Notice of amendments to Crossref membership terms and bylaws

Amanda Bartell — Sun, 11 May 2025 00:00:00 +0000

In its March 2025 meeting, the Crossref board unanimously voted to update both the Crossref bylaws and the Crossref membership terms to:

Provide more clarity and alignment between our bylaws and membership terms, where they had become out of sync over the years.
Reflect previous board motions and bring both documents up-to-date with current processes for suspending and revoking membership, and reviewing those decisions.
Work towards being more explicit about what “Member Practices” should look like in terms of preserving the integrity of the scholarly record.

Link to updated membership terms and link to updated bylaws

The bylaw changes are effective immediately, and the updated version of the membership terms will come into effect on 11th July 2025.

In accordance with the 60-day notice period, we have emailed the Primary contact on all our active member accounts today. Note: Members do not need to do anything in response to these changes - by continuing to use our services after 11th July, they are accepting the latest version of the terms.

Changes to the membership terms

The membership terms will be updated on 11th July to be clearer on, among other things, the importance of accurate metadata, using DOI links everywhere, the all-important reference linking obligation, and the process for suspending and revoking/terminating membership. It also introduces the new concept of “Member Practices”, which a dedicated community committee will propose for board approval. More information about this will follow soon.

You can find the specific changes below, or take a look at this marked-up PDF showing the changes between the current (from June 2022) terms and the revised (July 2025) terms.

Topic	Section	Summary of Change(s)
Terminology	Various sections (e.g., 1, 2(i), 2(k), 5)	Streamlines some legal language to enhance clarity and readability.
Member Practices	2(a)	Establishes an obligation of Members to comply with Member Practices, to be established soon through a dedicated committee.
Unauthorised use of metadata	2(d)	Highlights the harmful impact of unauthorised use or deposit of metadata on Crossref, its Members, and the integrity of the scholarly record.
Reference linking	2(f), (g)	Updates the language referring to reference linking, and makes explicit Members’ obligation to maintain reference linking throughout membership, not only upon first joining Crossref. It also makes it clear that members should use DOI links wherever they communicate about any item with a DOI.
Displaying identifiers	2(h)	Strengthens Members’ obligation to display DOIs in accordance with Crossref’s Display Guidelines (by eliminating the “commercially reasonable efforts” qualifier).
Fees	3	Expands the definition of “Fees” to include all usage fees and fees for optional services, in addition to annual fees and Content Registration fees. Crossref’s right to suspend or terminate a Member’s account for non-payment extends to any of these fees.
Termination of Membership	9	Significantly revises the provision regarding termination of a Member’s membership by Crossref:
		Updates the bases for ‘for-cause’ termination, to include ongoing misrepresentations in a Member’s practices; misleading use or creation of DOIs; and failure to pay fees due (without the former 120-day minimum duration of nonpayment);
		Clarifies the distinction between suspension and termination (also referred to as revocation or expulsion) of a Member’s Crossref membership;
		Eliminates the existing procedures for automatic Board review of a termination or extended suspension. (Crossref’s bylaws have been amended to prescribe a new suspension/termination process and right to request Board review);
		Adds a termination trigger for cases where a Sponsor cancels its agreement with a Sponsored Member. (The member, of course, has the option to move to a new Sponsor, or re-join Crossref as an independent member).
Notice contacts	8(d)	Updates Crossref’s Notice contact; updates the list of required Member contacts.

Changes to the bylaws

Our bylaws have needed updating for a while, but since these seldom change, we’ve saved up a few changes, also to bring them in line with the revised membership terms.

We’ve now modernised the language, ensured that the bylaws match what’s in the membership terms, and we’ve added in motions that have been agreed by the board but not updated in the bylaws over the last few years. We’ve also updated the bylaws in line with the new membership revocation process in the new July 2025 membership terms. The new bylaws also allow for a new group of members to be created to help Crossref define Member Practices.

You can find a summary of the changes below, or take a look at this marked-up PDF showing all the changes to the bylaws.

