Digital object identifier

A digital object identifier, or DOI name, is a unique label for a computer readable object (document, electronic image, video, etc.) that can be found on the internet. The DOI name stays with the object, even when the digital object is transferred to another owner and/or another internet site. An object can be identified at any level of composition. For instance, a DOI name can identify a journal, an individual issue of a journal, an individual article in a journal, or a single figure in an article.

The structure of the DOI name is 10.xxxx/yyyy, where the prefix 10. indicates that a DOI name is following. The digital string xxxx indicates the publisher that assigned the DOI name and put the object on the internet, the string yyyy is arbitrary, both of length and content, and can be chosen freely by the publisher. A digital object can be retrieved from the internet by the URL /dx.doi.org/10.xxxx/yyyy/.

A publisher, or registrant, (identified by the string xxxx) must be registered by a DOI Registration Agency (RA).

Examples

• The DOI^® Handbook can be retrieved from http://dx.doi.org/10.1000/182.
• An (arbitrarily picked) article from Science Magazine is retrieved by http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.318.5856.1571.

CZ template

The Citizendium cite book template has an entry doi. For example,

{{cite book
  | last = Mumford
  | first = David
  | authorlink = David Mumford
  | title = The Red Book of Varieties and Schemes
  | publisher = [[Springer-Verlag]]
  | series = Lecture notes in mathematics 1358
  | year = 1999
  | doi = 10.1007/b62130
  | isbn = 354063293X }}

The in-line expansion of this template:

Mumford, David (1999). The Red Book of Varieties and Schemes. Springer-Verlag. DOI:10.1007/b62130. ISBN 354063293X. 

gives a clickable link to the digital object with DOI name: 10.1007/b62130.

External link

Currently, eight major registration agencies (RAs) are active, see RAs.