2026-10-29 –, Naturalis 02
From its origins as the International Geo Sample Number over two decades ago, IGSN has evolved into a widely recognised persistent identifier for physical objects. Now known as the International Generic Sample Number, it assigns unique, persistent identifiers to physical samples across disciplines—from geoscience to archaeology and materials science. Managed by IGSN e.V. and strengthened through a strategic partnership with DataCite, IGSN has grown rapidly, surpassing 14.8 million registered samples by February 2026.
Today, IGSN is evolving to meet modern research needs. It will integrate into the global PID Graph, linking with identifiers like ORCID and ROR to enhance data connectivity and machine readability. At the same time, efforts to align IGSN with international standards and ontologies are improving interoperability across disciplines. Together, these advances position IGSN as a vital backbone for FAIR, connected, and future-ready scientific data ecosystems worldwide.
The IGSN started as the International Geo Sample Number more than 20 years ago intended to provide globally unique identification for physical samples. It evolved into a persistent, resolvable, persistent identifier with a global governance via the IGSN e.V., a non-profit organisation that was founded in 2011 to manage the global allocation and registration of IGSNs. Over the past 15 years, the uptake of the IGSN and growth of the user community have exceeded the original geoscience community. As of February 2026, the number of IGSNs had reached 14,896,542, making it the third largest resourceType within DataCite.
Since 2011, there have been two significant changes. Firstly, in September 2021, the IGSN e.V. and DataCite formed a strategic partnership with DataCite providing the IGSN ID registration services and supporting technology to ensure the sustainability of IGSN. Secondly, in 2022, the IGSN was rebranded as the International Generic Sample Number to reflect its adoption by communities beyond the geosciences (such as archaeology, environmental sciences, and materials science).
Ongoing improvements of the IGSN ecosystem currently focus on:
1) Making IGSNs part of the global PID Graph: The IGSN was launched in 2011, just after DataCite in 2009, whilst ORCiD came in 2012 and ROR in 2019. IGSN also commenced well before the publication of the FAIR principles in 2016, and the requirements for richer metadata that are enhanced with other identifiers. Several IGSN e.V. members are now revisiting their IGSN metadata schema to include options from the DataCite Metadata Schema, specifically PIDs like ORCID, ROR, funders' IDs, and related references, as well as more controlled, linked-data vocabularies for more metadata properties to make sample descriptions more machine-readable. The IGSN metadata schema will always be complementary to the DataCite schema, because of their different purposes (basic discovery and citability for DataCite, detailed sample description for IGSN).
2) Mapping of the IGSN to concepts in higher-level Standards and Ontologies: Some IGSN e.V members are trying to map IGSN concepts to concepts instandards such as ISO 19156:2023 Edition ISO Geographic information — Observations, measurements and samples (https://www.iso.org/standard/82463.html); OGC Abstract Specification Topic 20: Observations, measurements and samples (Scheildt, K., & Rinne, I. (2023) https://docs.ogc.org/as/20-082r4/20-082r4.html) and the Semantic Sensor Network Ontology. W3C Editor’s Draft 14 August 2025. https://w3c.github.io/sdw-sosa-ssn/ssn/ (Cox, S.J.D, Lefrançois, M., & Janowicz, K., 2024).
By identifying the higher-level concepts, multiple vocabularies relevant to many individual domains can be used for each concept, which, in turn, facilitates interoperability.
Geochemist and Group Leader at CSIRO, working at the intersection of minerals exploration, data, and digital technology. Curious, cross‑disciplinary, and focused on practical impact.