What is a DOI?
A Digital Object Identifier provides easy access to specific data sets, providing readers with fast, efficient, and durable access to your data. Papers with links to data are cited more frequently and non-durable data links tend to fail over time.
You may have seen them used in links to scholarly journal articles and in the NASA Astrophysics Data System. DOIs create permanent and unique links to text, web pages, data and other digital resources.
How to get a MAST DOI
Help us provide a permanent reference to the data you used in writing your manuscript!
Step 1: Generate a new DOI or select an existing one.
Step 2: Add the DOI to your manuscript.
Step 3: Enter the DOI during article submission (for AAS Journals).
Step 1: Generate a new DOI or select an existing one
There are two ways to get a MAST DOI:
(a) Generate a DOI for a custom collection of one or more observations
(b) Find existing DOIs
We have pre-made DOIs for certain collections, including High Level Science Products, certain catalogs, and various subsets of Kepler/K2 and TESS bulk mission data. If the DOI you want is not on this list and the dataset is too large to create a DOI yourself, please contact us to request a new bulk DOI.
Data from a High Level Science Product? (CANDELS, K2SFF, QLP, TASOC, etc.)
High Level Science Products (HLSPs) are pre-processed, community-provided datasets that already have DOI links. A pre-defined DOI can be found on the HLSP search page above the name of each HSLP project, and in the top section of each HLSP's landing page. This DOI refers to a given HLSP as a whole.
Note: A separate DOI link is occasionally available on an HLSP project's landing page under "Source Data". This additional DOI refers to the original mission products from which the HLSP was derived, rather than to the HLSP products themselves.
A catalog? (Kepler KIC, GALEX MCAT, etc.)
At present, we provide a DOI for each of the following MAST catalogs and surveys.
- GALEX MCAT
- GALEX gPhoton
- Hubble Source Catalog
- TESS Input Catalog (TIC)
- Kepler Input Catalog (KIC)
- K2 EPIC
- Guide Star Catalog 2
- Digitized Sky Survey
- Pan-STARRS1 DR1
- Pan-STARRS1 DR2
A quarter or campaign from Kepler/K2 or a sector from TESS?
Data from the Kepler space telescope is often referred to in large collections, either by quarter, by cadence, or as a whole. Data from TESS is referred to by sector. Find the corresponding DOI for these data collections below.
Accordion
NOTE: Specify the Sector range used in your paper alongside the DOI(s).
All Target Pixel Files, All Sectors
NOTE: Specify the Sector range used in your paper alongside the DOI(s).
NOTE: Specify the Sector range used in your paper alongside the DOI(s).
Step 2: Add the DOI to your manuscript
It is critical that you cite your MAST DOI in your manuscript; otherwise, your reader will have no link between your publication and the data you analyzed.
For AAS journal authors, we recommend updating to the most recent version of AASTeX. Where exactly you decide to cite the DOI will depend on your article. The important thing is to include it somewhere, so that readers can access the data you analyzed. For further information and examples for non-AAS journals, visit the FAQ at the end of this page.
Example 1 (Data Analysis section):
All the [mission] data used in this paper can be found in MAST: \dataset[https://doi.org/10.17909/######]{https://doi.org/10.17909/######}.
Example 2 (Acknowledgments):
Some/all of the data presented in this paper were obtained from the Mikulski Archive for Space Telescopes (MAST) at the Space Telescope Science Institute. The specific observations analyzed can be accessed via \dataset[https://doi.org/10.17909/######]{https://doi.org/10.17909/######}. STScI is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc., under NASA contract NAS5–26555. Support to MAST for these data is provided by the NASA Office of Space Science via grant NAG5–7584 and by other grants and contracts.
Step 3: Enter the DOI during article submission
Some journals, such as AAS journals, will require you to enter data DOIs in their journal submission interface during the article submission process. Other journals may instead recommend only that you insert your DOI in the manuscript using the \dataset or similar tag in their markup language, as outlined in Step 2 above.
FAQ
Accordion
The MAST DOI Initiative is a system at MAST for assigning, preserving, and dereferencing DOIs for MAST data. It began with a partnership with American Astronomical Society Journals (Astrophysical Journal, Astronomical Journal, Astrophysical Journal Supplements, Astrophysical Journal Letters, and Planetary Science Journal) in which MAST and AAS Journals collaborated to bring MAST DOIs to AAS Journal articles. At present, only authors at select institutions are being asked to provide DOIs to their MAST data in the publication process. In 2022, all institutions will be prompted to provide MAST DOIs during submission to AAS journals.
Grant recipients using JWST data in a publication are obligated to identify their data using a MAST DOI. See https://jwst-docs.stsci.edu/accessing-jwst-data and https://outerspace.stsci.edu/display/MASTDOCS/Special+Topics for further information.
You can find detailed instructions on DOI creation on the MAST Docs webpage ("Create a DOI"). Contact Archive Scientists at archive@stsci.edu if you have questions.
