URLDOI

URLDOI is a term occasionally used in library and information science discussions to describe the relationship between a URL and a Digital Object Identifier (DOI). It is not an official standard or widely adopted specification, but it appears in conversations about persistent linking and scholarly metadata as a way to conceptualize how URLs and DOIs can work together to improve access and citation stability.

In theory, a URLDOI approach would involve representing a DOI as a resolvable URL and linking that URL to the document’s current location. A DOI can be accessed through a resolver such as https://doi.org/10.xxxx/yyy, which redirects to the resource’s current URL. A URLDOI mapping or registry could be used in metadata records, repositories, or content management systems to allow users and machines to discover the DOI from a given URL and to locate the authoritative identifier for citation and metadata purposes.

Benefits of adopting URLDOI concepts include improved citation persistence, better interoperability across publishers and repositories, and alignment with established DOI practice. Potential challenges include the lack of a formal, universally accepted URLDOI specification, the possibility of confusion between DOI URLs and other link forms, privacy concerns with resolver services, and the need for broad adoption within metadata schemas used by Crossref, DataCite, and related systems.

Current practical use generally relies on converting DOIs into resolvable URLs for access and citation; URLDOI remains a descriptive notion rather than a formal standard. See also DOI, DOI resolver, persistent identifier, and Crossref.