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Frequently Asked Questions

Report Numbers and DOIs

What happened to report numbers?

A report number (also called RN or reference number) is an identifier that was automatically created by the previous version of CDS. Examples include CERN-TH-2024-001 or CERN-EP-2024-309.

In the legacy system, report numbers were often automatically added to submitted PDFs. However, they had significant limitations:

  • Non-unique references: no mechanism ensured uniqueness, leading to duplicate references
  • Difficult to search: users couldn't reliably resolve or find records using report numbers
  • Complex maintenance: custom generation rules for different collaborations made the system complicated
  • No reservation system: users would guess the next number for PDFs before submission, but the number could change, causing errors

Important Change

The new CDS repository does not automatically generate report numbers.

Instead, you can:

  • Add your own report number(s) in the Alternate Identifiers field during submission.
  • Use any format your collaboration prefers.
  • CDS will ensure uniqueness to prevent duplicates.
  • You can re-use the same report number(s) across versions of the record.

Report Number Alternative IDs

Use DOIs instead

The new CDS repository follows international open science best practices by assigning DOIs (Digital Object Identifiers) to all publications.

  • Prefix: 10.17181
  • Registration: All DOIs are registered with DataCite
  • Assignment: Automatic upon publication (or can be reserved in advance)

Learn More

See the Upload documentation to learn how to manage DOIs for your uploads.

What is a DOI?

A DOI is a persistent, globally unique identifier for digital objects that:

  • Provides a stable, permanent link to your publication
  • Follows the format https://doi.org/10.xxxx/xxxxx
  • Enables reliable citation and discovery across platforms
  • Is recognized worldwide as the standard for scholarly work

Citations & Authors

Why don't contributors appear in the citation?

Only Creators are included in the generated citation. Contributors are intentionally excluded — they record people who contributed to the work but should not be credited as authors for citation purposes.

If a person must appear in the citation, add them as a Creator instead. You can still assign them a specific role (e.g. Editor) in the creator form.

Where is the citation data coming from? Why does it have different format depending on resource type?

The citation displayed on a record page is generated from the record's metadata fields such as title, creators, publication date, DOI, publisher, and resource type.

CDS uses the Citation Style Language (CSL) to format citations.

The format varies by resource type because different types of works have different metadata fields and follow distinct scholarly conventions. For example:

  • A journal article includes the journal name, volume, issue, and page range.
  • A conference paper includes the proceedings title (or event name).
  • A thesis includes the awarding institution.
  • A technical report includes the institution and report number.

Improve your citation

To get the most accurate and complete citation, make sure all relevant metadata fields are filled in during submission.

Why can't I find an author by ORCID™ iD in the deposit form?

We update the authors' list periodically, if an author does not appear in the results, their ORCID may not have been imported yet.

In that case, please contact the CDS support team.

Access & Sharing

How do I allow my colleague to edit my record?

Click the Share button on the deposit form or record page, go to the People (or Groups) tab, search for the user or group, and set the permission to Can edit.

See Access & Share for full details.

How do I allow an external collaborator to submit a record on my behalf?

External collaborators do not have a CERN account and cannot submit a record. To let them contribute a record:

  1. Create a new draft upload on their behalf.
  2. Click Share on the deposit form, go to the Links tab, and create a shareable link with Can edit permission.
  3. Send the link to the external collaborator. They can use it to fill in the metadata and files without a CERN account.
  4. Once they are done, you can review and publish the record.

Always set an expiration date

Set an expiration date on the link to limit how long edit access remains valid.

How can I allow a researcher from outside CERN to access my restricted record?

You can grant access to external collaborators using a shareable link. Click the Share button on the deposit form or record page, open the Links tab, and click Create a new link. Choose the appropriate permission level (Can view for read-only access) and copy the generated URL to share with the external researcher. No CERN account is required to use the link.

Always set an expiration date

You must set an expiration date when creating shareable links for restricted records. Without an expiration, the link remains valid indefinitely — anyone who obtains it (e.g. through a forwarded email or a shared document) can access the restricted content forever.

Setting an expiration date ensures that access is time-limited and revoked automatically, reducing the risk of unintended long-term exposure of restricted material.

