Connecting OJS with Zenodo for Open Science & Dataset Archiving
Implementation guide for integrating OJS with CERN’s Zenodo repository. Learn how to offload large supplementary datasets, automate deposition workflows, and link dataset DOIs.
Real Problem
Authors frequently upload massive multi-gigabyte supplementary datasets directly into OJS, exhausting web server storage and creating bandwidth bottlenecks during downloads.
Practical Solution
Integrate the OJS Zenodo Export/Deposit plugin to automatically offload research data, software scripts, and multimedia supplements to CERN’s high-availability Zenodo repository with independent DOIs.
The Data Sharing Mandate in Modern Science
Scientific publishing is experiencing a historic transition from text-only articles to open science reproducibility. Major research councils and journals now enforce strict Open Data policies requiring authors to deposit the raw spreadsheets, genomic sequences, Python scripts, and high-resolution imaging data underlying their findings.
Attempting to store gigabytes of supplementary data on standard OJS web servers creates massive problems: backup sizes balloon out of control, web server storage is exhausted, and bandwidth limits are exceeded.
The Solution: CERN’s Zenodo Repository
Zenodo provides perpetual, secure cloud storage backed by CERN’s high-performance data infrastructure. By integrating OJS with Zenodo, your journal achieves:
1. Unlimited Scalability: Offload massive files (up to 50GB per paper) to CERN’s infrastructure at zero cost.
2. DataCite DOIs: Datasets receive independent, citable DOIs.
3. Bidirectional Linking: The article links to the dataset on Zenodo, and the Zenodo record links back to your journal.
4. FAIR Data Compliance: Ensures data is Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable.
Step 1: Generating Zenodo API Credentials
1. Log into your account at zenodo.org.
2. Navigate to Applications > Personal Access Tokens.
3. Generate a new token with deposit:actions and deposit:write scopes.
4. Copy the secret API token.
Step 2: Configuring the OJS Zenodo Plugin
In your OJS administration dashboard:
1. Navigate to Settings > Website > Plugins > Generic Plugins.
2. Enable the Zenodo Plugin.
3. Enter your Personal Access Token.
4. Optional: Specify an official Zenodo Community identifier to group all your journal’s datasets into a dedicated institutional collection.
Step 3: Workflow Integration and Automated Deposition
During the submission intake or production phase:
- The author or production editor marks data files with the genre "Supplementary Dataset".
- When the publication is approved, OJS triggers a background curl POST request to the Zenodo Deposition API (https://zenodo.org/api/deposit/depositions).
- Zenodo creates the deposit, mints a DataCite DOI, and returns the persistent link.
- OJS automatically injects the dataset citation badge into the published article landing page.
Step-by-Step Action Plan
Create Zenodo Account & API Token
Register on Zenodo.org and generate an OAuth personal access token with deposit:actions permissions.
Install Zenodo Plugin in OJS
Download and activate the Zenodo integration plugin from the PKP community plugin ecosystem.
Configure API Endpoints & Secret Keys
Input your Zenodo personal access token and target community identifier in the plugin settings.
Configure Workflow Supplementary Data Rules
Instruct authors to upload raw spreadsheets, code scripts, and high-res datasets as Supplementary Files.
Trigger Automated Dataset Ingestion
Upon article publication, OJS packages supplementary files and transmits them to Zenodo via REST API.
Questions People Usually Ask
What is Zenodo and who maintains it?
Zenodo is a general-purpose open-access repository built and developed by CERN under the European OpenAIRE program. It offers free, perpetual storage for datasets up to 50GB per record.
Does Zenodo assign its own distinct DOI to datasets?
Yes! Zenodo assigns an independent DataCite DOI to the dataset, which is cross-linked bidirectionally to the primary article DOI published on OJS.
Can datasets be published on Zenodo under a restricted embargo?
Yes. The Zenodo API supports open, embargoed, and restricted access modes based on editorial policies.
Comply with Global Open Data Mandates
AcademiaTech configures automated Zenodo repository integrations, enabling open science compliance and scalable supplementary data storage.