My question relates to DOI assignments for a journal we are publishing using OJS. The journal began with multiple issues per year, and our DOI suffix pattern was %j.%Y.%v.%i.%a, which includes the abbreviated title, year, volume, issue, and article number. However, the journal has now gone down to one issue per year, and it seems like we should eliminate the issue number, and just use the volume number and year in citations and the DOI.
My questions are:
- Will this change in the pattern cause any foreseeable problems?
- If not and I go to update the settings on the DOI Public Identifier Plugin, will I mess up the DOIs for previously published issues?
- Do I need to Clear DOI and Clear Issue Objects DOIs for the upcoming issue, and will this cause any problems for previously published issues?
I am running OJS version 3.1.2.1
Thank you in advance for any insights!
Hi @kalinsky,
There might not be a need here to eliminate the issue #. And, in fact, it might make it easier if you just kept things consistent. For example, let’s say you only published one issue in 2020 and 2021, you could still use the issue number. Your 2020 issue could be Volume 32, Issue 1, and then your 2021 issue could be Volume 33, Issue 1. This would keep the issue #s in tact and not necessitate any DOI changes. There are many journals that still use issue #, even if they are still publishing just one issue a year. Also, if, for any reason, your journal opted to go back to more than one issue a year, the structure would still be in place. I’m not entirely sure if you would to interrupt the DOI structure you have in place (and that most journals follow) - as the saying goes: “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it!”
Hi @rcgillis,
That all makes sense, thanks for the detailed explanation. That makes my life easier 