Digital Object Identifiers (DOI)

Digital Object Identifiers (DOI) and your research 

A DOI is a unique, persistent identifier, created to ensure that your work is discoverable over time, thereby preventing any “link not found” errors. DOIs are one example of a persistent identifier (PID), which is a long-lasting reference to a digital resource.  There are several advantages to using a PID, such as a DOI:

  • It makes research outputs, datasets, grants, etc. uniquely identifiable
  • The metadata associated with the DOI is permanently linked
  • It makes research easier to locate via search engines 
  • It allows easier citation of the object 

For journal articles and similar outputs, it is usually the publisher which assigns the DOI. However, other organisations and repositories can also assign DOIs to items if they have an agreement with a DOI registration agency such as  DataCite or CrossRef.  

At Strathclyde, staff in the Library team are able to assign DOIs to research data and other research outputs, such as grey literature.

When you submit research data to Pure at Strathclyde, you will be provided with a DataCite DOI through the University's licensing agreement with the British Library. If you require a DOI for a dataset, please contact: researchdataproject@strath.ac.uk 

Grey literature refers to information produced outside traditional publishing channels, such as reports, policy papers, government documents, white papers, and urban plans. Typically created by government bodies, Non-Governmental Organisations, and industry, it is used to document activities and share information quickly, often without the delays of academic publishing.  Grey literature does not usually go through the peer review process.  

Obtaining a DOI

If you would like a DOI assigned to your research output, please follow the guidance below:
To be eligible for a DOI, the output should not already have a DOI, Strathprints should be the primary publication point for the output, and the output should not be subject to a permanent embargo.

To request a DOI please provide the following information to the team with a copy of the output to be uploaded to Pure via the Strathclyde DOI Service web form. 

  • Date of publication
  • Title
  • Authors
  • Abstract (if you have it)
  • Anything else you think might be useful

The DOI is registered and will be made live as soon as the final version of the output is received.  Once the DOI has been registered, it is not possible to make changes to the metadata. Confirmation is therefore required that all the information provided is accurate and will not be changed in any way. 
Once the Open Access team have registered a DOI for an output, this will link (or ‘resolve’) to the Strathprints URL and will be displayed in the metadata for that output. 

The full DOI URL should be present on the cover or within the bibliographic details of the document for which the DOI has been issued. This will assist in indexing the output in places like Google Scholar.

If you have any questions, please contact openaccess@strath.ac.uk