Procedures for Digital Object Identifiers

1. A DOI is a registered, persistent, and globally unique digital identifier for any kind of object physical, digital or abstract.
2. As an “actionable link” a DOI will always lead to the object or document to which it is assigned as long as you maintain the most current metadata with the DOI registry.
   1. At DOT, we follow industry best practices, and our DOIs lead to the object landing page which describes the item and contains a download link, rather than triggering an automatic file download. This way, if the report or dataset is pulled down for any reason, we can provide users an explanation of why the item is gone, rather than a frustrating 404 message.
3. As an actionable link, you can think of a DOI as a permanently assigned "redirect."
   1. So even if your underlying and relative webpage addresses change, the DOI remains the same. That means you don’t have to worry about your links in PDFs and other text document will go out of date.
4. DOIs are ISO 26324 compliant: https://www.iso.org/standard/43506.html

How are DOIs Built?

• A DOI name is made of three parts:
  • 1. Directory indicator: https://doi.org/
  • 2. Unique Registrant code: 10.21949/
  • 3. Unique Numerical suffix: 1398953
• Put it all together for: https://doi.org/10.21949/1398953 (Which takes you to: https://rosap.ntl.bts.gov/)

For more information on DOIs you can visit https://www.doi.org/

1. Are you used to publishing linking to publications in your Web pages? Replace that local relative link with an actionable DOI URL and you NEVER have to update the HTML pages again, even if the file location changes, or you need to replace the old version with an update.
2. DOIs can be tracked across the Internet. When combined with a “Recommended Citation,” DOIs can help you track re use statistics for measuring ROI or technology transfer outcomes.

How are DOIs being used in DOT Publications?

• The Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS) has begun assigning DOIs and Recommended Citations to all new publications.
• BTS plans to track publication citation and re-use over time, to help measure impact.

Example: Transportation Statistics Annual Report 2019: The State of Statistics

• Recommended citation: U.S. Department of Transportation, Bureau of Transportation Statistics. Transportation Statistics Annual Report 2019: The State of Statistics. (Washington, DC: 2019). https://doi.org/10.21949/1502602
  • 
• Recommended Citation appears in Front Matter of report.
  • 
• Recommended Citation could also appear in Box 12A of the Report Documentation Page: Distribution Availability Statement.
• DOI is trackable. BTS will be able to measure citations and re use of TSAR 2019 over time.
• DOI leads to landing page for TSAR 2019, so public is always lead to the most current version.

How Could DOIs be used on DOT Webpages?

• BTS plans to make Web page maintenance more efficient.
• BTS Webpages now use DOIs instead of relative URLs. This reduces HTML maintenance.
  • If we have to change the “base URL” for a report as it is recorded in the DOI metadata, we can do that 1 time at DataCite. But we never have to change our HTML pages, no matter how many pages the DOI link appear on.