dois for books

BOOK DOIs
CrossRef encourages members to assign Digital Object Identifiers (DOIs) to books for reference linking.

Since CrossRef began accepting book deposits in 2006, the number of books in the system has grown dramatically. In June 2009, CrossRef had

# of publishers depositing books	56
# of book titles	Almost 78,000
# of book chapters and reference entries	over 1.7 million

Assigning DOIs to Books—What’s the Benefit?
Discoverability, increased usage, traffic—the same benefits publishers get from assigning DOIs to journals, conference proceedings, and other content accrue to book publishers. See examples.

DOI Reference Linking from Books—Who Does it Help?
Researchers get a better experience, persistent links, and support for good scholarship—again, exactly the same benefits that journal publishers enjoy. Citation styles and conventions for books certainly vary from field to field. Some disciplines may principally reference book titles, others may cite journal articles and book chapters. Regardless of the kind of references, users benefit from being able to easily locate cited items.

CrossRef reference linking from book content is optional for CrossRef members. But, publishers who do provide reference links from their online books are increasing the connections between their content and others, and contribute to improved navigation and discovery through citations in books.

How it’s Done: DOIs Assigned to Books
Examples from other publishers assigning DOIs to books may help you get started:

Reference Work
The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, has assigned DOIs to each of the more than 65,000 entries.

Book Title
A Comparison of the Dynamical Evolution of Planetary Systems from Springer his title a level DOI:10.1007/1-4020-4466-6 Follow the link to see DOIs in the table of contents for each chapter as well.

Book Chapter
The American Psychological Association’s book, Genetic testing for cancer: Psychological approaches for helping patients and families has assigned DOIs to chapters. See “A Family Matter,” DOI:10.1037/10828-007.

How it’s Done: DOI Reference Linking Out of Books
Here are examples from publishers who use CrossRef DOIs to link from their book references:

Oxford University Press:
1. 0199290474 - Flexibility and Stability in the Innovating Economy
http://www.oxfordscholarship.com/oso/public/content/economicsfinance/0199290474/toc.html
Contains 115 DOI links out of a total bibliography of 518 items
3 book links (all OSO) - 2 on page 95 (Prencipe x2), 1 on page 155 (Geroski)

2. 019928220X - Future People
http://www.oxfordscholarship.com/oso/public/content/philosophy/019928220X/toc.html
Contains 74 DOI links out of a total bibliography of 352 items
3 book links (all OSO) - 1 on page 366 (Beckermann), 1 on page 368 (Dasgupta), 1 on page 379 (Unger)

3. 0199288917 - Swinnen
http://www.oxfordscholarship.com/oso/public/content/economicsfinance/0199288917/toc.html
Contains 69 DOI links out of a total bibliography of 231 items
2 book links (neither OSO) - 1 on page 190 (Dudwick), 1 on page 195

Best Practices for Book DOIs
See our Best Practices guidelines at http://www.crossref.org/06members/best_practices_for_books.html. For information on required and optional metadata, version considerations, and maximizing matching for depositors and linkers.

The metadata required for book DOI registration is described in sections 6-8 of
http://www.crossref.org/schema/deposit/crossref4.3.0.xsd.

The Web Deposit Form (http://www.crossref.org/webDeposit/) will also register DOIs for book titles, chapters, and reference entries.

For more information, please see CrossRef Best Practices for Books.

Are There Other DOIs for Books Beyond CrossRef
Yes, please see the document http://www.crossref.org/06members/otherdoifaq.html for more information on other DOIs that book publishers can use for applications other than citation reference linking.