Is the AOP version of the article definitive? |
What is a Digital Object Identifier? |
What do the numbers in the DOI signify? |
Can I use the DOI in a reference citation? |
How can I use a DOI to find a paper? |
What is the official publication date? |
Must I subscribe to the journal in order to read AOP articles? |
Is the AOP version of the article definitive?
Yes. Different publishers have different policies and some journals publish
unedited or partly edited versions of articles on their web sites, before publishing them
in print. NPG’s policy, however, is to publish online only the final version of the paper,
exactly as it will be published in the printed edition. The paper is thus complete in
every respect except that instead of having a volume/issue/page number, it has a DOI (Digital Object Identifier). This means that the paper can be referenced as soon as it appears on the AOP site by using the DOI.
What is a Digital Object Identifier?
A digital object identifier (DOI) is an international, public,
“persistent identifier of intellectual property entities” in the form of a
combination of numbers and letters. For NPG content the DOI is assigned to an
item of editorial content, providing a unique and persistent identifier for that
item. The DOI system is administered by the International
DOI Foundation, a not-for-profit organization. CrossRef,
a not-for-profit organization, makes the DOI a reference linking standard and enables
cross-publisher linking. It also maintains the lookup system for DOIs. NPG is a founding,
and board, member of CrossRef.
What do the numbers in the DOI signify?
The DOI has two components, a prefix (before the slash) and a suffix
(after the slash). The prefix is a DOI resolver server identifier (10) and a unique
identifier assigned to the publisher-for example, the identifier for NPG is 1038 and
the entire DOI prefix for an article published by NPG is 10.1038. The suffix is an
arbitrary number provided by the publisher; it can be composed of numbers and/or
letters and does not necessarily have any systematic significance. Each DOI is
registered in a central resolution database that associates it with one or more
corresponding web locations (URLs). For example, the doi:10.1038/sj.onc.1300015
connects to http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/sj.onc.1300015.
Can I use the DOI in a reference citation?
Yes. Instead of giving the volume and page number, you can give the
paper’s DOI at the end of the citation. For example, Oncogene papers should be cited in
the form;
Author(s) Oncogene advance online publication, day month
year (DOI 10.1038/sj.onc.XXXXXXX).
After print publication, you should give the DOI as well as the print
citation to enable readers to find the paper in print as well as online. For example;
Author(s) (Year) Article Oncogene volume, page(s); advance
online publication, day month year (DOI 10.1038/sj.onc.XXXXXXX).
How can I use a DOI to find a paper?
There are two ways to use a DOI to find a paper:
- DOIs from other articles can be embedded into the linking coding of an article’s
reference section. In NPG journals these appear as “|Article|” in the reference
sections. When |Article| is clicked upon it opens another browser window leading
to the entrance page (often the abstract) for another article. Depending on the
source of the article, this page can be on the NPG site or the site of another
publisher. This service is enabled by CrossRef.
- A DOI can be inserted directly into the browser’s location bar. For example,
for the doi:10.1038/sj.onc.1300015, typing http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/sj.onc.1300015
brings up the entrance page of the article.
What is the official publication date?
Many journals, including most abstracting and indexing services
(including Medline and ISI), cite the print date as the publication date. This
is an evolving standard, however, and publishers are increasingly stating both
the ‘online publication date’ and the ‘print publication date’. NPG will continue
to publish both dates for our own papers, and we hope that the scientific communities
and abstracting and indexing services will recognize these dates. We will endeavour
to include both the online publication date and the usual print citation in reference
lists of NPG papers, where a paper has been published online before being published in
print. Given the utility of the DOI in locating an online publication in the future,
we encourage you to use DOIs in your reference citations (see
reference citation?“).
For legal purposes (for example, establishing intellectual property rights), we assume
that online publication constitutes public disclosure. But this is for the courts to
decide; NPG’s role as a publisher is to provide clear documentation of the publication
history, both online and in print.
Must I subscribe to the journal in order to read AOP articles?
Yes. AOP papers are the same as those in the print issues: while abstracts
are freely available on any NPG journal’s web site, access to the full-text article requires
a paid subscription or a site license.
Does Medline use DOIs?
Medline currently captures DOIs with online publication dates in its
records and is developing an enhanced level of support for the DOI system.
Does The Institute for Scientific Information use DOIs?
ISI (Institute for Scientific Information) currently captures DOIs in
its records at the same time as the volume/issue/page number. Therefore, ISI is not using
the DOI to capture information before print publication, but rather as an additional
piece of metadata.
How does AOP affect the calculation of impact factors?
Impact factors are calculated by ISI. At present, ISI bases its
calculations on the date of print publication alone, so until or unless ISI changes
its policy, AOP has no effect on impact factors.
explanation of how impact factors are calculated.
What are the page numbers that appear in PDFs of AOP papers?
For convenience, the PDF version of every AOP article is given a temporary
pagination, beginning with page 1. This is unrelated to the final pagination in the
printed article.