Overview

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

DOI stands for Digital Object Identifier, which is a globally unique identifier for digital objects. In the OJS context such objects are journals, journal issues, journal articles, and supplementary files.

DOIs are used as a way to link persistently to an article so that – provided they are kept up to date – any link or reference to a DOI should take a user to where the article currently resides online.

DOIs are useful for things like citation metrics, but also as a way to prevent or combat dead links. For example, a DOI in a citation would provide the user with a persistent link to the object cited.

DOIs are associated with one or several URLs that can be resolved through a persistent URL at a global re-direction domain (http://dx.doi.org/some-doi).

Additional metadata about certain types of digital objects can be stored in the databases of specialized DOI registration agencies. This enables discovery of these objects through the web sites of the registration agencies or their partners (e.g., scientific search engines).

In the OJS context such objects are journals, journal issues, journal articles and supplementary files.