Currently, millions of accessions are conserved in germplasm collections and breeding pools; many of them are duplicates with valuable information that is lost when the material is transferred from one holder to another. Additionally, different user communities such as plant breeders, data curators, researchers and extensionists, often follow different methods to assign identifiers, according to their needs. The lack of standardization had prevented the community from exchanging PGRFA data worldwide which had been for years one of the main challenges for the effective conservation and sustainable use of PGRFA. By using the DOIs standards adopted by the Governing Body of the International Treaty, users will be able to identify and document their plant material uniquely and permanently and will facilitate data interoperability among different systems. The booklet helps readers to understand how DOIs can be adopted in their daily work and integrated into their institutional workflow, including what data needs to be provided and how to do it.
