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Crossref DOIs should always be displayed as permanent URLs in the online environment.
Example
Crossref recommends that Crossref DOIs be displayed in this form online wherever bibliographic information about a piece of content is displayed.
Crossref DOIs must be displayed on members’ response pages (sometimes called landing pages).
Crossref recommends that Crossref DOIs also be displayed or distributed in the following contexts:
- Tables of contents
- Abstracts
- Full text HTML and PDF articles and other scholarly documents
- Citation downloads to reference management systems
- Metadata feeds to third parties
- “How to Cite This” instructions on content pages
- Social networking links
- Anywhere users are directed to a permanent, stable, or persistent link to the content
Crossref DOIs in Citation Reference Lists
Crossref DOI links must—as an obligation of Crossref membership—be included in members’ online journal citation lists. Whenever possible Crossref DOI links should also be included in citations in other types of scholarly content. They can be displayed in several ways, depending on the publisher’s preference and publication style. Crossref recommends the following options:
Option 1—Use the Crossref DOI URL as the permanent linkExample
Ghosh, M.K., M.L. Harter. 2003. A viral mechanism for remodeling chromatin structure in G0 cells. Mol. Cell. 12:255–260, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S1097-2765(03)00225-9
Option 2—Use a ShortDOI as the permanent link
See below for more on ShortDOIs.
Example
Ghosh, M.K., M.L. Harter. 2003. A viral mechanism for remodeling chromatin structure in G0 cells. Mol. Cell. 12:255–260, http://doi.org/bm6
Option 3—Display the text “Crossref” with a permanent DOI link behind the text
Example
Ghosh, M.K., M.L. Harter. 2003. A viral mechanism for remodeling chromatin structure in G0 cells. Mol. Cell. 12:255–260, Crossref.
Option 4—Display the words “Full Text” or “Article” or something similar with the permanent DOI link behind the text.
Example
Ghosh, M.K., M.L. Harter. 2003. A viral mechanism for remodeling chromatin structure in G0 cells. Mol. Cell. 12:255–260, Article.
ShortDOI
The ShortDOI service is an open system that creates shortcuts to DOI names. The service creates short handles and enables permanent links that are very short. This can be important in situations where space is limited.
For example for the DOI http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S1097-2765(03)00225-9 the short form is http://dx.doi.org/bm6
A benefit of the ShortDOI service is that only one ShortDOI is created for each DOI Name and the ShortDOI returns exactly the same results as the DOI name. For more information go to http://shortdoi.org/
Permanent Citation Links
Crossref members should always use the Crossref DOI as a permanent citation link to content for which a Crossref DOIs has been assigned. Crossref members should not use proprietary, internal or other non-DOI URLs in citation downloads, metadata feeds to third parties or in instructions to researchers on how to cite a document. Crossref members should also avoid using the term “permalink” to refer to links to content registered with Crossref since this term is commonly used for more ephemeral blog posts.
Background
Previously, Crossref recommended that DOIs be displayed in the format doi:10.NNNN/doisuffix
At the time that the DOI system was first envisioned, it was thought that doi: would become native to browsers and automatically resolve DOIs. It appears unlikely that that will happen.
Advantages to changing the display to a resolvable URL include the following:
- Users will more easily recognize Crossref DOIs as an actionable link, regardless of whether they know about DOIs.
- Users who do not know how to right-click on the link and choose "Copy Link", will still be able to easily copy the http URI
- Programs (e.g. bots, etc.) will recognize the DOI as a link.
View the DOI Display Guidelines FAQ on the Crossref Help site.