• A Darwin Core or ABCD dataset 
• containing records about specimens,
• published online, 
• containing a unique identifier for each physical specimen object such as a catalog number or globally unique identifier (other data is optional)
• Associated digital media, if provided, need to have a public accessible URL
• Data needs to have a CC-0 or CC-By license or be public domain for both the specimen description data and included digital media. Specimen data with other licenses may get a DOI but DiSSCo cannot create a digital specimen object for them

A dataset must be accompanied by a ROR (or a WikiData ID if a ROR is not available) for the collection hosting institution.

Yes. While GBIF focuses on providing global access to biodiversity occurrence data, DiSSCo focuses on digitisation, enrichment and quality improvement of specimen data. Enrolling your datasets in DiSSCo ensures that each specimen can be referenced with a DOI and that specimens get a digital specimen object which can be community curated and extended, with the help of automated annotation tools.

Any institutional representative can start the process by filling in the enrollment form to pre-register datasets. These will be put on a waiting list for enrollment (a limited number will already be enrolled in 2025). A data hosting agreement is not required.

datasets will be prioritised by scoring them as follows:

• Dataset has a valid reason for high priority (4 points)
• Dataset provider has signed DiSSCo MoU (2 points)
• Dataset provider is a DiSSCo paying partner (2 points)
• Dataset provider is a European facility (1 point)
• Dataset includes type specimens (1 point)

Datasets with the same score will be prioritised further by date of pre-registration.

We will also take into account: dataset size, covered disciplines and countries, this to limit underrepresentation of countries, disciplines or small datasets and get an even distribution.

Yes. Each digital specimen and each associated media object will receive a persistent identifier (DOI) via DiSSCo’s PID infrastructure in collaboration with DataCite. The DataCite fee for the DOIs is paid by DiSSCo.

DiSSCo runs harmonization and validation services to ensure:

• Consistent use of taxonomic names (through harmonization with Catalog of Life)
• Mandatory metadata fields are filled
• Data is harmonized to the open Digital Specimen data model (openDS). This uses terms from DarwinCore (and other standards) and adds semantics to the data to support automated processes for finding, improving and enriching data.

Note that data validation is currently limited: 

• Some data structure testing will be done by test loading the dataset in our Sandbox
• A few key open Digital Specimen terms  (e.g. ods:physicalSpecimenIDType, ods:organisationID) will be mapped manually through our orchestration service, based on provided information and manual dataset analysis (DwC fields will be mapped automatically).
• There is currently NO automated link checking, limited duplicate detection, NO controlled vocabulary matching. This will be improved in the future depending on how our stakeholders prioritise this. Digital specimens are mutable objects, it is planned to improve data quality over time with new automated processes.

This depends on the priority your dataset gets and the date of pre-registration. We can enroll only a limited number of datasets in 2025 and will extend that in 2026 and 2027. Your datasets will be put on a waiting list and you will be notified once your dataset has been added. 

The process of creating digital specimens and DOIs for all specimen objects in Europe and beyond (specimens that already have a digital presence), is foreseen to take a few years depending on available resources.

Yes. DiSSCo supports versioning for each digital specimen and media object. Every change is tracked, and older versions remain accessible to preserve provenance and to make it possible to reference a specific version. A dataset will be checked for updates once a week. Note that you should  NOT change any physical specimen identifiers in your dataset unless you have included the digital specimen DOIs in your dataset, since it will result in duplicate digital specimens for a specimen.

Digital specimens based on enrolled datasets become discoverable via:

• DiSSCover portal (a portal for discovery and annotation)
• DataCite Commons
• Global aggregators such as GBIF and other Research Infrastructures, when they start to include digital specimens

• General enquiries: DiSSCo CSO (info@dissco.eu)
• Technical support: DiSSCo Helpdesk (support@dissco.JitBit.com)

DiSSCo’s Digital Specimen (DS) is a technical implementation to support the Digital Extended Specimen (DES) concept. While a DS may initially contain very limited information about a specimen (MIDS level 0), this may grow over time to become a full DES, e.g. it may be extended with sequence information, measurements, literature references etcetera.

The DOI refers to the  Digital Specimen (DS). Since we keep a 1:1 relationship with the physical specimen and the physical specimen ID (e.g. catalog number or GUID) is stored in the DS, the DOI can also be used to refer to the specimen itself. Digital media (e.g. specimen images) also get a DOI.

How a specimen is defined is up to the institution hosting the specimen. Every object that gets a unique specimen ID from the institution will get its own Digital Specimen (DS). DiSSCo aims to support specimen parts, so a specimen can have multiple parts, which can be different species each with their own identification. However DarwinCore does not support that well, so implementation is currently limited. This will change with the new DarwinCore Data Packages.