DOI Ownership Transfer Policy
Current DOI Ownership Policy
Once a DOI is assigned to a piece of content it should remain unchanged and only one DOI should exist for a given piece of content. When ownership of content changes from one publisher to another (at the moment this is most commonly a journal changing ownership), it is necessary to transfer the ownership of the DOIs. Coordination between CrossRef, the publisher acquiring the content and the publisher disposing of the content is required. In most cases the transfers are straightforward. Ownership of the DOIs is transferred to the acquiring publisher who then updates the URLs associated with the DOIs to point to the new location for the content. This means that a publisher acquiring content with a DOI already assigned should not assign a new DOI for that content. CrossRef will transfer ownership of the DOIs and at the same time can update the URLs associated with those DOIs. If a new DOI is assigned to an item that already has a DOI, a system conflict will arise and that item will not be available for reference matching until the conflict is resolved.
CrossRef policy is that the current owner/publisher of a content item (journal article, conference proceeding article, book, book chapter, etc) controls the DOI for that item and is the party authorized to make deposits and update the URL and metadata associated with the DOI. In the case of a journal, the current publisher/owner of that title has control and responsibility for all the DOIs for that title, including the backfile (journal archive).
DOI Ownership Transfers
The steps involved in performing a DOI ownership transfer are (details are also available on the "How to Deposit" page):
- Acquiring publisher contacts CrossRef (support@crossref.org) to initiate an ownership transfer. When requesting a DOI ownership transfer the acquiring publisher must provide CrossRef confirmation that the disposing publisher agrees with the ownership transfer (and is aware that it is happening). The confirmation can be in the form of a forwarded email - the acquiring publisher should get the disposing publisher to confirm the ownership transfer in an email and forward that to CrossRef.
- Acquiring publisher should send CrossRef (support@crossref.org) a list of the DOIs to be transferred and the new URLs to be associated with the DOIs. The publisher can get the DOIs from the disposing publisher or, if needed, CrossRef can supply a list of all the DOIs belonging to the journal, book or conference proceeding title.
- Acquiring publisher constructs a TAB delimited file that contains the DOI and a new URL to be assigned to that DOI (the URL is optional).
- Acquiring publisher supplies CrossRef with the file and its DOI prefix (the prefix of the DOIs will not be changed during this process, just the ownership.) If URLs are supplied, the ownership transfer and updating of the URL happen in one step.
In the example below, ownership of the listed DOIs is transferred from a Nature prefix (10.1038) to a Springer-Verlag prefix (10.1007). The Springer-Verlag URLs in the right column are assigned to the DOI in the left column:
H:email=admin@crossref.org;fromPrefix=10.1038;toPrefix=10.1007
10.1038/sj.jim.2900356 http://link.springer.de/link/service/journals/10295/bibs/7018001/70180001.htm
10.1038/sj.jim.2900334 http://link.springer.de/link/service/journals/10295/bibs/7018001/70180004.htm
10.1038/sj.jim.2900339 http://link.springer.de/link/service/journals/10295/bibs/7018001/70180010.htm
10.1038/sj.jim.2900335 http://link.springer.de/link/service/journals/10295/bibs/7018001/70180015.htm
DOI Ownership Transfers and Journal Backfiles
Most ownership transfers are straightforward but there are some that are complicated and CrossRef may need to consider policies to address the more difficult situations.
Some problems have arisen in journal ownership transfers because of how the backfiles (i.e. journal archive) are treated. When a publisher disposing of a journal keeps the journal archive available online (which may be contractually required for existing customers) and the acquiring publisher also makes the archive available online then a problem arises. The same article is available in two locations but the DOI can presently only point to one location. Current CrossRef policy is that all the DOIs for the journal will be transferred to the acquiring publisher who will update the DOIs with their URLs. The existing DOIs will no longer point to the disposing publisher's site. If the disposing publisher has an obligation to provide ongoing access to licensees, even if they no longer publish the journal, having the DOIs transfer to the ownership of the acquiring publisher can be problematic.
One possible solution is to use Multiple Resolution. The acquiring publisher would take ownership of the DOIs and update the records with their URLs. A multiple resolution URL to the disposing publisher copy of the item could be included in the metadata for the DOI, enabling two URLs to be associated with one DOI and the disposing publisher's URL can be listed as an alternative source for the article. The acquiring publisher would own the DOIs and would need to add the URL of the disposing publishers or give permission for the disposing publisher's URLs to remain part of the metadata, or for the disposing publisher to actually register their URLs. and keep them up-to-date. Since publishers will be both acquiring and disposing, they will be on both sides of the transaction and may have an interest in collaboration in this area.
Another variation in connection with the journal backfiles is if neither the disposing publisher nor the acquiring publisher makes the archive available online. The acquiring publisher would be responsible for taking ownership of the DOIs and the DOIs would need to resolve to a page explaining that the backfiles are not available and information on when they might be available, if at all.
Possible New DOI Ownership Transfer Policies
Should CrossRef have policies regarding DOI ownership transfer that obligates acquiring and disposing publishers to take certain actions? For example, the acquiring publisher could agree to have the disposing publisher's URL available as an alternative source for the article or the acquiring publisher could give the disposing publisher permission to add their URL to the DOI.
Another area to consider is whether CrossRef should make recommendations on what should be included in agreements to dispose of and acquire journals - if DOIs have been assigned to articles from a journal, the acquiring publisher could ask for a list of all the DOIs for the journal and a set of the XML metadata deposited with CrossRef.
Recommendations:
- The publisher disposing of a journal should provide the DOIs and metadata for the journal to the acquiring publisher.
- If the disposing publisher is also keeping the journal backfiles online, the disposing publishers URL could remain, or be added, as an alternative multiple resolution link on agreement with the acquiring publisher.
- If neither the acquiring publisher nor the disposing publisher will make the journal backfiles available online, or if the acquiring publishers will only make the journal backfiles available in the future, there should be a response page for the DOIs explaining the status of the backfiles.
- If the acquiring publisher is not making the journal backfiles available but the disposing publisher will keep the backfiles online, then the ownership of the DOIs for the backfile should remain with the disposing publisher.
