About DOIs > What is a DOI?

What is a DOI?

Similar to a bar code for a physical object, a Digital Object Identifier (DOI) name is a unique alphanumeric string assigned to a digital object, such as an electronic journal, article, report, or thesis. Each DOI name is unique and serves as a stable, persistent link to the full-text of an electronic item on the Internet. Unlike a URL, a DOI name doesn't change over time; even if the item moves to a new location, the DOI name stays the same.

DOI names are the only widely adopted persistent identifier for scholarly works. DOI names appear in printed materials and online as links.

A DOI name consists of two segments:

Prefix – A unique numeric string beginning with the numeral 10 assigned by CrossRef to the publisher that submitted the information about the digital object
Suffix – An alphanumeric string or series of strings used internally by the publisher to identify the digital object

In this sample DOI name:

10.1006/jmbi.1995.0238

10.1006 is the prefix (in this case, for the publisher Elsevier)
jmbi.1995.0238 is the publisher-assigned suffix for the particular item (in this case, indicating that it is from the Journal of Molecular Biology and was published in 1995)

Print, PDF, and HTML versions of the same digital item all use the same DOI names. Generally, a DOI name points to the item in a single location; however, with multiple resolution, it is possible to point to more than one location.

Notes

For a more extensive discussion of DOI names, see The DOI Handbook (pdf) on the Digital Object Identifier System web site.
To view more sample DOI names, see Examples of DOI use.

link

support@crossref.org