Documentation

Multi-language material and translations

Much of the content in Crossref is English language, but we encourage members to register content in the appropriate language for the content being registered. We support UTF-8 encoded character sets and in many cases you will be able to supply multiple versions of titles, abstracts, and other metadata.

If you consider your content to be multi-language and not a translation (meaning it will be cited as a single item) Do:

  • register one DOI for the item
  • include titles, abstracts, and other metadata in multiple languages in your metadata record (support for this varies by record type)
  • pay attention to order in your input XML - if the English title is provided as the primary title in your metadata, then the English title will be displayed in citations generated from our metadata

If your content is translated -

Do:

  • register separate DOIs for each translation
  • connect each registered record with relationship metadata (hasTranslation)
  • include language metadata wherever possible

Do not:

  • cram multiple titles in multiple languages in one element - this impacts discoverability and citation formatting

Review our Translated and multi-language materials Markup Guide for XML and metadata help.

Page owner: Patricia Feeney   |   Last updated 2023-January-18