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CrossMark® for Libraries

Helping Scholars Decide What Content to Trust

CrossMark® will give library patrons the information they need to verify they are using the most recent and authoritative version of a scholarly document.

The CrossMark version identification service was developed so that publishers could mark their published versions and signal to students and researchers that they are committed to maintaining their scholarly content.

CrossMark can also provide additional valuable “publication record” information about the content, such as publication history, the location of supplementary data, access policies, funding sources, peer review processes, and other useful information.

How Will It Work?

Participating publishers display the CrossMark logo on HTML and PDF versions of their articles or other content.

CrossMark Logo with click instructions

Readers just click on the logo. If they are connected to the Internet, they will see a popup box that shows the current status of the document. This works whether the reader is on the publisher’s site, a third-party site, or viewing a PDF downloaded months earlier.

Most of the time, a reader will see a message that the document is current.

CrossMark for Libraries

Occasionally, the reader will see a message that the document has updates. A CrossRef DOI links to the update at the publisher’s site.

CrossMark for Libraries

What Kind of Documents Will Display the CrossMark Logo?

Any scholarly content that has been assigned a CrossRef DOI, including journal articles, books, book chapters, and conference proceedings, may display the CrossMark logo. It will only appear on published versions, not on author preprints. CrossMark will be an optional service for CrossRef Member publishers, so not every item with a CrossRef DOI will display a CrossMark logo.

What Do Librarians Have to Do?

Librarians inform their patrons that clicking on the CrossMark logo regularly will help them discover whether the publication they’re reading is up-to-date and authoritative.

Will CrossMark information be available to third parties?

Yes! CrossMark metadata will be available via an Application Programmers Interface (API) so that search engines, secondary databases, link resolvers, and discovery tools will be able to display CrossMark logos on the search results for documents that are being maintained by their publishers. See CrossMark for Affiliates for more information.

Additional Resources