The "doi" URI Scheme

Abstract

This document specifies the "doi" URI scheme, as specified in [RFC3986], for Digital Object Identifier (DOI) names.¶

1. Introduction

A DOI name is a global unique identifier of a referent, which can be any digital, physical or abstract entity, including inventions, literary and artistic works, ideas, symbols, names, images, designs, etc. DOI names are, for example, widely used to identify academic publications. The DOI system is specified in [iso26324] and [doi-handbook], with the former offering regular formal snapshot of the latter.¶

EXAMPLE 1: The DOI name "10.1103/PhysRevLett.59.381" refers to the article Per Bak, Chao Tang, and Kurt Wiesenfeld, "Self-organized criticality: An explanation of the 1/f noise", Phys. Rev. Lett. 59, 381.¶

A DOI name is persistent over time. This persistence is provided by the independence of the DOI name from the referent itself and its descriptive elements. These descriptive elements of a referent, including location and ownership, can change over time, and their current values are retrieved by resolving the DOI name. The set of elements retrieved by resolving a DOI name is called the DOI record. The DOI name resolution process uses the Handle System specified at [RFC3650], [RFC3651] and [RFC3652], as updated by [DOI-RP].¶

This document specifies a URI scheme for DOI names. This scheme formalizes the notation "doi:<DOI name>", which is in widespread use. When resolved, the URI corresponding to a DOI name yields the DOI record associated with the name.¶

EXAMPLE 2: "doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.59.381" is the URI corresponding to the DOI name above.¶

This document intended to satisfy the guidelines and registration procedures specified at [RFC7595].¶

3. Resolution

Resolving a DOI name means retrieving its DOI record, which contains the descriptive elements associated with the referent identified by the DOI name.¶

A DOI name URI can be be resolved by performing an HTTP GET request at the following URL (expressed using ABNF syntax as defined at [RFC5234]):¶

"https://doi.org/api/handles/" scheme-specific-part¶

where scheme-specific-part is the scheme-specific-part of the DOI name URI, as defined at Section 2, and the "https" scheme is specified at [RFC9110].¶

The body of the response is a JSON object, as defined at [RFC8259], that contains the following members:¶

responseCode

The property is a Number. The following values are defined:¶

1

The resolution completed successfully. The HTTP response status code is 200.¶

2

The resolution did not complete successfully because of a server error. The HTTP response status code is 500.¶

100

The DOI name was not found. The HTTP response status code is 404.¶

200

No descriptive elements were found for the requested DOI name. The HTTP response status code is 200.¶

handle

The property is a String. It is equal to the DOI name for which resolution was requested.¶

values

The property is an Object. It contains the descriptive elements for the referent identified by the DOI name. The contents of the property are specified at [RFC3651].¶

Figure 1 illustrates the DOI record, at the time of this writing, for the DOI name corresponding to the URI <doi:10.1000/182>. The DOI record was retrieved by performing an HTTP GET request to <https://doi.org/api/handles/10.1000/182>.¶

{
  "responseCode": 1,
  "handle": "10.1000/182",
  "values": [
    {
      "index": 1,
      "type": "URL",
      "data": {
        "format": "string",
        "value": "http://www.doi.org/hb.html"
      },
      "ttl": 86400,
      "timestamp": "2004-01-21T14:14:17Z"
    },
    {
      "index": 100,
      "type": "HS_ADMIN",
      "data": {
        "format": "admin",
        "value": {
          "handle": "0.na/10.1000",
          "index": 200,
          "permissions": "011111110010",
          "legacyByteLength": true
        }
      },
      "ttl": 86400,
      "timestamp": "2000-06-23T15:17:46Z"
    }
  ]
}

4. Security Considerations

A DOI name is an opaque string, which does not have a discernible meaning on its own and is for use by humans and machines alike. It consists of a sequence of Unicode codepoints and the security considerations at [UNICODE-TR36] apply.¶

The DOI name resolution process is conducted using the Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure, which ensures condifentiality and integrity of the transaction, and he security considerations at [RFC9110] apply.¶

The results of the DOI name resolution process is a JSON object and the security considerations at [RFC8259] apply.¶

5. References