DOI (Digital Object Identifier)

DOI (Digital Object Identifier)
Name	Digital Object Identifier
Acronym	DOI
Introduced	2000
Governing body	International DOI Foundation
Use	persistent identification of intellectual property

DOI (Digital Object Identifier) is a persistent identifier system for intellectual works, used to provide stable, resolvable references to digital objects such as academic articles, datasets, and standards. It is widely implemented across publishing, library, and research infrastructures to enable citation, discovery, and linking between systems. Major stakeholders include publishers, research institutions, and standards organizations that coordinate persistence, metadata, and resolution services.

Overview

A DOI is a standardized alphanumeric identifier assigned to an intellectual work, enabling retrieval and citation across platforms operated by entities like Elsevier, Springer Nature, Wiley-Blackwell, IEEE, and Public Library of Science. The system interoperates with infrastructure managed by organizations such as the International DOI Foundation, Crossref, DataCite, and national libraries including the Library of Congress and the British Library. DOIs are used in contexts alongside standards and services like the Handle System, the International Standard Book Number, the International Standard Serial Number, and metadata frameworks used by institutions such as the National Institutes of Health and the European Research Council.

History and development

The DOI system evolved from work on persistent identifiers initiated in projects linked to the Association of American Publishers and research into digital library services influenced by initiatives at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Digital Library Federation. The International DOI Foundation was established to govern the namespace, with operational models developed in cooperation with agencies such as CNRI and projects linked to the World Wide Web Consortium and standards bodies including the International Organization for Standardization. Early adoption involved collaborations with publishers like Nature Publishing Group and organizations such as the American Chemical Society and the Institute of Physics.

Structure and syntax

A DOI consists of a prefix and suffix separated by a slash; the prefix identifies a registrant and the suffix identifies a specific resource, similar in role to identifiers managed by the International Standard Serial Number agency and naming schemes used by the United States Geological Survey and the European Molecular Biology Laboratory. Prefixes are allocated through registration agencies like Crossref and DataCite, while suffix patterns are determined by registrants such as Oxford University Press, Cambridge University Press, Taylor & Francis, and academic consortia including Jisc and California Digital Library. DOI metadata schemas reference practices from organizations such as the Open Archives Initiative and standards developed by the National Information Standards Organization.

Registration and governance

Registration of DOIs is managed by registration agencies under the oversight of the International DOI Foundation, with policy input from stakeholders including UNESCO, the European Commission, and major research funders like the Wellcome Trust and the National Science Foundation. Agencies such as Crossref and DataCite operate membership models used by academic societies such as the American Physical Society and institutions like Harvard University and Stanford University. Governance involves agreements with service operators including CNRI and technical coordination with the Internet Engineering Task Force and repositories like Zenodo and Figshare.

Uses and applications

DOIs are extensively used to cite scholarly articles in journals such as The Lancet, Nature, Science, and Cell, to reference datasets hosted by infrastructures like Dryad, PANGAEA, and the European Bioinformatics Institute, and to link standards published by organizations such as ISO and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. They facilitate interoperability with discovery systems at institutions like the British Museum, cross-referencing in indexes such as Web of Science and Scopus, and integration with research information systems used by agencies like the European Research Council and funders including the Horizon Europe programme.

Criticisms and limitations

Critiques of DOI practice cite concerns about cost and access arising from publisher policies at outlets like Elsevier and debates involving stakeholders such as SPARC and the Open Knowledge Foundation. Technical limitations include dependency on resolution services maintained by organizations like the International DOI Foundation and the potential for link rot when registrants fail to update target URLs, an issue also confronted by projects such as the Internet Archive. Questions about metadata quality and interoperability have been raised by library communities represented by the American Library Association and standards groups including the National Information Standards Organization.

Category:Identifiers Category:Library science Category:Academic publishing