We are starting a University Press and we keep being asked if it is possible to register DOIs at chapter level for books like a book of abstracts, and book where the editor is asking for multiple authors to contribute to a monograph. Could I ask if you know if any of the other “new” university presses offer chapter-level DOIs for books? How should this process be managed?
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Hi, this could violate the DOI requirements for a “landing page”. The chapters would need to have their own page with meta data, I believe. At CEUR-WS, we publish whole proceedings volumes. papers are their own units there and thus should be eligible for DOIs, though we do not have the money to pay for DOIs.
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I think the landing page is more a registration agency (like Crossref) requirement so this also might depend on the DOI registration agency you are using. But it is in any case a very good practice to have a chapter landing page.
Handling the chapter level DOIs depends very much on the platform you use.
We are hosting multiple publishers using Open Monograph Press. Some publishers use chapter level DOIs and some just use DOIs for books. In OMP both are easy to achieve and OMP (since 3.4) also supports chapter landing pages. If you create a chapter DOI the landing page is automatically triggered.
If you use Crossref, they have quite extensive documentation about the topic:
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Thank you for your advice here and sharing these resources for crossref. We are currently developing our processes for assigning DOIs for the press which will be managed through DataCite. Can I ask further how you can achieve and assign DOIs for both the book itself and DOIs at chapter level?
Thank you for responding to my question here, I think it is possible in my understanding to have more than two landing pages for the work, one for the book itself and another for a chapter within the work to aid reuse. But I do wonder for clarity, it would be better to have an ISBN assigned for a Book and then chapter level DOIs for the chapters themselves. It is interesting you mention cost, having more DOIs also requires more administration time to validate and make the recorded DOIs live?
Not sure. ISBNs are traditionally for physical books. DOIs are for digital artefacts. Are the chapters separate files?
No they will all be part of the same file, which is a book of abstracts.
I agree with @manfredjeusfeld that ISBNs are more for physical books although digital ones do get an ISBN as well. The DOI however has the important functionality of working both as an identifier and a permanent link to the book, so I would always add a DOI for the book and optionally, depending on the book, to chapters/articles within it.
The answer to the question on how you would assign DOIs for the book and the chapters depends on the publishing system you are using.
The basic idea is that you get your DOI prefix from DataCite and you then need to create unique DOIs for each content (book/chapter) you want to have a DOI for. Linking Crossref instructions for this, but the idea is the same for DataCite as well Constructing your DOIs - Crossref
When you have a DOI ready, you need the metadata for the content. So with a book things like title, contributors etc. and the URL for the book landing page.
All this data (DOI, URL, metadata) goes to a XML file based on the DataCite instructions and it is then sent to the Datacite system which will register the DOI which will start working ie. clicking the DOI link will open the book landing page URL you have provided. The metadata is stored to the DataCite database.
You do not need to create an XML file manually.
If you are using a system like Open Monograph Press, it has a functionality for generating the DOIs for each book and chapter, creating the required XML automatically and sending the XML for Datacite for registration.
If you do not have a publishing system that can handle DOIs, Datacite has their own service where you can enter the required information to a form and register the DOIs. Create and Update DOIs with the DOI Form
Hello @Eecarter, at Ediciones Universidad de Salamanca we are doing this in an «experimental» way
For example:
Interculturality, inclusion and equity in education | Ediciones Universidad de Salamanca
https://www.eusal.es/eusal/catalog/book/978-84-1311-688-4
You will see that the DOI of the work is given https://doi.org/10.14201/0AQ0331
And in addition to the different chapters, for the moment only to the pdf:
https://doi.org/10.14201/0AQ03211920
Best regards
Hi, just one addition. If you do not have a platform that can handle DOIs then I would check out this great service https://thoth.pub/ for book metadata management.
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Hi @eecarter, following @ajnyga suggestion, I am tagging @TSteiner, he might be able to help you with that!
Thanks, @mpaulhac, and hi @eecarter - a really good question! So yes, to disentangle some of the strands that have been introduced:
- ISBNs: yes, it’s common practice to assign ISBNs on the book level - ideally a separate ISBN for each specific format of your book. So you can have an ISBN for your print work, one eISBN for your digital book PDF, and another eISBN for the epub version of your digital (OA) book. That said, there are no ISBNs for chapters. Here is an example of a publisher that has implemented good metadata practice in that respect
- DOIs: yes, DOIs can - and ideally should - be assigned to the book as well as the chapter-level entities, and each of them should be pointing to corresponding landing pages, not to the actual file URL. (As @ajnyga has highlighted, this is common practice because Crossref mandates it - and I believe it’ll be similar with DataCite registrations, but could check that for you if you like) Again, the above example will showcase how this can be done.
Regarding Thoth - and for full disclosure, I work with that not-for-profit - this is an open and free-to-use self-service metadata management platform we’ve developed as part of the Copim project, which has been built to help presses with exactly those questions you’re facing right now…
We enable publishers to tackle questions pertaining to the basics of “which data should go where, and why”, while also providing guidance around good metadata practice when it comes to different platform’s requirements (i.e. what do I need to do to get my book into OAPEN, or Project MUSE, etc.), integration of PIDs (such as DOIs, but also ROR, and ORCID), etc. pp. .
With the open, free-to-use self-service platform, you only need to enter data once - and the platform will then automatically create data exports available in multiple formats such as ONIX 3.1 (as well as “older” versions), MARCXML & MARC21, KBART - and valid Crossref XML (which I understand you can also use to register content with DataCite).
Just to provide you with the full picture, it’s worth mentioning that we also have open-source solutions in place to e.g. host a publisher’s website with an integrated catalogue (similar to the one you’re seeing on Thoth’s website, or the one used by Open Book Publishers - which would automatically generate landing pages for each book and each chapter you’re publishing), to take care of dissemination and archiving of your books on behalf of a press so that you can focus on the important work of publishing those books, and we’re also providing integrated usage statistics options.
I’m sure all of that is a lot to digest right now - but don’t hesitate to let me know if I or my colleagues can assist you in any way, we’re happy to help!
At UMinho Editora, which belongs to the University of Minho in Portugal, we also assign an ISBN to each format of the book, for example one for the printed version and another for the online version (OA), and we assign a DOI to the book and to each chapter through CrossRef. You can see examples here: https://ebooks.uminho.pt/index.php/uminho/catalog
We do all the editorial management at Open Monograph Press.
If we can help in any way, just let us know.