Get a DOI | MacOdrum Library

What is a DOI?

DOI stands for Digital Object Identifier, a persistent digital identifier that uniquely distinguishes your publication or research output.

Why should I get a DOI for my publication?

Key benefits for using DOIs include:

It's the de facto international standard for publication citation and discovery on the web.
Using a persistent identifier standardizes how people cite your work, and publishers, research organisations, and funders increasingly recommend the use of persistent identifiers to better support researcher workflows.
Research impact tools and metrics rely upon persistent identifiers - DOIs can make it more accurate and easier to help you track scholarly impact, use, and engagement.
Library maintenance of the DOI can help against certain "link breaking" threats (such as changing file locations on web servers, etc.).

While most commercial publishers issue DOIs to their content, this service targets self-published content hosted on Carleton University web servers, independent research lab websites, and other venues where research works are hosted.

Where can I get a DOI?

The library can issue DOIs for your content self-hosted/published by Carleton University. Objects deposited into MacOdrum Library repositories will increasingly be automatically assigned DOIs, ensuring a persistent URLs address is resistant to breaking. We work with both DataCite Canada as well as CrossRef as registrars.

What will we need to make a DOI?

If you are rushed, start by sending us a copy or URL link to a pre-release version of your report and we'll take it from there. Getting a DOI with a pre-release version will benefit you by being able to include the DOI in the final published version, and encouraging its use in citations. But we can also help you retrospectively assigning DOIs to any of your historical content.

Otherwise, you can also send us the following details with your request:

- Title
- Creator(s)
- Publisher
- Publication Year
- Type of your Resource (e.g. Report, Software, Sound, Dataset, Text, etc.)
- URL (if you already have it posted somewhere).

Consider also an ISBN: for reports and other monographs, we can also work with the CU Bookstore to assign your work an ISBN, a unique international identifier for monographic publications with many benefits.