Your tasks: Obtaining a DOI for software

How can I get a Digital Object Identifier (DOI) for my code release?

Description

Obtaining a DOI (a type of persistent identifier) for your software has become increasingly popular to indicate others how to cite your software (either in a publication or as an independent way of referring to your software versions). In this document we describe how to obtain a DOI to refer to your software releases.

Considerations

• You use GitHub as your software repository
• You make software releases (e.g. using semantic versioning)
• You would like a DOI for your software releases
• You use or are happy to make an account on the Zenodo archive

Solutions

• Link your GitHub repository to Zenodo
  • Go to Zenodo.
  • If you don’t have an account, make an account.
  • Navigate to your Zenodo my account page
  • Click on the GitHub option, Click on Connect
  • Authorise Zenodo to access your GitHub account
  • Choose which repository you would like to create a DOI for under the repositories sections
    • You may need to scroll down to find the repository if you have access to many repositories
• Create a GitHub release for the repository you have enabled.
  • Go to your repository
  • Click on releases and then on Draft a new release
  • Remember to use a version number (semantic versioning is the common standard but there are other schemes such as CalVer which is date based)–>
• Zenodo will automatically archive this release:
  • Once your GitHub repository is linked to Zenodo, any new release you publish on GitHub will be archived by Zenodo
  • Zenodo will automatically issue a DOI for your release
• Get the DOI:
  • After the GitHub release, go to Zenodo, where you will see your repository archived with a DOI assigned to it. Your badge is available in “Details”:

• Copy the badge in your README file:
  • Now you can add the Zenodo badge in your GitHub repository. Click on the blue DOI and copy the markdown in your README. It will show as follows:

Tools and resources

• Tools: GitHub, Zenodo, your Zenodo account GitHub integrations settings
• Documentation: On GitHub, GitHub Integration FAQ entries on Zenodo

References

• Making code citable with Zenodo and GitHub
• What are persistent identifiers (PIDs)?

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