Once your custom DOI has been created or you have selected an existing DOI, you must add a statement similar to the below examples in the data, analysis, or acknowledgment section using the AASTeX \dataset markup. Where exactly you decide to cite the DOI will depend on your article. The important thing is to include it, so that readers can access the data you analyzed. Additional guidance for non-AAS journals is provided in the next question. For AAS journal authors, we recommend updating to the most recent version of AASTeX:
Example 1 (Data Analysis section):
All the [mission] data used in this paper can be found in MAST: \dataset[https://doi.org/10.17909/######]{https://doi.org/10.17909/######}.
Example 2 (Acknowledgments):
Some/all of the data presented in this paper were obtained from the Mikulski Archive for Space Telescopes (MAST) at the Space Telescope Science Institute. The specific observations analyzed can be accessed via \dataset[https://doi.org/10.17909/######]{https://doi.org/10.17909/######}. STScI is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc., under NASA contract NAS5–26555. Support to MAST for these data is provided by the NASA Office of Space Science via grant NAG5–7584 and by other grants and contracts.
The DOI citation can be included with your manuscript at the time of submission or amended to your text file during the revision process. More information about the AASTeX \dataset command can be found here.
See the following links for specific information about MAST's Data Use Policy, Data Attributions, and Mission Acknowledgments.
While MAST does not have explicit agreements in place with other publishers, you may use a MAST DOI in any way you see fit. We would be happy if you used them in any publication referencing MAST-supported products. Resources for data citation in different journals can be obtained at the following links.
- AAS Journals: "3rd party data repositories and software" at https://journals.aas.org/aastexguide/
- MNRAS: "Data Policy" at https://academic.oup.com/mnras/pages/General_Instructions
- A&A: "Data Policy" at https://www.aanda.org/for-authors/author-information/paper-organization
- Icarus: "Data Availability"
- Nature: "Availability of Data" at https://www.nature.com/nature-portfolio/editorial-policies/reporting-standards
- Science: "Data and Code Deposition"
You may create more than one DOI for your manuscript. We suggest that you create DOIs for each dataset that is discussed independently in the manuscript. If datasets are analyzed in conjunction they should be put into the same DOI. We recommend that you not generate many DOIs with similar content; don't generate one for each target. If you discuss, for instance, FUSE and HST data that a reader would most likely want to access independently, you can create a separate DOI for each of them.
High Level Science Products, certain catalogs (like the Hubble Source Catalog), and certain collections of data (like subsets of Kepler/K2 and TESS data) have pre-assigned DOIs that can be found on the HLSP search page or here, on the MAST DOI Home page. You can directly copy the DOIs provided for these data sets and insert them into your manuscript. When entering the url, be sure to use the standard DOI.org url prefix, e.g., https://doi.org/10.17909/######.
While MAST DOIs can be referenced by journals, they are not kept track of like articles or other "first-class citable objects". Thus, MAST DOIs do not accrue citations in the same way articles do. Data DOIs can be thought of more like "permanent URLs" than independent scholarly works.
DOIs can be edited with permission of MAST staff as well as permission from all publications that currently reference the DOI. It is the position of MAST and AAS Journals that the DOI should reference the data the author intended at the time of publication, rather than any data unintentionally referenced by clerical error. Contact us at archive@stsci.edu if edits are needed.
Yes. Re-processing of data from active missions does occur, and we typically only host the latest version of a file. In these cases, the data that the DOI points to will change to the latest version. Similarly, usually only the latest version of a High Level Science Product is discoverable in the MAST Portal, and the DOIs for HLSP webpages may point to multiple versions.
- For active missions (JWST, HST, TESS): Often the easiest thing to do is to specify the "file creation" or "processing" date or time, which is captured in FITS header keywords like DATE or PROCTIME. Note that for HST and JWST, the version of the processing pipeline software and the version of the calibration reference files (flats, darks, etc.) can change independently of each other.
- High Level Science Products (HLSPs): use the version number specified in the file name, which follows the syntax outlined on that HLSP's webpage under "Data Products".
- For legacy missions (other than HLSPs), version changes are less of a concern, though specifying the version is still good practice. In general, you can find the processing date in the FITS header, or as a last resort specify the date on which you retrieved the data from MAST.
The goal is to provide readers of your paper with enough information to retrieve the exact set of data that you used in your science. If you only used a subset of the data represented by an existing DOI, you have two options: reference the existing DOI and explain exactly how to narrow that dataset down to the observations that you actually used, or follow the procedures above to create/request a new DOI comprising the exact subset that you used. Which option is easiest for you and your readers may depend on how much of the existing DOI you are utilizing, the size of the existing DOI, or the complexity of your selection function.
Sometimes the larger DOI may contain metadata or contextual information that could be useful to readers (e.g., HLSP DOIs are permanent pointers to the webpage describing that HLSP), and in such cases you might want to consider referencing both the larger DOI and your new subset DOI.