Free DOI service?

Software Support
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21

National Library here assigns DOIs to, but that is not without cost for operator. Having servers, sysadmins etc. is not free of charge.
That is good for big national libraries, universities with many journals etc… I am not sure that feasibility will be so shiny when small journal is concerned.

22

For assigning doi’s one needs:

There is no other way. National Libraries can recieve grants from their governments for such things.

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23

Exactly, I know people who do that here and it is not possible to do that without financial support.

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24

This appears as the cheapest option. One handle prefix is 50 USD per annum.

25

Yes, but you have to ask some authority which does that to assign you DOI. SO, it is not free, it is payed partly or completely by someone else. :wink:

26

Yep, but it requires additional work with their app. I have stopped my search on this, because found Crossref DOI assignment less time-consuming. If you are interested in such implementation, it is better to contact them directly. Please, let me know if you do this :slight_smile:

27

As I understand, if downloading their app on own server, you are becoming a doi service provider. You need to pay only $50 for every doi prefix (NOT index)

28

Hmm, there should be something else added in terms of principles, duties, responsibilities…
I subscribed to their mailing list and I will report if there is something new. But, so far I see OJS with Crossref the easiest way for smaller publishers.

29

You can collaborate with some publisher and use their prefix. I have no funds and hence ask one of the publishers to allow me to use their prefix with my journals suffix. They gave me 50 dois from CrossRef per year for free.

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30

Yes, it is possible that university or other institution shares DOIs with several journals.

31

Hi all, we do understand that there are no such things as a free lunch isn’t it?

Our journal managers here in Indonesia face the same problem (financial wise). We came into a common solution, and after our talk with CrossRef, we’ve got a result. A sponsoring affiliate, helping journal managers with a yearly cost of no more than 100 USD. More than 50% discount compared to the listed price.

I am not speaking on behalf of CrossRef, but I do assume that they do try to lower your costs as low as possible. I used to register with CrossRef using my university’s account. We had 2 prefixes already, and CrossRef persuaded me to “not register for another one”. AFAIK the profit-oriented firms will not suggest so.

Try to make such organisation in your country and talk to CrossRef, I believe there are ways to lower the cost, yet not to have your “free lunch” though. :wink:

1 Like