Introduction

The digital object identifier (DOI®1) system provides an infrastructure for persistent unique identification of objects of any type.

DOI is an initialism for “digital object identifier”, meaning a “digital identifier of an object” rather than an “identifier of a digital object”. In this document, the term “digital object identifier” refers to the system defined in this document, unless otherwise stated. The DOI system was initiated by the International DOI Foundation in 1998, and initially developed with the collaboration of some participants in ISO/TC 46/SC 9. Due to its application in the fields of information and documentation and previous collaboration with some ISO/TC 46/SC 9 participants, it was introduced as a possible work item in 2004 and further developed from 2006 to 2010.

The DOI system offers a useful set of functionalities, including:

— persistence, if material is moved, rearranged, or bookmarked,
— interoperability with other data from other sources,
— extensibility by adding new features and services through management of groups of DOI names,
— single management of data for multiple output formats (platform independence),
— class management of applications and services, and
— dynamic updating of metadata, applications and services.

The DOI system is designed to work over the Internet. A DOI name is permanently assigned to an object to provide a resolvable persistent network link to current information about that object, including where the object, or information about it, can be found on the Internet. While information about an object can change over time, its DOI name will not change. A DOI name can be resolved within the DOI system to values of one or more types of data relating to the object identified by that DOI name, such as a URL, an e-mail address, other identifiers and descriptive metadata.

The DOI system enables the construction of automated services and transactions. Applications of the DOI system include but are not limited to managing information and documentation location and access; managing metadata; facilitating electronic transactions; persistent unique identification of any form of any data; and commercial and non-commercial transactions.

The content of an object associated with a DOI name is described unambiguously by DOI metadata, based on a structured extensible data model that enables the object to be associated with metadata of any desired degree of precision and granularity to support description and services. The data model supports interoperability between DOI applications.

The scope of the DOI system is not defined by reference to the type of content (format, etc.) of the referent, but by reference to the functionalities it provides and the context of use. The DOI system provides, within networks of DOI applications, for unique identification, persistence, resolution, metadata and semantic interoperability.

BS ISO 26324:2022

Information and documentation. Digital object identifier system

Published:

30 Sep 2022

Withdrawn:

19 Mar 2025