Topic	Section	Summary of Changes
Terminology	Various sections	Eliminates gender-specific terminology, e.g. replaces “Chairman” with “Chair”.
		Makes minor clean-up edits (e.g. deletion of unused “Reserved” section and renumbering).
Membership Qualification	Art. I Sec. 1	Replaces “publishes” professional and scholarly materials with “produces” professional and scholarly materials to match the language in the already-current membership terms.
Non-Voting Membership	Art. I Sec. 2; Art. IV Secs. 7, 8; Art. VII Sec. 4	Reflects the establishment of a non-voting Member category as previously approved by the Board.
Membership Procedures	Art. I Sec. 3; Art. I Sec. 5	Clarifies that acceptance of new Members is delegable to Crossref personnel generally, replacing a narrow reference to the Executive Director.
		Eliminates superfluous procedural steps regarding Member resignation.
Suspension and Termination of Membership	Art. I Sec. 6	Significantly revises the provision regarding termination of a Member’s membership by Crossref:
		Updates the bases for ‘for-cause’ termination, to include various specific prongs (matching those already in the Member Terms), while maintaining the catch-all for conduct prejudicial to Crossref’s best interests.
		Authorises the Board to define standards and procedures for ‘for-cause’ terminations, or establish a committee (which can be comprised of both Board members and non-Board members) for that purpose.
		Specifies that Crossref staff is responsible for implementing the ‘for-cause’ termination standards.
		Eliminates the existing procedures for automatic Board review of a termination or extended suspension; specifies the Board’s authority to delegate discretionary appeals/review to the ExCo or other committee of Board members.
		Restates that temporary suspension may be used in lieu of, or in advance of, termination.
Annual Meeting	Art. IV Sec. 1	Updates language around the timing of the annual Member meeting:
		Replaces reference to the “second week of November” with “during the month of October or November”.
		Eliminates language regarding avoiding legal or religious holidays; given Crossref’s global footprint, this is not feasible.

Thanks for reading this far!

Don’t forget, members do not need to do anything in response to these changes - by continuing to register metadata after 11th July, they are accepting the latest version of the terms. But do let us know if you have any questions by emailing member@crossref.org.

Changes to the 2018 membership agreement for better metadata distribution

Ginny Hendricks — Mon, 09 Oct 2017 00:00:00 +0000

We are making a change to section 9b of the standard Crossref membership agreement which will come into effect on January 1, 2018. This will not change how members register content, nor will it affect membership fees in any way. The new 2018 agreement is on our website, and the exact wording changes are highlighted below. The new membership agreement will automatically replace the previous version from January 1, 2018 and members will not need to sign a new agreement.

What’s changing?

At its July meeting the Crossref board unanimously approved recommendations from the Membership and Fees Committee to update Crossref’s metadata delivery offerings. One of the recommendations was to remove the option for case-by-case opt outs of metadata delivery through the OAI-PMH channel used for Enhanced Crossref Metadata Services.

This opt-out was only used by a small number of our members (around 40 of nearly 9,000), who have been contacted directly. This means that for the vast majority of members there is no change in how Crossref makes their metadata available but we wanted to make everyone aware of the change to the membership agreement.

So, as is currently the case, all metadata registered with Crossref is available via all the Metadata APIs under an appropriate agreement with the user or terms and conditions for the service. The one exception to this is how references are distributed - we will contact members next week about the options for references.

Why are we making this change?

Our metadata services have become very popular with users of all kinds throughout scholarly communications–including search and discovery platforms, libraries, other publishers, reference managers, sharing services, and analytics providers. More and better metadata means more and better discoverability of publisher content.
The change also brings this service into line with our mission to improve scholarly communications through quality metadata and related infrastructure services, removing the need for bilateral agreements between publishers and third parties.
Many members complained when we contacted them about opt-outs whenever a new OAI-PMH user came on board. It is better for our members and for our staff if there is a common standard across the board.

Changes to 2018 membership agreement

9) Sharing of Metadata by PILA

a) Local Hosting. [no change]

b) Other Metadata Services. Subject to compliance by the entity receiving the Metadata and Digital Identifiers with the terms and conditions ~~set forth in a separate agreement between~~ established by PILA for the particular service through which access is provided, and ~~the entity receiving the Metadata and Digital Identifiers~~, PILA may ~~license~~ authorize third parties to receive and use ~~bulk deliveries of~~ Metadata and Digital Identifiers from ~~the~~ PILA ~~System from members who have chosen to participate in Metadata Services,~~ which PILA shall provide directly to such third parties. At least thirty (30) days prior to making such Metadata delivery PILA will notify each PILA Member whose Metadata and Digital Identifiers are intended to be included in such delivery of the anticipated delivery date, the identity of the third party and the purpose for which the delivery is being made. Metadata and Digital Identifiers belonging to any PILA Member who notifies PILA in writing prior to the specified delivery date of its desire to be excluded from such delivery will be excluded or removed from such delivery.

Please contact our membership specialist if you have any feedback or questions.

Terms on Crossref