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Abstract Material samples are indispensable data sources in many natural science, social science, and humanity disciplines. More and more researchers recognize that samples collected in one discipline can be of great value for another. This has motivated organizations that manage a large number of samples to make their holdings accessible to the world. Currently, multiple projects are working to connect natural history and other samples managed by individual institutions or individuals into a universe of samples that follow FAIR principles. This poster reports the progress of the US NSF‐funded iSamples project, in the context of other efforts initiated by US DOE, DiSCCo, BCoN, and GBIF. By October 2021, we will also be able to present an iSamples prototype. We encourage individual organizations that hold material samples to get to know these projects and help shape these projects to realize the goal of a global linked sample cloud that connects all material samples and is accessible to all.
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Internet of Samples (iSamples): Toward an interdisciplinary cyberinfrastructure for material samples
Abstract Sampling the natural world and built environment underpins much of science, yet systems for managing material samples and associated (meta)data are fragmented across institutional catalogs, practices for identification, and discipline-specific (meta)data standards. The Internet of Samples (iSamples) is a standards-based collaboration to uniquely, consistently, and conveniently identify material samples, record core metadata about them, and link them to other samples, data, and research products. iSamples extends existing resources and best practices in data stewardship to render a cross-domain cyberinfrastructure that enables transdisciplinary research, discovery, and reuse of material samples in 21st century natural science.
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- PAR ID:
- 10280283
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- GigaScience
- Volume:
- 10
- Issue:
- 5
- ISSN:
- 2047-217X
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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This dataset contains a complete export of all iSamples records as of April 21, 2025, in GeoParquet format. The dataset includes over 6.6 million sample records with rich metadata including geographic coordinates, material classifications, context categories, and related resources. The data was exported using the iSamples export client with the query 'source:*', capturing the complete state of the iSample.xyz repository. Each record includes sample identifiers, descriptions, classifications, geospatial information (using WGS 84 coordinate system), timestamps, and various categorical attributes. This GeoParquet file provides an efficient format for analyzing the global distribution and classification of physical samples across scientific domains. The dataset is valuable for researchers working with physical samples in geoscience, material science, biology, and related fields who need to discover, access, or analyze sample collections at scale.more » « less
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- Free Publicly Accessible Full Text
-
Accepted Manuscript1.0
- Journal Article:
- https://doi.org/10.1093/gigascience/giab028
