CrossRef is a not-for-profit membership organization that provides a central infrastructure for registering and maintaining persistent identifiers, called Digital Object Identifiers (DOIs), for scholarly content, such as journal articles, conference proceedings, and monographs. The goal of CrossRef is to make it easier for researchers, publishers, and libraries to find, cite, link, and assess the scholarly content they need.
For example, a publisher of a scholarly journal can use CrossRef to register DOIs for the articles in the journal. The DOIs can be used to create permanent links to the articles, even if the articles are moved to a new location on the web. Researchers can use the DOIs to cite the articles in their own research, and libraries can use the DOIs to manage their collections of scholarly content.
CrossRef also provides a range of services that support the discovery and use of scholarly content, such as the CrossRef Metadata Search, which allows users to search for articles based on their metadata, such as title, author, and publication date.
Libraries can use the CrossRef Metadata Search to discover new content, such as journal articles and conference proceedings, that are relevant to their collections. They can also use the DOIs registered with CrossRef to link to the full-text of articles, ensuring that patrons have access to the most up-to-date and accurate information.
Overall, CrossRef plays an important role in the scholarly publishing ecosystem, helping to ensure the long-term accessibility, discoverability, and interoperability of scholarly content.
