Digital Object Identifiers, commonly shortened to DOIs, were invented to give each electronic, or digital, item a unique, persistent identifier. It is a string of numbers, letters and symbols used to permanently identify an article or document and link to it on the web.
The Digital Object Identifier (DOI) was conceived as a generic framework for managing identification of content over digital networks, recognising the trend towards digital convergence and multimedia availability. Its key features include persistence, network accessibility, interoperability with other identifiers, shared fault-tolerant infrastructure, and the ability to resolve the identifiers in multiple forms.
Any digital object can be assigned a DOI number, for example:
- Academic Journal Articles,
- Research Reports,
- Governmental Reports,
- Data Sets,
- Books,
- Conference Proceedings,
- Code,
- Media.