A DOI (Digital Object Identifier) is a unique, unalterable identifier of a digital object that is published online. The DOI therefore uniquely identifies documents on the Internet, directly referencing the document, even if the URL changes.

The rights to assign DOIs are granted to institutions through registration agencies, e.g., CrossRef.

The DOI takes the form of an alphanumeric code, which consists of two parts, a prefix and a suffix. Each DOI starts with the digit 10 followed by a 4 or more digit prefix.

The prefix is a numeric sequence, assigned by the registration agency, which identifies the institution that assigned the particular DOI.

The suffix is a numeric sequence that identifies a document within a given institution. It does not have a fixed structure, usually using the title of the source (journal, conference).year.volume.page range. Apart from periods, numeric sequences can also be separated by a slash or hyphen.

The Suffix is assigned by the institution itself, taking into account that each document has its own DOI and the DOI is not duplicated.

Periodicals

E.g. 10.24132/ACM.2017.9.2.42-56

ACM – an article from the journal Applied and Computational Mechanics
2017 – year of release
9 – year/volume 9
2 – issue 2
42-56 – page range

Monographs

E.g. 10.24132/ZCU.2017.06548

ZCU – a monograph published by UWB
2017 – year of release
06548 – monograph with the ISBN 978-80-261-0654-8

The DOI is then included in the publication/article as a link: https://doi.org/10.24132/sufix

We assign DOIs to the following:

• Journals: title, year, issue, article
• Books: edition, title, chapters/parts
• Conference proceedings: edition, title, article

The publisher assigns a DOI to an article during the editorial process, as the DOI should be published at the same time as the object to which it was assigned, of which it must be a part. The DOI is assigned to the final form of the work. Since the end of 2016, it is now also assigned to preprints, but cannot be assigned to postprints etc.

Preferably immediately after online publication, the DOI and relevant metadata should be entered into the CrossRef system. The deadline for entering these is 24 hours after the online publication of the work. Until the content is published, the DOI can only be used for internal purposes.

It is the publisher's duty to pay attention to the functionality of the URL link and its possible changes, which, if they occur, may jeopardize the persistence of the DOI and must therefore be reported to CrossRef through the UWB University Press.

All the relevant information can be found on the DOI website.

If you are interested in having a DOI assigned, please contact us by email (vydavatel@uk.zcu.cz) or by phone at +420 377 631 950.

CrossRef is the official international registration agency that provides the organizational and technical infrastructure for the registration and use of DOIs in scientific research (for more information, visit the CrossRef website).

CrossRef also offers other additional services to member institutions, such as Cited-by Linking or Similarity Check.

Obligations of member institutions

• DOI assignment, inserting metadata into the CrossRef system in the required format - inbound linking
• Adding the DOI, if any, to each record in the reference list - outbound linking
• Ensuring that all DOIs are directed to a valid landing page - (response page)
• Overseeing the updating of metadata, especially URLs
• Addressing possible duplication of DOI assignments - Crossref reviews whether a DOI has been assigned more than once, and if it finds such a case, it alerts the publisher