What Is A Digital Object Identifier (DOI)?

What is a DOI?

A digital object identifier (DOI) is a persistent identifier used in scholarly publishing to identify and link to a piece of work. DOIs are considered by numerous journals to be mandatory for citation and can be assigned to datasets, preprints, research articles, websites, and other scholarly works. Assigning a DOI does not preclude submission to journals. (see below)

DOIs on Authorea are issued via Crossref with the following prefix 10.22541 and a unique suffix.

Once a DOI is issued to a piece of scholarly work, changes can no longer be made. On Authorea, however, we allow "DOI versioning" meaning articles can be updated and assigned new DOIs to allow for dynamic articles. (find out more)

You can see how a DOI will look here: https://doi.org/10.22541/au.155309574.46365283

What is the advantage of issuing a DOI? Once a DOI is issued for an object, then that object gets registered in the scholarly record, i.e. it can be discovered and cited in the future. If you care of being cited for your work, make sure that all your work has a DOI.

What types of materials can be assigned a DOI to? Anything you deem should be included in the scholarly record. Traditionally, only peer reviewed published articles would obtain a DOI. Today, you can issue a DOI for blog posts, student essays, posters, conference proceedings, data, code, and other materials you would not normally publish in a traditional publishing venue.

Can I preprint my document if I am planning to submit it to a journal? Short answer: yes. But double check on the Sherpa/Romeo site for specific copyright and self-archiving policies of your journal.

Updated on: 04/30/2020