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Open Access Toolkit

Use this guide to learn more about Open Access publications, funding, metrics, etc.

Digital Object Identifiers (DOIs) 


A Digital Object Identifier or DOI is a persistent identifier or handle used to uniquely identify objects.

DOIs are often assigned by publishers and repositories.  They are used to help identify unique items easily and are used in citing data, articles, etc.  Their ease of location contributes to their ease of use / reuse and their usefulness when doing reproducibility studies.

DOIs can also be assigned via the site DOI.org.

Open Researcher and Contributor ID (ORCID IDs)


"ORCID provides a persistent digital identifier that distinguishes you from every other researcher and; through integration in key research workflows such as manuscript and grant submission; supports automated linkages between you and your professional activities ensuring that your work is recognized" (ORCID.ORG)

Used together with unique identifiers of your research output (DOIs) - which can be added to your ORCID - these identifies enable researchers to:

  • Easily track their research outputs.
  • Easily link others to their outputs from a dossier, grant application, blog, etc.
  • Easily locate a specific author with a common name (e.g. a specific John Smith).
  • Easily locate the research outputs of a fellow researcher.
  • Together with DOIs make their research easy to locate via emerging Open Citations initiatives. 
  • Together with DOIs and The Open Annotation movement (that uses tools such as hypothes.is) allow for researchers to read any annotation of their work.

Used together with any open access publication / data, ORCID and DOIs make it easier for your research to be discovered and used.