Why do I have multiple accounts?
Each DataCite Canada Consortium member has one consortium organization account and one or more repository accounts.
- Consortium organization account: Used to manage your repository account(s), including updating repository information and assigning prefixes.
- Repository account(s): Used to create, update, and manage your DOIs. Each consortium organization can have one or more repository accounts.
Your consortium organization account and repository account(s) have unique account IDs. The repository account ID will start with the consortium organization account ID, followed by a period and an identifier for the repository containing uppercase letters and numbers. For example:
- ABC - consortium organization account ID
- ABC.REPO1 - repository account ID
Are test accounts available?
All DataCite Canada Consortium members have access to test accounts, which can be accessed on https://doi.test.datacite.org/. Please note that DOIs and prefixes created in the test system are not real, do not resolve, and cannot be transferred to a production account.
Your consortium organization test account ID will be the same as your main consortium organization account ID, although your repository account IDs may differ. If you need assistance accessing your test accounts, please email datacite@crkn.ca.
Which account do I need to use to register DOIs?
You will need to log into your repository account (e.g. ABC.REPO1) to register DOIs. If you are using one of the DataCite APIs or a repository software integration, you will also need to use your repository account credentials.
How do I reset the password(s) for my account(s)?
Navigate to https://doi.datacite.org/reset, enter the Account ID and click Send Link. The password reset email will be sent to the System Email on file for your account and will expire in 24 hours. If you do not receive this email or need to change the System Email for your account, please email datacite@crkn.ca.
For more information, see the DataCite documentation: Reset the Fabrica Password
How do I add a prefix to my repository?
If you need to add a new prefix, please email datacite@crkn.ca and we will work with DataCite to add a new prefix to your account.
What should I choose for my DOI suffix?
DataCite can automatically generate a DOI suffix via Fabrica or the APIs. From the DataCite Getting Started documentation:
A DOI suffix must be unique within each prefix. The optimum length of a DOI suffix is 6–10 characters. This is long enough to ensure uniqueness, but short enough to avoid typing or text wrapping errors. The DataCite system will not accept DOIs longer than 255 characters. The easiest and recommended option is to use a randomly generated suffix. The auto-generated DOI strings use a-z, 0-9. They avoid i, l, o as they are easily mixed up with 0, 1. We group the suffix into blocks of 4, separated by a hyphen. You can generate a random suffix in both Fabrica and the API and your DOI will look something like this 10.5438/9te8-5h68. (from https://datacite.org/assets/Getting%20started%20Guide.pdf)
You can also manually specify a DOI suffix. DataCite recommends that you use only lowercase letters (a-z), digits 0-9, and hyphens. If necessary, a DOI suffix can also contain uppercase letters and the characters “._;()/”. DOIs are case sensitive.
For more information, see the following guides to selecting a DOI suffix:
- What characters should I use in the suffix of my DOI? (DataCite Documentation): https://support.datacite.org/docs/what-characters-should-i-use-in-the-suffix-of-my-doi
- DOI Basics - Suffix (DataCite Documentation): https://support.datacite.org/docs/doi-basics#suffix
- Tips for Creating a DOI Suffix (Crossref): https://www.crossref.org/education/member-setup/constructing-your-dois/#00007
- Cool DOI’s (DataCite Blog): https://doi.org/10.5438/55e5-t5c0
- DOIs and matching regular expressions (Crossref Blog): https://www.crossref.org/blog/dois-and-matching-regular-expressions/
Is there a DataCite API integration available for my repository?
There are DataCite integrations available for many repository platforms, including DSpace and OJS. These integrations allow you to automate DOI registration without needing to go through the Fabrica interface. Please refer to DataCite’s list of Service Provider Software Integrations and the List of DataCite Service Providers.
Several repository platforms also have third-party integrations and may not be official DataCite Service Providers. If there is no integration listed above for your repository software, please contact us at datacite@crkn.ca for assistance with identifying and navigating third-party integrations.
What APIs are available for DOI registration?
DataCite has two APIs that can be used to register DOIs: the DataCite REST API and the DataCite MDS API.
- DataCite REST API Guide: https://support.datacite.org/docs/api
- Creating DOIs with the REST API: https://support.datacite.org/docs/api-create-dois
- Updating Metadata with the REST API: https://support.datacite.org/docs/updating-metadata-with-the-rest-api
- DataCite MDS API Guide: https://support.datacite.org/docs/mds-api-guide
Both the REST API and the MDS API require authentication to register DOIs. You can perform sample queries with the APIs here: https://support.datacite.org/reference
What APIs are available to retrieve information about DOIs?
The DataCite REST API may be used to retrieve information about existing DOIs. This functionality does not require authentication.
The DataCite GraphQL API can be used to retrieve information about the PID Graph—including DataCite DOIs, Crossref DOIs, Researchers (ORCID IDs), Organizations (ROR IDs), and Funders (Crossref Funder IDs). The DataCite GraphQL API does not require authentication.
The DataCite Event Data service can be used to retrieve information about relations between DOIs (and between DOIs and URLs), as well as usage statistics that are sent to DataCite. Event Data does not require authentication.
- DataCite REST API Guide: https://support.datacite.org/docs/api
- DataCite GraphQL API Guide: https://support.datacite.org/docs/datacite-graphql-api-guide
- GraphQL API endpoint: https://api.datacite.org/graphql
- DataCite Event Data API: https://support.datacite.org/docs/eventdata-guide
Can I delete a DOI? How should I manage DOIs for deleted records?
Because DOIs are intended to be persistent, they cannot be deleted. To update a DOI for a deleted item:
- Change the DOI state from “findable” to “registered”. With this change, the DOI will no longer be indexed in DataCite search. However, it will remain registered in the global handle system, and the DOI will still resolve. For more information, see DataCite’s documentation on DOI States: https://support.datacite.org/docs/doi-states.
- Update the URL to a tombstone page. For more information, see DataCite’s Best Practices for Tombstone Pages: https://support.datacite.org/docs/tombstone-pages.
Where can I find more information on the DataCite Metadata Schema?
The latest version of the DataCite Metadata Schema can be found here: https://schema.datacite.org/.
As a quick reference, the required, recommended, and optional properties are listed in DataCite’s Metadata Quality documentation: https://support.datacite.org/docs/metadata-quality
How should I create DOIs for bilingual publications or datasets?
If a resource is published in more than one language, the recommendation is to assign a separate DOI for each.
You can then add Related Identifiers to the metadata to link the two objects. The DataCite Metadata Schema does not have a specific relationType for translations. You may use “IsVariantFormOf” and “IsOriginalFormOf”, or “IsDerivedFrom” and “IsSourceOf”. For the full list of relationTypes, see Appendix 1 (Controlled List Definitions) in the DataCite Metadata Schema documentation (PDF version).
How do DOIs improve discoverability for my repository?
DataCite metadata is publicly available and is exposed via the DataCite REST API and the OAI-PMH service. This metadata is indexed by international aggregators including Google Dataset Search, OpenAIRE, and Clarivate’s Data Citation Index.