Video: How the DOI ensures persistence and traceability of published papers

Today, many people in scientific publishing are talking about how each published document should have a unique DOI, or Digital Object Identifier. What is the DOI? What does it do? In this interview segment, Rachael Lammey, Product Manager at CrossRef, tells us more about the DOI and how it works. The DOI facilitates persistent linking of published papers by creating unique identifiers based on article metadata (author details, article title, publication details, funding information, etc.). The DOI ensures that a published manuscript is retrievable at all times (even when, for example, names of journals change or if the link to the published article changes). Rachael also explains exactly how the DOI helps create a linking network and indicates reliability.

This is the second of a series of interview snippets with Rachael Lammey. In the next segment, Rachael tells us more about the other products offered by CrossRef: CrossCheck, CrossMark, and FundRef.

Other parts in the series

• Part 1: An Overview of CrossRef and its products
• Part 3: More about CrossCheck, CrossMark, and FundRef
• Part 4: How CrossRef reaches out to publishers globally
• Part 5: Technological changes in academic publishing: Achievements and challenges
• Part 6: CrossRef's vision for global science: Increasing the discoverability of research

(You could also view this infographic to know more about DOI and how it works.)