Citing data may soon be as common for researchers as citing publications, so it is timely that a method of citing datasets is being developed. Digital Object Identifiers (DOIs) have long been attached to journal articles and conference papers as a form of persistent identification. Now DOIs are increasingly being attached to data.

The trend will accelerate when GigaScience, an innovative new journal and integrated database, launches in November this year. All GigaScience datasets will be given a Digital Object Identifier (DOI). This will assist access, re-use, tracking, and permanency for datasets. GigaScience is being launched by a collaboration between BGI, the world's largest genomics institute, and open access publisher BioMed Central. On offer at the launch will be the sequence and assembly data from the recent deadly outbreak strain E. coli O104, and seven large vertebrates, including the giant panda.

GigaScience will publish articles relating to biological and biomedical "big-data" studies, and address issues around the handling of large-scale data from all areas of the life sciences.

EurekAlert has more.