Use of Digital Object Identifiers (doi)

This is a proposal for integration, efficiency, stability and scalability.

Issue

Current database ressources don't have an object & gorup of objects identification system that is stable, publicly available and scalable. This results in problems for the integration/communication between databases and between databases and tools.

Proposed solution

It is proposed to attribute to all fields and all files of the databases unique identifiers. These are stored in tables containing in regard to the doi the physical location of the information. The tables are publicly accessible. New paper collections can be added by adding new tables to those existing ones. To pull data from the databases a tool addresses the request through the tables. An automated system is automatically updating of the tables.

Pro

1. New classification schemas are possible (various clusterings of the individuals stored in the databases)
2. The current structure of the databases stays as is (no modification involved)
3. The system can grow with the interconnexion of new databases and addition of new tools
4. Simplicity of implementation
5. No hardwiring of DB-DB DB-tools connexions
6. Tools are kept independent from content
7. Simpler to keep track of changes in the databases

Con

1. Unknown to this writer.

Comments

• Do you prefer DOIs of the International DOI Foundation (IDF) (cf. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_object_identifier), or do you use the term digital object identifier in a more general meening? If you want to go an own way, one should use another term because of in the world of libraries and archives DOI is the specific system of the IDF. - FriederSchmidt

-- VladAtanasiu - 20 Oct 2006