One document matched: draft-iab-doi-03.txt
Differences from draft-iab-doi-02.txt
Network Working Group J. Levine
Internet-Draft Taughannock Networks
Intended status: Informational May 28, 2015
Expires: November 29, 2015
Assigning Digital Object Identifiers to RFCs
draft-iab-doi-03
Abstract
The Digital Object Identifier (DOI) is a widely used system that
assigns unique identifiers to digital documents that can be queried
and managed in a consistent fashion. We describe the way that DOIs
are assigned to past and future RFCs.
Status of This Memo
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This Internet-Draft will expire on November 29, 2015.
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Table of Contents
1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
2. Structure and resolution of DOIs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
3. DOIs for RFCs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
4. The process of assigning DOIs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
4.1. Getting a DOI prefix . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
4.2. Retroactively assigning DOIs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
4.3. Assigning DOIs to new RFCs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
4.4. Use of DOIs in RFCs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
5. Informative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Appendix A. Change Log . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
A.1. Changes from -03 to -04 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
A.2. Changes from -02 to -03 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
A.3. Changes from -01 to -02 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
A.4. Changes from -00 to -01 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Author's Address . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
1. Introduction
The Digital Object Identifier (DOI) is a widely used system that
assigns unique identifiers to digital documents that can be queried
and managed in a consistent fashion. The structure of DOIs is
defined by ISO 26324:2012 [ISO-DOI] and is implemented by a group of
registration agencies coordinated by the International DOI
Foundation.
Each DOI is associated with bibliographic metadata about the object,
including one or more URIs where the object can be found. The DOI
system also provides many features not relevant to RFCs, such as the
ability to update the metadata after the DOI is assigned, and for
organizations to maintain local caches of metadata, e.g., a
university or corporate library that tracks its copies of purchased
documents so subsequent users don't buy them again.
The wide use of DOIs suggests that even though RFCs can be downloaded
directly from the IETF for free, organizations that use DOIs can have
trouble locating documents that don't have DOIs. DOIs with metadata
that points to the existing free online RFCs would make RFCs easier
to find and use. Some scholarly publishers accept DOIs as references
in published documents, and some versions of bibtex can automatically
retrieve the bibliographic data for a DOI and format it. Hence DOIs
would make RFCs easier to cite.
The benefits of DOIs apply equally to documents from all of the RFC
submission streams, so all RFCs are assigned DOIs.
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2. Structure and resolution of DOIs
DOIs are an application of the handle system defined by RFCs
[RFC3650], [RFC3651], and [RFC3652]. A DOI for an RFC might be
10.17487/rfc1149
The first part of a DOI is the number 10, which means a DOI within
the handle system, a dot, and a unique number assigned to a
publisher, in this case 17487. This part is the DOI prefix.
Following that is a slash and a text string assigned by the
publisher, called the DOI suffix.
Since the RFC Editor's series already have numbers, it is
straightforward to use suffixes based on the existing numbers, DOIs
use the familiar series names and numbers, e.g., rfc1149. (DOIs are
case-insensitive.) DOIs are treated as opaque identifiers, so the
reliable way to find the DOI for an RFC is to not to guess, but to
look it up in the RFC index.
Although the handle system has its own protocol described in
[RFC3652], the usual way to look up a DOI is to use web lookup. A
proposed "doi:" URN was never widely implemented, so the standard way
to look up a DOI is to use the public http proxy at
http://dx.doi.org. The sample DOI above could be looked up at:
http://dx.doi.org/10.17487/rfc1149
Whenever a publisher assigns a DOI, it provides the bibliographic
metadata for the object (henceforth called a document, since that is
what they are in this context) to its registration agency which then
makes it available to clients that look up DOIs. The document's
metadata is typically uploaded to the registration agency in XML
using an HTTP based API. Users can retrieve the metadata by fetching
the DOI's URL and using standard HTTP content negotiation to request
application/citeproc+json, application/rdf+xml, or other
bibliographic formats.
Publishers have considerable flexibility as to what resides at the
URI(s) that a DOI refers to. Sometimes it's the document itself,
while for commercial publishers it's typically a page with the
abstract and bibliographic information, and some way to buy the
actual document. Since some RFCs are in multiple formats (e.g.,
Postscript and text), an appropriate URI is that of the RFC Editor's
info page that has the document's abstract and links to the
document(s) in various formats. Hence the URI above when requested
as text/html redirects to:
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https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc1149
More information on the structure and use of DOIs is in the DOI
Handbook [DOI-HB].
