[open-bibliography] DOIs and openbiblio

Wed Feb 2 09:24:58 UTC 2011

Hello,

Isabel Holroyd of biab online asked me how the DOI system[1] should be
assessed in the light of the Principles on Open Bibliographic Data or
Open Knowledge in general.

In my opinion, this question isn't that easy to answer because on one
side DOIs aren't open in the sense that not anybody can provide DOIs
but on the other side they are open in the sense that anybody can use,
aggregate and disseminate already published DOIs. And it is this open
use and reuse of bibliographic data the openbiblio principles adress.
So, I believe, you can't deduce a recommendation to use or not use
DOIs from the principles. As I am not that familiar with the DOI
system, there might be other problems with it - e.g. with long-term
availibility of a free resolving mechanism or other.

What do you think?

All the best
Adrian

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_object_identifier