Apply for your own DOIs

To register DOIs, an institution joins a registration agency and receives a prefix, the first part of every DOI it registers, such as 10.12345. Most universities, societies and journals use Crossref. This page goes through its application.

Quorum Press is not the agency and does not apply for you. Your institution applies in its own name, and holds the account. We guide you through it, and prepare what you register afterwards.

Note

Crossref changes its form and its fees from time to time. Where this page and Crossref’s own website differ, Crossref’s website is right.

Do you need to apply?

Your situation	What to do
Your institution is already a member	Do not apply again. Ask the library or the research office who holds the login. One membership covers every journal and conference of the institution.
Your institution was a member, and it lapsed	Write to Crossref first. See An institution that was a member before.
You publish through a larger body that is a member	Ask that body. It may register for you, as a sponsor.
None of these	Apply, as below.

Not sure whether your institution is a member? Look for a DOI on something it has published: the part before the slash is its prefix. Or ask Crossref’s member support, which will tell you.

What it costs

Crossref charges a yearly membership fee that depends on the size of the publisher, and a small fee for each DOI registered. It removes both for organizations in many countries, under its programme for equitable membership. Check that page and Crossref’s fees for your country before you budget.

Quorum Press charges nothing for DOIs, and takes no share of anything you pay Crossref.

Before you start

Have these ready. The form takes about twenty minutes with them.

You need	Why
The institution’s full legal name, postal address and website	Crossref names the institution as the publisher
The address of a page that shows work you have published	Crossref asks for an example
A rough yearly figure for what publishing earns or costs	It decides the fee range
Five contacts, with at least three different email addresses	See The contacts
The agreement of whoever may sign for the institution	The application accepts Crossref’s membership terms

The form, question by question

The questions that most often need thought, and what usually fits a university, society or journal.

The form asks	What usually fits
How you will be working with Crossref	Works published by this organization. Tick only this, unless you also register for other publishers.
An example of your works	A page on your own website that lists work you have published: your journal’s site or your proceedings page.
The name of your organization	The parent institution in full, not the journal or the conference.
Annual publishing revenue or expenses	Publishing only, not the institution’s whole budget. Where publishing earns nothing, give what it costs in a year. Choose the lowest range that is true.
Postal and billing address	The institution’s own. Where your country has a fee waiver, both addresses in that country is what applies it.
The five contacts	See below.
How you will register your content	Sending XML directly, by uploading manually into the admin tool. See Why manual upload.
Do you have your own platform?	Yes, if your published work is on a website your institution runs. Name the system that website uses. This question is about where your pages are, not about who prepares your files.
An existing DOI prefix	Leave empty, unless your institution has one from Crossref or from another agency.
Anything else we need to know	Say here if you were a member before, or if you publish through a sponsor. Otherwise leave empty.
More exact revenue and expenses	Honest round figures. Crossref uses them for its own research.

Read the review page before you send. It is the last chance to correct a contact.

The contacts

Crossref asks for five roles, held by at least three people. Use office mailboxes where you can, so that the account does not stop when one person moves on. The voting contact must be one named person.

Role	What it is for	Who suits it
Primary	Crossref’s main point of contact. Receives its notices.	The research office or the library
Voting	Votes in Crossref’s board election. One named person.	A senior officer, at an office address
Technical	Receives the login and the error reports. Does the registering.	Whoever will upload the file
Metadata quality	Puts right any errors in the details.	The same person, or the journal’s managing editor
Billing	Receives invoices, if there are any.	The finance office’s mailbox

Two things to remember:

• Crossref deals only with the contacts on its record. Years later, when nobody remembers who applied, these are the only people Crossref will listen to. Choose addresses that will still be read.
• More can be added afterwards. Once the account is running, Crossref can add further contacts and logins.

Why manual upload

The form offers several ways to register. For an institution that uses Quorum Press, choose the manual upload of XML in Crossref’s admin tool:

• Your login stays with you. A person at your institution signs in to Crossref and uploads one file. Nobody else can register, change or redirect a DOI under your prefix.
• Nothing is registered until you have looked at it. You download the file, read it if you wish, and choose to upload it.
• It needs no technical setup. No keys to exchange and no system to connect.

Quorum Press prepares that file. It never asks for your Crossref login. See What Quorum Press never asks for.

After you apply

1. Crossref confirms it has your application. Its replies come from its member support address, at crossref.org. Check your spam folder if nothing arrives.

2. It reviews the application, usually within a few working days, and may write back with questions. The usual ones: where your content is published, and what kind of content it is.

3. It sends an invoice for the first year, where a fee applies. Where your country has a full waiver, there is none.

4. It sends your prefix and your login to the technical contact. You can now register.

Reply to Crossref’s questions on the same email thread. A new email with a new subject starts a new request, and slows things down.

An institution that was a member before

A membership that lapsed can usually be brought back with its prefix and its DOIs.

1. Write to Crossref’s member support and ask what it holds for your institution: the member’s status, the prefix, the contacts on record, and whether anything is owed.

2. Do what it asks. This is often a new application through the same form, and an email from one of the contacts on its record confirming that Crossref may work with you.

3. On the form, give the existing prefix, and say under “Anything else” that the application brings back an earlier membership.

4. Find the contacts on record early. If they have left the institution, tell Crossref. It has its own way to confirm who may act.

Repair the older DOIs as well. A member is expected to keep its DOIs working. If the pages they point to no longer open, bring those pages back, or ask Crossref how to point the DOIs to where the work now is. Changing where a DOI points costs nothing.

What Quorum Press gives you

Once you have a prefix, everything is on the Publishing & DOIs page of your conference or journal.

You get	What it is
The file for Crossref	One file with every ready manuscript: title, authors in order, affiliations, ORCID iDs, abstract, date, DOI and the address the DOI points to. You upload it in Crossref’s admin tool.
The list to register from	The same details as a sheet, if you would rather choose and register each DOI yourselves.
A page for every DOI to point to	The manuscript’s permanent page on Quorum Press, or a page on your own website. You choose.
The folder for your website	Your published work as plain web pages and PDFs, ready to upload to your own site, where you keep the work yourselves.
A check that the DOIs work	Quorum Press asks the public DOI resolver whether each DOI opens, and shows a DOI on its manuscript only once it does.
Guidance	Through the application, and through your first registration. Ask us.

What stays with you:

• The membership, the prefix and the login. They are your institution’s, and were never anywhere else.
• The decision to register. Nothing reaches Crossref until a person at your institution uploads the file.
• Your DOIs, for good. They go on working whatever you use to run your next call.

The steps for registering are in DOIs.

Mistakes worth avoiding

• Applying in the name of a journal or a conference. Apply as the institution. One prefix serves everything it publishes.
• Using one person’s own email address for every role. When that person leaves, the account is stranded.
• Printing a DOI before it is registered. A DOI in a book or on a certificate must already work. Register first, print second.
• Putting meaning in the DOI. No journal initials, no year, no page number after the prefix. A DOI can never be changed.
• Letting the pages go. A DOI is a promise that its page opens. If a website is rebuilt, keep the old addresses or update the DOIs the same day.