How do I see older or newer versions of a record?

All versions of a record are listed in the Versions panel on the record page. Click any version to navigate to it directly, or use the Copy latest version link button to get a permanent link that always resolves to the most recent version.

Versions panel on a record page

Communities

What is a community and why would I create one?

A community is a curated space on CDS where a group of people manage a group of related records. Communities allow you to:

  • Curate records by reviewing submissions before they are published.
  • Manage permissions by controlling who can submit new records.

See About communities for details.

Where should I submit my record?

If you are unsure which community to submit to, see Where should I submit? for a table of the most common cases.

How do I allow submissions only from specific people?

By default, any CDS user can submit records to a public community. To restrict submissions to specific people or groups:

  1. Add the people or groups as members of the community with at least the Reader role.
  2. In the community Settings, go to the Submission policy section and set it to Closed.

With a closed submission policy, only community members can submit records. Non-members will no longer be able to submit.

See Manage a community for full details.

Why doesn't e-groups receive notifications from a community?

When a group is added as a member of a community, email notifications are disabled by default for that group.

As a community Manager or Owner, you can enable notifications for a group:

  1. Open the community and go to the Members tab.
  2. Find the group in the member list.
  3. Use the notification toggle next to the group's entry to turn notifications on.

Uploading

Which resource type should I use?

The resource type describes the nature of your upload and affects how metadata fields are displayed, how citations are formatted, and how the record is indexed. Choose the type that best matches your content:

Resource type When to use
Journal article A peer-reviewed article published in a journal
Preprint A version of a paper shared before peer review
Conference paper A paper submitted to or published in conference proceedings
Thesis A PhD, Master's, or Bachelor's thesis
Report An internal report, technical note, or working paper
Dataset A collection of raw or processed data
Software Source code, scripts, or software packages
Presentation Slides or other presentation material
Poster A conference poster
Image A photograph, figure, or illustration
Other Anything that does not fit the above categories

If your upload could fit more than one type, choose the one that best represents its primary purpose.

Editing Records

My upload is 'in review', what can I do?

When you submit a record to a community, it enters the in review state and waits for a community curator to approve or decline it. During this time:

  • You can still edit the record metadata and files. Go to My uploads on your dashboard, open the record, make your changes, and save.
  • You can cancel the review request if you need to withdraw the submission.
  • You can comment on the review to communicate with the community curators.

If the record has been waiting for a long time, consider reaching out to the community managers.

See Review process for more details.

Can I edit a record after submitting it for review or after it is published?

While under review, both metadata and files can still be edited. Go to your upload form (accessible from your dashboard under My uploads) and save your changes.

After publication, metadata can still be edited, but files on a published record cannot be edited. To add or replace files, you must create a new version of the record.

I made a mistake in my file. How can I replace it after publication?

Files on a published record cannot be edited or replaced directly. To correct a file, you need to create a new version of the record:

  1. Go to My uploads on your dashboard and open the published record.
  2. Click New version.
  3. Upload the corrected file(s).
  4. Save and publish the new version.

Versioning

Each version of a record is preserved and remains accessible. The latest version is shown by default, and all previous versions can be accessed from the Versions panel on the record page.

See Published records for more details.

Linking Records

How do I link a CDS publication with the one in arXiv?

Edit your record and scroll to the Related works (or use find feature ctrl+F to find the field) section of the deposit form. Click Add related work and fill in the form with:

Field Value
Scheme arXiv
Identifier The arXiv ID, e.g. 2301.00001

Adding an arXiv related work

Save the draft and publish. The arXiv entry will appear under "Related works" on the record page as a clickable link to arXiv.

How do I link a CDS publication with the one in INSPIRE-HEP?

Edit your record and scroll to the Related works section of the deposit form. Click Add related work and fill in the form with:

Field Value
Scheme Inspire
Identifier The numeric INSPIRE literature ID, e.g. 1234567

You can find the INSPIRE literature ID in the URL of the record on inspirehep.net: https://inspirehep.net/literature/<id>.

Adding an INSPIRE related work

Save the draft and publish. The INSPIRE entry will appear under "Related works" on the record page as a clickable link to INSPIRE-HEP.