3. DOIs for RFCs
With DOIs assigned to each RFC, it is useful to include DOI
information in the XML bibliography as a "seriesInfo" item, so that
rendering engines can display it if desired. Online databases and
indexes that include RFCs should be updated to include the DOI, e.g.,
the ACM Digital Library. (A practical advantage of this is that the
DOI would link directly to the RFC Editor, rather than perhaps to a
copy of an RFC behind a paywall.)
Since RFCs are immutable, existing RFCs still wouldn't mention their
own DOIs within the RFC itself, but putting the DOIs into indexes
would still provide value.
4. The process of assigning DOIs
There are three phases to assigning DOIs to RFCs: getting a DOI
prefix, retroactively assigning DOIs to existing documents, and
updating the publication process to assign DOIs as new RFCs are
published.
4.1. Getting a DOI prefix
There are ten registration agencies [DOI-RA] that assign DOI
prefixes. Most of them serve specialized audiences or limited
geographic areas, but there are a few that handle scholarly and
technical materials. The RFC Editor chose Crossref, an agency widely
used by journal publishers. All registration agencies charge for
DOIs to defray the cost of maintaining the metadata databases. The
prices are fairly low, on the order of $660/year for membership, 15
cents per document deposit fees for a bulk upload of the backfile
(the existing RFCs), and $1/per document to deposit them as they are
published.
The RFC Editor's DOI prefix is 10.17487.
4.2. Retroactively assigning DOIs
Other than paying the deposit fees, assigning DOIs to all of the
existing RFCs was primarily a software problem. We updated the RFC
Production Center's internal database to include a DOI field for each
RFC, changed the schema for the XML index rfc-index.xml to include a
DOI field, and updated the script that creates the index to include
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the DOI for each RFC. A specialized DOI submission script extracted
the metadata for all of the RFCs from the XML index and submitted it
to the registration agency using the agency's online API.
4.3. Assigning DOIs to new RFCs
As RFCs are published, the publication software assigns a DOI to each
new RFC. The submission script extracts the metadata for new RFCs
from the XML index and submits the information for new RFCs to the
registration agency.
4.4. Use of DOIs in RFCs
The DOI agency requests that documents that are assigned DOIs in turn
include DOIs when possible when referring to other organizations'
documents. DOIs can be listed using the existing seriesInfo field in
the xml2rfc reference entity, and authors are requested provide DOIs
for non-RFC documents when possible. The RFC production center might
add missing DOIs when it's easy to do so, e.g., when the same
reference with a DOI has appeared in a prior RFC, or a quick online
search finds the DOI. With DOIs in the xml2rfc reference databases,
DOIs in references from citation libraries can appear in the RFCs
automatically.
The RFC Style Guide will be updated to describe the rules for
including DOIs in the References sections of RFCs.
Since it is usually possible to retrieve the bibliographic
information for a document from its DOI (as bibtex can do, described
above), it might also be worth adding this feature to xml2rfc, so a
reference with only a DOI could be automatically fetched and
expanded.
5. Informative References
[DOI-HB] International DOI Foundation, "DOI Handbook", April 2012,
<http://www.doi.org/hb.html>.
[DOI-RA] International DOI Foundation, "DOI Registration Agencies",
July 2013,
<http://www.doi.org/registration_agencies.html>.
[ISO-DOI] International Organization for Standardization (ISO), "ISO
26324:2012 Information and documentation -- Digital object
identifier system", 2012,
<http://www.iso.org/iso/catalogue_detail?csnumber=43506>.
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[RFC3650] Sun, S., Lannom, L., and B. Boesch, "Handle System
Overview", RFC 3650, November 2003.
[RFC3651] Sun, S., Reilly, S., and L. Lannom, "Handle System
Namespace and Service Definition", RFC 3651, November
2003.
[RFC3652] Sun, S., Reilly, S., Lannom, L., and J. Petrone, "Handle
System Protocol (ver 2.1) Specification", RFC 3652,
November 2003.
Appendix A. Change Log
A.1. Changes from -03 to -04
Make the rest of everything present tense. Fix typos, note that RSE
style guide will include use of DOIs.
A.2. Changes from -02 to -03
Make everything present tense, minor adjustments to reflect reality.
A.3. Changes from -01 to -02
Clarify submission process, multi-document DOIs. Note all streams
treated the same. Remove unused reference.
A.4. Changes from -00 to -01
DOI in the xml, not necessarily in the text
Use of DOI in RFCs section.
Author's Address
John Levine
Taughannock Networks
PO Box 727
Trumansburg, NY 14886
Phone: +1 831 480 2300
Email: standards@taugh.com
URI: http://jl.ly
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