Introduction and Overview of the DOI System
– DOI is a persistent identifier used to uniquely identify various objects.
– It is standardized by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO).
– DOIs are widely used to identify academic, professional, and government information.
– They are used for journal articles, research reports, data sets, and official publications.
– DOIs aim to resolve to their target information object by binding them to metadata.
– The DOI system prevents third parties from imposing additional licensing requirements.
– The DOI system is controlled by a Board elected by the members of the Foundation.
– Membership is open to all organizations with an interest in electronic publishing.
– The DOI system operates on a not-for-profit cost recovery basis.
– The DOI system is an international standard developed by ISO.
– Registration agencies allocate DOI prefixes and maintain metadata and state data.
– The IDF is recognized as one of the federated registrars for the Handle System.
Nomenclature and Syntax of DOIs
– A DOI is a Handle System handle divided into a prefix and a suffix.
– The prefix identifies the registrant and the suffix identifies the specific object.
– The prefix usually takes the form ’10.NNNN’ where NNNN is a number greater than or equal to 1000.
– The DOI names can identify creative works in electronic and physical forms.
– They can refer to objects at varying levels of detail, such as journals, articles, or tables.
– DOIs consist of a prefix, a slash, and a suffix.
– The format of DOIs is standardized and follows specific guidelines.
Display and Access of DOIs
– The official DOI Handbook recommends displaying DOIs in the format ‘doi:10.1000/182’.
– CrossRef, a major DOI registration agency, recommends displaying a URL instead.
– The URL format is ‘https://doi.org/10.1000/182’ and provides a persistent link.
– The URL allows easy copying and pasting for accessing the linked item.
– DOIs can also be represented as the URI ‘info:doi/10.1000/182’.
– Tools and services have been developed to resolve DOIs and retrieve associated content.
Content Covered by the DOI System
– The DOI system covers scholarly materials like journal articles and books.
– It includes research datasets provided by leading research libraries and data centers.
– Official publications of the European Union are covered by the DOI system.
– Chinese and Taiwanese electronic academic journals are included.
– Permanent global identifiers for audio/visual content titles are assigned through the DOI system.
Features, Benefits, and Criticism of the DOI System
– DOIs provide persistent identification and unambiguous association with objects.
– Metadata associated with DOIs provides relevant information about the objects.
– DOI names can be resolved to web locations where the objects can be found.
– The DOI system combines the Handle System and the indecs Content Model.
– DOIs have drawn criticism for directing users to non-free copies of documents.
– Librarians criticize the DOI system for not providing free access to documents.
– DOIs have metadata associated with objects, which can be updated and extended.
– DOI system is compared with other identifier schemes, highlighting its advantages.
– The DOI system has a social infrastructure to achieve its goals. Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doi_(identifier)
A digital object identifier (DOI) is a persistent identifier or handle used to uniquely identify various objects, standardized by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO). DOIs are an implementation of the Handle System; they also fit within the URI system (Uniform Resource Identifier). They are widely used to identify academic, professional, and government information, such as journal articles, research reports, data sets, and official publications. DOIs have also been used to identify other types of information resources, like commercial videos.[not verified in body]
 | |
| Full name | Digital object identifier |
|---|---|
| Acronym | DOI |
| Organisation | International DOI Foundation |
| Introduced | 2000 |
| Example | 10.1000/182 |
| Website | www |
A DOI aims to resolve to its target, the information object to which the DOI refers. This is achieved by binding the DOI to metadata about the object, such as a URL where the object is located. Thus, by being actionable and interoperable, a DOI differs from ISBNs or ISRCs which are identifiers only. The DOI system uses the indecs Content Model for representing metadata.
The DOI for a document remains fixed over the lifetime of the document, whereas its location and other metadata may change. Referring to an online document by its DOI should provide a more stable link than directly using its URL. But if its URL changes, the publisher must update the metadata for the DOI to maintain the link to the URL. It is the publisher's responsibility to update the DOI database. If they fail to do so, the DOI resolves to a dead link, leaving the DOI useless.
The developer and administrator of the DOI system is the International DOI Foundation (IDF), which introduced it in 2000. Organizations that meet the contractual obligations of the DOI system and are willing to pay to become a member of the system can assign DOIs. The DOI system is implemented through a federation of registration agencies coordinated by the IDF. By late April 2011 more than 50 million DOI names had been assigned by some 4,000 organizations, and by April 2013 this number had grown to 85 million DOI names assigned through 9,500 organizations.
