The Digital Object Identifier System

As defined by the International DOI Foundation, a Digital Object Identifier (DOI^®) is a means of persistent identification of intellectual property on digital networks. It is different from commonly used pointers to material such as the URL (Uniform Resource Locator), the usual means of referring to World Wide Web material - because it identifies an object, not the place where the object is located. Thus the DOI^® provides the ideal framework for citing and linking electronic documents.

Features

The power of the DOI^® system is its function as a routing or resolution system. Because digital content may change ownership or location over the course of its useful life, the DOI^® system uses a distributed central directory. When a user clicks on a DOI^®, a message is sent to the central directory where the current address associated with that DOI^® appears. This location is sent back to the user, enabling redirection within a browser to this particular Internet address. Thus a user clicking on a DOI^® (for example: "10.1021/jp981874z"), will be connected to a page on the publisher's Web site showing a full bibliographical citation of the article, and, in most cases, the abstract as well. The reader can then access the full text article through the appropriate mechanism.

Structure

The DOI^® consists of a unique alphanumeric character string. It has two components, the prefix and the suffix, which together form the DOI^®. The first element, the prefix, is assigned to an appropriate grouping of content such as the publisher. Following the prefix (separated by a forward slash) is a suffix (unique to a given prefix) to identify the entity (such as a book or article).

Supported Journals

The 121 online journals supported by the bibliography Cluster Literature and their corresponding DOI^® prefixes are listed in the table below (database version: 29 June 2008):