International Geo Sample Number, a globally unique persistent identifier for physical samples (geological, environmental, biological) that supports tracking and citation of the sample through subsequent analyses, publications, and derived data.

ByCASRAI Editorial Board

· Last updated 10 Jul 2026

Examples

Worked examples

Is an instance
A rock core sample registered with IGSN at SESAR, with associated bore hole depth, latitude/longitude, and links to derived geochemical analyses.
Is an instance
A water sample collected during a research cruise, IGSN-registered to enable downstream attribution.

Counter-examples

Looks similar, but isn't

Not an instance
A specimen accession number in a museum's internal catalogue is not an IGSN unless registered with an IGSN allocator.
Not an instance
An ICES (International Council for the Exploration of the Sea) station ID is not an IGSN.

Editorial commentary

IGSN was originally launched in 2011 by the System for Earth Sample Registration (SESAR) and the IGSN e.V. association. In 2021 IGSN moved its identifier minting onto the DataCite DOI infrastructure (the ‘IGSN ID’ is now technically a DataCite DOI minted by IGSN allocators), preserving the IGSN brand and metadata schema while gaining DataCite’s resolution and metadata infrastructure. Samples can be physical specimens, sub-samples, or composite collections.

References

Klump J., Lehnert K. et al., 'IGSN: International Geo Sample Number — A Global Identifier for Physical Samples', Data Science Journal, 2021.
IGSN e.V. (igsn.org).

Also known as

International Geo Sample Number · International Generic Sample Number

Machine-readable encodings

Use in your systems

JATS XML <role> element

xml

<role vocab="credit"
      vocab-identifier="https://casrai.org/dictionary/"
      vocab-term="IGSN"
      vocab-term-identifier="https://casrai.org/dictionary/term/igsn" />

Schema.org DefinedTerm (JSON-LD)

json

{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@type": "DefinedTerm",
  "@id": "https://casrai.org/dictionary/term/igsn",
  "name": "IGSN",
  "identifier": "https://casrai.org/dictionary/term/igsn",
  "description": "International Geo Sample Number, a globally unique persistent identifier for physical samples (geological, environmental, biological) that supports tracking and citation of the sample through subsequent analyses, publications, and derived data.",
  "inDefinedTermSet": "https://casrai.org/dictionary/domain/persistent-identifiers#set",
  "url": "https://casrai.org/dictionary/term/igsn",
  "sameAs": [
    "International Geo Sample Number",
    "International Generic Sample Number"
  ],
  "license": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
  "publisher": {
    "@id": "https://casrai.org/#organization"
  },
  "dateModified": "2026-07-10T02:10:35",
  "inLanguage": "en"
}

Referenced across the research world

View CASRAI adoption →