RDIM Terminology Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

A Digital Object Identifier or DOI is a unique, persistent identifying number for a document published online. It appears on a document or in a bibliographic citation as an alphanumeric string of characters that links to the original digital object. The publisher assigns a DOI when a publication is made available electronically.

DOIs are not essential but are considered best practice for data citation.