The DOI Foundation

The DOI Foundation governs the DOI system on behalf of the Registration Agencies that manage DOI registries and serve their own communities. As an ISO Registration Authority for ISO 26324, it states that it is legally bound to maintain the DOI system and comply with its rules, and that another organisation could take over running the system if the Foundation could not continue. Governance rests with the Registration Agencies, each of which nominates a DOI Foundation Board Director. The factsheet describes a US not-for-profit with open membership, an elected board, a federation of Registration Agencies forming the majority of the membership, and no full-time staff, with functions contracted out.

• Legal name: International DOI Foundation, Inc.
• Registration authority for ISO 26324, Digital Object Identifier System, 1 May 2012
• Governed by its Registration Agencies
• Elected board; outsourced operational functions
• Operating costs of $884k in 2021

A DOI is a digital identifier of an object — physical, digital or abstract — made up of a prefix beginning "10." and a suffix separated by a forward slash, for example 10.1000/182. DOI names are designed for use by machines as well as humans and identify objects persistently, so that metadata and services associated with a DOI can be updated without changing the DOI itself. Prefacing a DOI with doi.org/ turns it into an actionable link that resolves via the Foundation's proxy server. Existing DOI names are free to resolve.

• Example DOI: https://doi.org/10.1000/182
• Proxy server at https://doi.org (HTTPS preferred; IPv6 and DNSSEC supported)
• Proxy server REST API and query parameters documented in factsheets
• Multiple resolution supported, including the 10320/loc handle value type
• Free to resolve

The DOI system is an implementation of the Handle System, developed by the Corporation for National Research Initiatives (CNRI) in the United States in the early 1990s. At the infrastructure level DOI names are handles, and the DOI proxy server is a web server that queries the Handle System and issues an HTTP redirect to the registered URL. The Foundation states that handles alone are necessary but not sufficient, because the DOI system adds a framework of syntax rules, a data model providing semantic interoperability and the social obligations placed on Registration Agencies. The Foundation reports that more than 3 billion DOIs are resolved every month.

• Built on the Handle System (CNRI)
• Persistence supported by both technical and social infrastructure
• Semantic interoperability through an optional data model component

Registration Agencies allocate DOI prefixes, register DOI names and provide a metadata schema associated with each DOI record. Each represents a distinct industry or community and most develop additional services on top of basic DOI registration. RAs sign an agreement that grants rights, sets out the obligations of the RA and the Foundation, addresses intellectual property rights and details change, termination and continuity procedures. They also commit to taking on the responsibilities of another agency that ceases to be an RA, so that DOIs persist.

• Allocation of DOI prefixes and registration of DOI names
• Metadata schema for each DOI record
• Signed RA agreement with continuity provisions
• Each RA nominates a DOI Foundation Board Director
• Open to commercial, governmental and not-for-profit organisations

The Foundation describes itself as an international community of communities, having welcomed agencies managing communities in entertainment, standards, the built environment, natural history collections, scholarly communications and research data. Members are organisations rather than individuals, and membership is open to any organisation supporting the development of the DOI system. Membership is not required in order to work with a Registration Agency. Applications to become an RA are considered by the Board following a review of the business case, and a community representative often joins as a member first.

• Sectors served include entertainment, standards, the built environment, natural history collections, scholarly communications and research data
• Membership open to organisations supporting DOI system development
• Membership not needed to obtain a DOI through an RA
• Enquiries by email to info@doi.org

The Foundation recovers the costs of running the DOI system from annual fees paid by Registration Agencies and other members, describing itself as self-funded. RAs pay a fixed fee per year, and the Foundation contracts a technical operator. A long-term sustainability fund accompanies this model. Its published factsheet gives operating costs of $884k in 2021.

• Self-funded through annual membership fees
• Fixed annual fee per Registration Agency
• Long-term sustainability fund
• Technical operation contracted out

The Foundation was launched to develop the system in 1998, with the first applications launched in 2000. Its key facts factsheet records approximately 275 million DOI names assigned to date, over 155,000 DOI name prefixes, and over 30 million shortDOI links in use, with the system used by well over 5,000 assigners including publishers, science data centres and movie studios. Initial applications were simple redirection, with more sophisticated functionality such as multiple resolution and data typing also available.

• System development began in 1998; first applications in 2000
• Approximately 275 million DOI names assigned to date
• Over 155,000 DOI name prefixes
• Over 30 million shortDOI links in use
• Well over 5,000 assigners

The Foundation publishes shareable resources covering the foundation, the community and the identifier, all made available under a CC-4.0 attribution licence. These include factsheets on technical specifications, an archive of policies and statements, frequently asked questions, a news archive and coverage of DOIs and persistent identifiers. It also publishes the "doi" URI scheme specification, which was subject to consensus review by Foundation members including its Registration Agencies, and maintains the DOI Data Dictionary and the DOI Handbook.

• Key Facts on Digital Object Identifier System
• Designing DOI Applications; Identifier Interoperability
• The indecs Framework
• DOI System and the Handle System; DOI System and Cloudflare
• DOI System and the ISBN System; Persistent URLs (PURLs); OpenURL
• DOI Resolution Documentation
• DOI Data Dictionary
• Frequently Asked Questions and news archive

The Foundation provides the doi.org website and the doi.statuspage.io status page, which together supply information about the DOI system and facilitate its use. Its stated services include providing information about the Foundation and the system, hosting public and private web-based mailing lists, offering a feedback channel and resolving DOI names. The privacy policy states that IP addresses are collected in order to serve requested information, and that cookies are used, including a Cloudflare session cookie deposited when the DOI resolution service is used.

• Websites: doi.org and doi.statuspage.io
• Services include information, mailing lists, feedback and DOI resolution
• Contact address for questions: info@doi.org