Digital Object Identifiers and BHL

The importance and need for unique, persistent identifiers for reliable access to published literature has become widely accepted, and the literature for the biodiversity informatics community is no exception.  For published works, these generally take the form of Digital Object Identifiers (DOIs). BHL has been consistently assigning CrossRef DOIs to monographic publications for three years. However, the number of items in BHL with DOIs remains relatively small with just over 68,000 assigned to date.  In addition to the remaining monographs, BHL now also has over 140,000 articles identified, primarily via BioStor. The current CrossRef pricing model does not scale for the full and growing BHL corpus.  Which is why…

We need your input! 

BHL is conducting a survey to learn more about what you would like out of DOIs in BHL and to gather recommendations for cost-effective solutions for meeting those needs.

This survey was initiated at the 2014 TDWG Conference in Jönköping, Sweden, October 26 – November 1, 2014 where the survey was distributed as part of a poster session http://www.pinterest.com/pin/42925002674475008/ on DOIs in BHL.

DOIs in BHL. Poster from 2014 TDWG Conference. http://www.pinterest.com/pin/42925002674475008/.

Missed the poster, or weren’t able to attend TDWG this year?  No problem!  The survey is also available online: http://surveymonkey.com/s/BHLDOIs.  Your input will help guide our strategy for assigning DOIs to the literature in BHL. We hope you’ll take a few minutes to provide your thoughts and recommendations.

Thank you in advance for your time!