Crossref DOI for Maps

Hi Crossref folks!

I wonder if there is any recommendation for depositing DOI metadata for Maps in Crossref?

Hi @asoto,

Thanks for your message.

You have two options here. We donā€™t have a content type specific to images or maps but if they are part of a larger object (like a book or a journal) they can be deposited as a component: https://0-www-crossref-org.pugwash.lib.warwick.ac.uk/education/content-registration/structural-metadata/components/. Component records are often registered for figures, tables, and supplemental materials associated with a journal article.

Alternatively, you can use our dataset content type to register content that doesnā€™t easily fit in any of the other types, including images (or maps). It has a very open-ended metadata schema.

For more information on dataset content, including sample deposit xml:

Best,
Isaac

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@ifarley Thank you! I will take a look, and I let you know if I have further questions about it.

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:+1: Great! Best of luck, @asoto!

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Interesting topic and useful, thanks! :handshake:

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We publish geologic and other types of maps. Some are in print and have ISBNs, and some are released as PDFs along with geodatabases (GIS data). These maps are not ā€˜componentsā€™ of anything else and stand alone. I tried a validation test using the example ā€˜datasetā€™ XML. Apparently, it is possible to remove the ā€˜datasetā€™ section from the XML, and just use the ā€˜databaseā€™ for the DOI information. However, it wonā€™t validate with an ISBN added. I think that my other only option would be to use the ā€˜reportā€™ XML. Iā€™d like to see how USGS is doing their XML for their geologic maps.

I think that adding maps to the Crossref schema is important. Maps are fundamental references in geology, biology, ecology, geography, and many other fields. Also, having a metadata field for scale would be very useful for metadata searches.

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We havenā€™t had many requests to support maps specifically but we plan to support a number of types of content with a more generic content type in the future and maps can certainly be considered for that.

It looks like USGS is registering maps as reports, for example the DOI 10.3133/sim3501 has this XML registered with us:

https://0-doi-crossref-org.pugwash.lib.warwick.ac.uk/search/doi?pid=support@crossref.org&format=unixsd&doi=10.3133/sim3501

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Yeah, I replied to this old thread because it was the only one I could find mentioning maps. Thanks for the link to the XML. Itā€™s very helpful to see how the USGS is doing this.

If you decide to support maps specifically, I suggest that in addition to a ā€˜Scaleā€™ metadata field (record the denominator of scale ratio), you could also add a field for ā€˜MapTypeā€™, fields for a bounding box in lat/long decimal degrees, projection details, and map datum. There is a lot more metadata applicable specifically to maps, but these are the basics. Engaging with the USGS and ESRI (among others) would be useful should you move forward on this.

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