Obtain an IGSN

Obtaining IGSNs for your samples is easy.  Multiple organizations operate as Allocating Agents of the IGSN. Please review the scope and capabilities of each Allocating Agent below to determine the most appropriate to register your samples with and obtain IGSNs from. If you are unsure about which Allocating Agent is best for your samples, contact info@igsn.org.

Allocating Agent Service Community
Australian Research Data Commons (ARDC) Sample holders and curators affiliated with Australian research organisations that do not offer their own IGSN minting service
Centre national de la recherche scientifique (CNRS) Researchers funded by CNRS.
Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) Organization facilities and staff
Geoscience Australia Australian Government Geological Surveys and other Australian state and federal government users
German Research Centre for Geosciences (GFZ) Information forthcoming
GEOMAR Helmholtz-Zentrum für Ozeanforschung Kiel Information forthcoming
Institut Français de Recherche pour l’Exploitation de la Mer (IFREMER) Organization facilities and staff
Korea Institute of Geoscience and Mineral Resources (KIGAM) Korea’s geoscience research and academic sectors.
MARUM Center for Marine Environmental Studies at University of Bremen Organization facilities and staff
System for Earth Sample Registration (SESAR) at Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, Columbia University Registration by the general public supported; funded by the US National Science Foundation (NSF)

See our technical documentation of the IGSN at DataCite to learn more about registering IGSNs and the roles and responsibilities of IGSN Allocating Agents.

Resolve or search for IGSN

You can resolve an IGSN by entering the string, ‘http://doi.org/10273/’, followed by your IGSN, in your web browser.  For example, http://doi.org/10273/ICDP5054ESYI201 will lead to the metadata profile page for IGSN ‘ICDP5054ESYI201’, which is hosted at https://dataservices.gfz-potsdam.de/igsn/icdp/index.php?igsn=ICDP5054ESYI201. 

Looking to discover samples? The IGSN e.V. does not currently support a catalog to search across the descriptive metadata collected by Allocating Agents, but many Agents maintain their own descriptive metadata catalogs.  See the links above to individual Allocating Agents for more information.

Learn more about IGSN e.V. and its related projects