15/03/2017

The Secretariat of the International Treaty is pleased to invite Contracting Parties and Stakeholders to provide comments for the update of the Guidelines for the optimal use of Digital Object Identifiers as permanent unique identifiers for germplasm samples - v.2 (herewith attached) elaborated within the Programme of Work on the Global Information System (GLIS) of Article 17.

The guidelines explain how PGRFA holders can identify their material permanently and with more precision. It assists users during the registration process of PGRFA material through the Global Information System to determine when to assign a Digital Object Identifier (DOI) and what descriptors to use [http://www.fao.org/3/a-br574e.pdf]. The successful implementation of the guidelines will allow the Global Information System to better model relations between records during the transfer of material and thus creating added value information across organizations.