing together communities to try and replicate the in person meeting experience with a virtual one, could not be missed.

DataCite and the FREYA project partners are proud to announce the official launch of DataCite Commons today.

As DataCite continues to scale as a global community with members across 43 countries, it is important that we make sure our operations and policies align to support our growing community of members. Earlier this year we set out the Vision 2020, which included optimising internal operations, systems and processes as one of the strategic priorities for this year.

DataCite occasionally has guest blog posts that illustrate how the community makes use of DataCite services or metadata. In this post, we hear from Richard Wynne from Rescognito, who have started using DataCite metadata to explore how persistent identifiers can be used to recognize a broader set of research contributions.