What is a DOI?

In the academic and research world, the DOI (Digital Object Identifier) is a fundamental tool that has changed how scientific articles are cited, tracked, and accessed.
The DOI (Digital Object Identifier) is a unique and permanent identifier assigned to a digital document, such as a scientific article, book chapter, thesis, or any other digital resource.
Unlike URLs, which can change over time (for example, if a resource is moved or the website is updated), the DOI is stable and guarantees that the document is always accessible, regardless of online infrastructure changes.
The DOI consists of a series of numbers and letters combined in a standard format.
For example, a DOI might look like this: 10.1000/xyz123.
This code is unique for each document and never changes, even if the document's content is updated or the hosting website changes.

How does DOI work?

When a publisher publishes a scientific document, a DOI is often assigned.
MP Editor offers free DOIs to its authors. This identifier is used as a permanent reference to the document. A DOI can be used in any type of academic citation, whether in the bibliography or in the footnotes, ensuring that the reader can easily access the resource.
An important feature of the DOI is that it links to a web page that contains all the necessary information to access the document, such as the title, authors, abstract, and direct link to the file. For example, if an author tries to access an article via a DOI, they just need to go to https://doi.org/10.1000/xyz123 to reach the resource.

Why is DOI important for university authors?

Permanent and stable access: when a document gets a DOI, the link to it will always remain valid. This means readers can access the article or resource even years after its publication, without worrying about broken links.
Visibility and citations: using a DOI in academic citations increases the visibility of your work. Articles with DOI are easily found through databases like Google Scholar, PubMed, Scopus, etc. Also, since the DOI is a unique identifier, it allows tracking how many times a work is cited, improving the author's academic profile.
Professional recognition: the use of DOI by authors demonstrates professionalism and adherence to international academic standards. Staying up-to-date with these conventions helps authors be recognized as experts in their field.
Ease in resource management: for researchers, using DOI allows easier management of bibliographic resources. Using a centralized identification system helps avoid errors and duplicates in citations and makes searching scientific articles much more effective.

How to get a DOI for my document?

At the time of publication, MP Editor will proceed to register the DOI for your document.

How to use a DOI?

When citing a document, you should include the DOI in the appropriate field of your bibliography according to the editorial standards. An example of an APA format citation with DOI would be:
Example:
Smith J. 2023, Innovations in Machine Learning, Journal of AI Research 45, 123-145. https://doi.org/10.1000/xyz123

Alternatively, DOIs can also be used in your CVs or in academic research platforms like ORCID to increase the visibility of your works.

Conclusions

The DOI is an essential tool for every university author. It not only guarantees that your works are easily accessible and trackable but also that they are correctly cited, increasing the visibility and impact of your scientific work. By adopting the DOI, authors improve the quality of their citations and contribute to the dissemination of scientific discoveries, facilitating communication among researchers worldwide. Make sure to leverage this tool to give proper recognition and accessibility to your research. If you do not have DOIs for your articles, now it's a good time to start registering them by publishing with MP Editor.