A repository for physical research samples — geological, environmental, biological, or material — that catalogues, stores, and provides access to samples for downstream analysis, often issuing persistent identifiers (IGSN, DataCite DOI) for citation and provenance tracking.

ByCASRAI Editorial Board

· Last updated 10 Jul 2026

Examples

Worked examples

Is an instance
SESAR (System for Earth Sample Registration) at Columbia University Lamont-Doherty.
Is an instance
Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History collections as a research sample repository.

Counter-examples

Looks similar, but isn't

Not an instance
A dataset repository without physical samples is not a sample repository.
Not an instance
A library of published reports is not a sample repository.

Editorial commentary

Sample repositories span domains from geosciences (SESAR, the international IGSN allocator) and oceanography (rock-core and water-sample archives) to environmental (insect and plant-specimen collections) and biomedical (biobanks, biorepositories). They differ from data repositories by managing physical artefacts: storage logistics (climate-controlled facilities, freezers), shipping, and physical-condition QA matter alongside the digital metadata layer. PID-minting at sample registration (IGSN-style) is now best practice in many sample-repository communities.

References

Lehnert K., Klump J., 'Sample identification and physical-specimen archives', Earth-Science Reviews 215, 2021.

Machine-readable encodings

Use in your systems

JATS XML <role> element

xml

<role vocab="credit"
      vocab-identifier="https://casrai.org/dictionary/"
      vocab-term="Sample repository"
      vocab-term-identifier="https://casrai.org/dictionary/term/sample-repository" />

Schema.org DefinedTerm (JSON-LD)

json

{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@type": "DefinedTerm",
  "@id": "https://casrai.org/dictionary/term/sample-repository",
  "name": "Sample repository",
  "identifier": "https://casrai.org/dictionary/term/sample-repository",
  "description": "A repository for physical research samples — geological, environmental, biological, or material — that catalogues, stores, and provides access to samples for downstream analysis, often issuing persistent identifiers (IGSN, DataCite DOI) for citation and provenance tracking.",
  "inDefinedTermSet": "https://casrai.org/dictionary/domain/data-infrastructure#set",
  "url": "https://casrai.org/dictionary/term/sample-repository",
  "sameAs": [],
  "license": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
  "publisher": {
    "@id": "https://casrai.org/#organization"
  },
  "dateModified": "2026-07-10T02:06:21",
  "inLanguage": "en"
}

Referenced across the research world

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