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Crossref DOIs for a journal: from membership to OJS settings

For a journal to register DOIs under its own name it needs a Crossref membership, good metadata and a few settings in OJS. This guide goes through those steps in order.

Published: ·Last updated: ·Silsile Press

What is a DOI and what does Crossref do?

A DOI (Digital Object Identifier) points to a publication permanently, even when its web address changes. For academic journals and books, DOIs are mostly registered through Crossref. A DOI has two parts: the prefix Crossref assigns to the publisher (10.xxxxx) and a suffix the publisher chooses.

The value of a DOI is not only the link. The references, authors' ORCID iDs, institutions' ROR IDs, abstract, keywords and licence sent with the deposit are what let indexes and citation databases match the article correctly. A DOI registered with thin metadata still resolves, but the article falls behind in search and citation counts.

Whose name are DOIs registered under?

In Crossref a DOI belongs to the member whose prefix it uses, so we recommend that journals register DOIs through the publisher's own membership and prefix. If the service provider changes, the DOIs and metadata stay with the publisher.

A journal on a national or shared platform that already registers DOIs for it does not need a separate membership. In Türkiye, DergiPark provides free DOIs to journals that meet its criteria under a Crossref sponsorship agreement; a journal that leaves DergiPark for its own OJS site loses that service, keeps its existing DOIs, and needs another route for new content. Crossref sponsorship is also open to small publishers more generally: the sponsor pays membership and registration fees on behalf of the members it supports. DOIs from open repositories such as Zenodo keep the repository's prefix and fall outside Crossref's reference linking and citation matching. That route suits research data and preprints; we do not recommend it for journal articles.

How do you apply, and what are the fees?

The application is made through the form on Crossref's website, which asks for the publisher's name, contact details and annual publishing revenue. Once approved, the publisher receives a prefix and account credentials.

Fees have two parts: an annual membership fee and a content fee for each registered record. The membership tier is set by the organisation's publishing revenue or publishing expenses, whichever is higher; for institutional journals with little revenue, staff, hosting and outsourcing costs can decide the tier. From 1 January 2027, registering works published more than two full years earlier is free, so retrospective DOIs for back issues add no Crossref fees. Current amounts are in the table on our DOI and Crossref page. Fees are paid by the publisher directly to Crossref.

What obligations come with membership?

Section 2 of the Crossref membership terms sets these obligations for journals:

  • Assign a DOI to every content item published, not only to selected articles.
  • Deposit metadata before the content goes online or as soon as reasonably practical afterwards.
  • Do not register new DOIs under your own prefix for content that already has DOIs from a previous publisher; work with the previous publisher or Crossref to update those records. This matters directly for journals leaving DergiPark.
  • Display the DOI on the article page following Crossref's display guidelines, as https://doi.org/10.xxxxx/... and as a clickable link.
  • Add DOIs to the citations in reference lists wherever the cited work has one.
  • Keep metadata and URLs up to date and correct errors promptly; records must be updated when a site moves or its address structure changes.
  • Make every DOI resolve continuously to a landing page showing the article's bibliographic details and DOI.
  • Use best efforts to arrange third-party archiving so the content stays available; for journals on OJS, the PKP Preservation Network serves this purpose.

How are DOIs set up in OJS 3.4 and 3.5?

OJS 3.4 brought DOI management into one place, the DOIs tab under Settings > Distribution. First, DOI assignment is enabled and the items that receive DOIs are chosen: articles, issues and galleys. Then the prefix from Crossref is entered. The same screen sets when automatic assignment happens (at copyediting, at publication, or never) and the DOI format; the default format is recommended unless there is a specific need.

For registration, Crossref is selected as the agency in the Registration section of the same tab, which requires the Crossref Manager plugin to be enabled. After the Crossref credentials are entered, automatic deposit can be switched on so that each published article's DOI is sent to Crossref without further steps.

The DOIs page in the sidebar shows the state of each record. On the Articles, Issues and Galleys tabs, the Needs DOI and DOI Assigned filters find missing DOIs, and Bulk Actions > Assign DOIs assigns them in one go. Registration is tracked with the Unregistered, Submitted, Registered, Has Error and Needs Sync filters, and unregistered items are sent with Deposit DOIs or Deposit All. Articles whose metadata changes after deposit move to Needs Sync and must be deposited again.

In short, the steps are as follows.

  1. Enable DOI assignment under Settings > Distribution > DOIs and choose articles, issues and galleys.
  2. Enter the prefix from Crossref and set when DOIs are assigned and their format.
  3. Enable the Crossref Manager plugin and enter the Crossref credentials in the Registration section.
  4. Switch on automatic deposit, or send records in bulk with Deposit DOIs on the DOIs page.
  5. Check records regularly with the Needs Sync and Has Error filters.

What about OJS 3.3 and earlier?

In OJS 3.3 and earlier, the same work is done separately with the DOI plugin and the Crossref XML export plugin. OJS 3.3 is a long-term support (LTS) release that PKP says will be supported until at least 1 January 2027; 3.2 and earlier no longer receive updates. Because 3.3 support is time-limited, it makes sense to plan DOI work together with an upgrade to 3.5.

What should be monitored after registration?

Crossref publishes a public participation report for every member, showing how complete the records are for references, abstracts, ORCID iDs, affiliation IDs, funding and licences. For editors, it is the most direct measure of where metadata falls short.

The problems we see most often are DOIs not shown on the article page, references not sent to Crossref, and record URLs left unchanged after a site move. The first two are fixed with the right settings in OJS; the third has to be part of the migration plan.

Silsile prepares Crossref membership applications, configures DOIs in OJS and carries out deposits on the publisher's behalf. The scope of the service is described on the DOI and Crossref page.

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