Enhancing CF Community Collaboration on Zenodo: Review and Publication Workflow

[cofinoa]

Dear @cf-convention/info-mgmt,

With the recent establishment of the CF Community on Zenodo, I believe we should discuss how we can improve the management of releases and community-driven publication processes on this platform.

Since Zenodo file depositions are curated and cannot be modified after publication, it is important to have a manual review step in place before finalizing any deposit. Unlike GitHub releases, which are more flexible, Zenodo requires extra caution to avoid any versioning issues or accidental errors.

I propose modifying the current workflow by integrating a draft stage in the Zenodo deposit process, triggered by a GitHub Action when a new release is published on GitHub. This draft can then be reviewed and, once approved, published to Zenodo. During this review process, we can ensure that all relevant materials—such as rendered HTML and PDF documents—are included, alongside the source files. An added benefit of this draft stage is the generation of a temporary DOI, which can be used in documents before final publication.

Moreover, to encourage broader community participation, we can leverage the Zenodo Community feature, which allows multiple contributors to take on roles such as Reader, Curator, Manager, or Owner. This would decentralize the publication process and make it more inclusive, allowing more community members to participate in the review and approval of deposits.

I have set up a CF Conventions Zenodo Community for testing:
CF Conventions Zenodo Community

For more information on how Zenodo communities work, please see the documentation here:
Zenodo Community Documentation

I have already invited @ethanrd as an owner of this community to help with testing.

We can also set up a review process for submissions to the community, so deposits can be checked by multiple community members before publication:
Zenodo Submission Review

I would like your input on this idea and whether it is worth drafting a GitHub Action to initiate this workflow and test it in the community.

Note: Zenodo provides a sandbox environment for testing deposit workflows:

Want to test Zenodo? Use our sandbox environment at Zenodo Sandbox

[cofinoa]

I have added an "about" page:
https://zenodo.org/communities/cfconventions/about
and a "curation policy" page:
https://zenodo.org/communities/cfconventions/curation-policy

Please take a moment to review them and provide any feedback or suggestions for improvement.

[cofinoa]

Dear @cf-convention/info-mgmt,

As suggested by @ethanrd:

Perhaps the info-mgmt team (or some subset) should be added to the Zenodo community. Probably with the Manager role? Though one or two more Owners might be good.

I have invited the following members of the CF Community on Zenodo to be Managers:

• @japamment
• @DocOtak
• @erget
• @castelao
• @sadielbartholomew
• @davidhassell
• @efisher008
• @JonathanGregory

Please accept the invitation and confirm that I have invited the correct Zenodo users.

I could not find the Zenodo usernames for @feggleton and @RosalynHatcher. If you haven’t signed up yet, you can use your GitHub identity to sign up and log in to Zenodo.

[sadielbartholomew]

Accepted, thanks for setting this up Antonio.

[cofinoa]

Integrate GitHub Release Workflow with Zenodo for DOI Generation in cf-conventions Document Releases

Description:

This proposes an enhancement to the cf-conventions document release workflow by integrating GitHub and Zenodo. The goal is to automate DOI creation and updating so that each new release includes an up-to-date DOI.

Summary of Proposed Workflow

To ensure each release includes a valid DOI, the process will involve drafting, updating, and publishing a Zenodo record in synchronization with GitHub release actions. This draft workflow is currently under development in this branch:
https://github.com/cofinoa/cf-conventions/tree/zenodo-upload

Steps for Enhanced Release Workflow

1. Draft Zenodo Record and Mint Temporary DOI:

   • When a new release is initiated on GitHub, automatically create a draft of the release on Zenodo.
   • Mint a temporary DOI for the draft version, allowing the DOI to be referenced in the conventions document.

2. Update GitHub Repository with Zenodo DOI:

   • Insert the newly minted DOI into the conventions document in the GitHub repository, ensuring it’s correctly embedded in the release version.

3. Finalize Release and Synchronize with Zenodo:

   • Complete and publish the release on GitHub, triggering the final upload to Zenodo.
   • Review and publish the draft on Zenodo, finalizing the DOI assignment.

[JonathanGregory]

Dear Antonio @cofinoa

Many thanks for this proposal. Since you have a definite scheme in mind, I think you should open a new GitHub issue in the conventions repo, and we'll discuss and agree it there. You could use the same text. Unfortunately you can't do that with the "Create issue from discussion" button, because it will be in a different repo.

Best wishes

Jonathan

[cofinoa]

Thanks, @JonathanGregory. Navigating cross-references between issues and discussions across multiple repositories can sometimes be a bit overwhelming for me!

[JonathanGregory]

Yes, I sympathise. After CF 1.12 is concluded, I'd like to initiate a discussion about managing discussions. It gets confusing!

[JonathanGregory]

In fact you could propose it in the existing issue 513.