Announcing automated Crossref DOI registration for journals using Scholastica's publishing platform

Easily set up automated Crossref DOI registration through Scholastica

At Scholastica, we’re making it easier for journal publishers to register content and improve article discoverability without manual or technical work. Now journals using Scholastica for open access (OA) publishing can set up automated Crossref Digital Object Identifier (DOI) registration and machine-readable metadata deposits. Read on for the full details!

DOI registration is one of the most important steps in academic journal publishing. DOIs serve as persistent identifiers for journal articles, and they come with many powerful content linking and discovery benefits. But registering DOIs for new articles can be one of the most labor-intensive steps in the publishing process. Publishing teams have to either come up with a plan to in-house or out-source XML metadata production and make machine-readable content registration deposits, or they have to manually register each new article, which can be time-consuming and prone to errors. If you’re working with one or more journals in this situation, you’re not alone.

At Scholastica, we’re building out our OA publishing platform to make it easier for journals to meet core publishing best practices, like registering DOIs for all articles, with fewer technical hassles. That’s why we’ve made it possible for journals using our OA publishing platform to set up automated DOI registration and metadata deposits via Crossref.

Scholastica’s new Crossref DOI registration automation eliminates all manual and technical steps around DOI creation. Our software automatically registers DOIs for all articles under the publisher’s Crossref prefix and submits core machine-readable metadata to Crossref, so articles can more easily be found by readers and discovery services. The new Crossref DOI registration automation is available to journal publishers that have a Crossref membership and use Scholastica’s OA publishing platform at no additional cost.

How the new Crossref DOI registration automation works

Setting up the new Crossref DOI registration automation is easy. Publishers using Scholastica’s OA publishing platform that are already Crossref members and have been issued a DOI prefix should just navigate to their journal “Publishing Settings” page > scroll down to “Manage Integrations” > click “Setup” beside the Crossref integration option > input their Crossref username, password, and prefix > and click save to initiate automated content registration.

Note: Publishers that are not yet Crossref members must first apply to join Crossref and get a DOI prefix before taking the above steps. Crossref provides a detailed overview of how to apply on their website.

Once the Crossref DOI registration automation is set up through Scholastica, journals no longer have to worry about any technical or manual content registration steps. Scholastica will automatically register DOIs for all new articles and directly deposit core machine-readable metadata into Crossref.

Benefits of registering DOIs through Crossref

Crossref content registration offers many benefits for journal publishers and the wider scholarly community. Registering DOIs and metadata for all journal articles ensures that even if the web address or the location of an article changes, or if there are authors circulating different versions of the article online, readers and discovery services will always be able to find the official published version from the article DOI. In addition to creating unique identifiers for journal articles, Crossref registration makes it easier for articles to be discovered online.

“Registering rich metadata with Crossref is the best way for publishers to let the world know their content exists and can be linked to, found, cited, assessed, and ultimately used,” explained Crossref communications coordinator Rosa Clark. “We’re happy that Scholastica will start to automate this service, which will make participation much easier for many of our members.”

Crossref has a global network of over 13,000 members and offers tools and services to help people around the world find and engage with member research outputs.

Supporting sustainable OA publishing and Plan S compliance

The new Crossref DOI registration automation is part of Scholastica’s ongoing efforts to ensure that it is easy and affordable for all of the journals that use our OA publishing platform to meet core journal standards and to comply with Plan S. To learn more about how Scholastica is supporting sustainable OA publishing and helping journals fulfill the Plan S implementation guidelines, visit our Product Roadmap: Plan S, Core Open Access Publishing Standards & Scholastica.

We hope you find this new feature useful! As always, if you have any questions don’t hesitate to contact us we’re here to help!