Mon 24 Oct 2005
In following up on a researcher request for supplemental material posting on a project web site in coordination with a published journal article, we’ve discussed establishing a simplified path such as (http://pal.lternet.edu/suppl) that can be created as a physical location initially and shifted to a virtual pointer as our web structure matures. The idea is to provide directories tied then to the related database (in this case the bibliographic database with its attendant unique identifier (or LTER contribution#, ie http://pal.lternet.edu/suppl/biblio279)
At the following link
(http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/601265/authorinstructions),
the use of the Digital Object Identifier is summarized as follows:
“The digital object identifier (DOI) may be used to cite and link to electronic documents. The DOI consists of a unique alpha-numeric character string which is assigned to a document by the publisher upon the initial electronic publication. The assigned DOI never changes. Therefore, it is an ideal medium for citing a document, particularly ?Articles in press? because they have not yet received their full bibliographic information. The correct format for citing a DOI is shown as follows (example taken from a document in the journal Physics Letters B): doi:10.1016/j.physletb.2003.10.071″
“When you use the DOI to create URL hyperlinks to documents on the web, they are guaranteed never to change. ”
The idea of ‘guaranteed never to change’ brings forward the question of the length of ‘forever’ in contemporary organizational life or in internet timeframes and prompts two thoughts: 1) the lternet virtual pointer has an advantage of stability in addition to the original strengths of network identity and geographic indendence; 2) it might be worthwhile inquiring at the sio library about their insights or plan with respect to this type request.
One Response to “DOI for posting supplemental materials”
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October 25th, 2005 at 4:36 pm
Charleen and I did some checking on the supplementary material policy of a few journals. What we found is that J. of Geophysical Research, Oceans, J. of Climate, and Deep Sea Research all offer to host supplementary electronic material. However, there are a few questions this solution raises: Who holds the copyright on the supplementary materials after they are submitted to the journal? Also, to what extent are these supplementary materials available to the public? Is a user who has no access to the journal articles online going to have access to the supplementary materials? We’ll be looking into these issue in the next few days.