OAI identifiers do not replace DOIs, but complement them. According to the DOI handbook “Uniqueness (specification by a DOI name of one and only one referent) is enforced by the DOI system. It is desirable that two DOI names should not be assigned to the same thing.” A DOI typically identifies the canonical final version of record (VoR) of a paper. An OAI Identifier a metadata record in a repository. As there often exist multiple copies of a paper across repositories, it is, in fact, desirable that these records identified using an OAI Identifier are linked to a single DOI.

As CORE aggregates data from repositories from across the globe, it is aware of OAI Identifiers for each repository record across this network. This means that repositories do not need to do anything to register their OAI identifiers to allow the OAI resolver to work on their records apart from making sure that they expose their metadata using OAI-PMH, which is a widely supported functionality.

However, we recommend that repositories register for the CORE Repository Dashboard to check that their metadata records are indexed correctly in their entirety. This is an extremely low barrier to adoption with the resolver effectively working out-of-the-box.

CORE can resolve any OAI identifier to either a metadata page of the record in CORE or route it directly to the repository page. To route redirection directly to the repository, it is necessary to provide mapping in the CORE Repository page between the OAI prefix of a repository and the currently used URL for the repository metadata record display page/splash. The redirection will change instantly.

Find out more in our Open Repositories 2022 article.