Digital Object Identifier - DOI: A Digital Object Identifier (DOI) is a system for identifying and exchanging intellectual property in the digital environment. It provides a framework for managing intellectual content, for linking customers with content suppliers, for facilitating electronic commerce, and enabling automated copyright management for all types of media. Using DOIs makes managing intellectual property in a networked environment much easier and more convenient, and allows the construction of automated services and transactions for e-commerce. The DOI consists of a full string of data used to identify an article. This string will include the DOI prefix and DOI suffix
Reference: Digital Object Identifier Foundation
DOI Directory: The DOI Directory, an implementation of the Handle System, is the software used to store DOIs. DOIs are permanent identifiers for digital content. Stored with each DOI in the DOI Directory are multiple pieces of data, currently multiple URLs and email addresses. The DOIs are "resolved" using other web-based DOI software, which redirects users to the respective correlating URLs. DOIs remain constant, no matter how often the underlying URLs must be changed to accommodate new ownership or content reorganization.
Reference: Digital Object Identifier Foundation
DOI Prefix: A four digit number identifying a particular publisher
Reference: Digital Object Identifier Foundation
DOI Suffix: An article identifier assigned by a publisher. This could be a previously assigned article identifier (PII, SICI, etc.)
Reference: Digital Object Identifier Foundation
Extensible Markup Language - XML: The Extensible Markup Language (XML) is the universal format for structured documents and data on the Web.
Reference: World Wide Web Consortium (W3C)
Handle System: The Handle System is a comprehensive system for assigning, managing, and resolving persistent identifiers, known as "handles," for digital objects and other resources on the Internet. Handles can be used as Uniform Resource Names (URNs).
Reference: Corporation for National Research Initiatives
Metadata: Data that provides information about, or documentation of, other data managed within an application or environment. Metadata is also machine understandable information for the web.
Reference: World Wide Web Consortium (W3C)
Registration Agency: An organization that registers article DOI's on behalf of a publisher. CrossRef is the Registration Agency for scientific publishing. The primary (and minimum) role of Registration Agencies is to provide services to Registrants - allocating DOI prefixes, registering DOIs and providing the necessary infrastructure to allow Registrants to declare and maintain metadata and state data.
Reference: Digital Object Identifier Foundation
Uniform Resource Names - URN: A particular scheme which is currently (1991-4) under development by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), which should provide for the resolution using Internet protocols of names which have a greater persistence than that currently associated with Internet host names or organizations (as used in URLs). Uniform Resource Names will be URI schemes that improve on URLs in reliability over time, including authenticity, replication, and high availability.
Reference: World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) and Internet RFC 2141 issued 1997-05