GCRI · Registry
Publication registrations
A publication registration attaches a persistent identifier and a structured description to a work so that it can be found, cited and linked for as long as the record lasts. The identifier only works if the metadata behind it is accurate and the link still resolves. This page sets out how registration works through agencies such as Crossref and DataCite, what makes registration metadata trustworthy, and where registrations fail in ways that ripple into citation, funding and assessment.
Publication registrations on the record.
Publication registrations: how the risk develops.
Publication metadata and identifiers. The dossier below sets out how the risk develops, what is measured, where the data come from, how it is modelled and who decides.
Identifier without a target
A DOI resolves to a landing page that has moved, lapsed or been replaced. The identifier persists while the thing it named becomes unreachable, and every citation that uses it now leads nowhere useful.
Duplicate registrations
The same work is registered twice, by publisher and repository, or as preprint and article without a relation between them. Citations and usage split across identifiers, and one work appears to be two.
Metadata drift
Titles, authors, affiliations or funding are corrected on the landing page but not in the registered metadata, or the reverse. Downstream indexes copy whichever state they harvested, and the record diverges across systems.
Assessment inherits the errors
Funders, institutions and rankings count outputs from registration metadata. Missing contributor identifiers, unresolved affiliations and absent award identifiers credit work to the wrong people, the wrong organisation or to no funder at all.
Record ledger.
The screen a team would use to follow this subject: its measures, states and decisions. Names are examples and values are illustrative.
Record ledger
Publication registrations · Registry · Ledger head 9810659
- Records registered5110
- Complete provenance, % of records95Normal
- Open corrections7Watch
- Rights holds3Info
Latest records
| NX-R-01836 | Programme status | v3 | 5638543 | Registered |
| NX-P-72194 | Publication | v1 | 9858170 | Registered |
| NX-E-42250 | Evidence record | v3 | 5604753 | Correction open |
| NX-C-37438 | Participation | v1 | 6211607 | Rights hold |
Version history
- v1NEWRegistered with sources
- v2FIXUnit corrected, reason recorded
- v3OPENCorrection requested
Registrations make outputs from every domain findable.
- WaterIn practiceDatasets get DOIs through DataCite.What a reader can checkPersistent identifier
- HealthIn practiceStudy protocols are registered before results.What a reader can checkRegistration date
- BiodiversityIn practiceBiodiversity data are published through GBIF with DOIs.What a reader can checkDataset citation
Registrations feed the citation records of Reports. DOIs (ISO 26324), ORCID and ROR identify outputs, people and organisations; NS-2 sets the citation format in the proposed Nexus Standards.
- Missing identifiers for programme outputs.
- Corrections to registration metadata.
How publication registrations is modelled, measured and tested.
The model, its assumptions, its data and its uncertainty, in the form a scientist or engineer would check. Structures follow published methods. The values drawn are illustrative, not findings.
Datasets and provenance
The data classes behind publication registrations and what is recorded about each before it is used.
| Data class | Provenance recorded | Resolution stated | Licence checked |
|---|---|---|---|
| Satellite imagery, optical and radar | sensor, processing level, acquisition date | pixel size and revisit | per scene |
| Reanalysis and climate model output | model, experiment, member, version | grid and time step | per release |
| In-situ sensors and gauges | station, instrument, calibration record | point and sampling rate | per network |
| Population and asset exposure | method, vintage, input sources | cell size and unit | per release |
| Boundaries and reference geography | producer, edition, date | scale | per edition |
- Lineage
- W3C PROV record from source to figure
- Principles
- FAIR: findable, accessible, interoperable, reusable
- Gaps
- shown as missing, never filled silently
What is measured, and how well.
Each indicator carries its unit, its cadence, the kind of source behind it and the evidence label a value would carry. No values are shown: a programme supplies them under its own authority.
| Indicator | Unit | Cadence | Source type | Label |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Registered outputs with a persistent identifier | share of outputs | monthly | Registration agency metadata | REPORTED |
| Identifier resolution success | share of resolution attempts | weekly | Resolver probes | OBSERVED |
| Metadata completeness | share of recommended fields populated | monthly | Agency participation reports | OBSERVED |
| Contributors with an ORCID iD | share of contributors | monthly | Registration metadata | OBSERVED |
| Affiliations with a ROR ID | share of affiliations | monthly | Registration metadata | OBSERVED |
| Outputs with funder and award identifiers | share of funded outputs | monthly | Registration metadata | OBSERVED |
| Suspected duplicate registrations | count | quarterly | Title and contributor matching | ESTIMATED |
| Agreement between landing page and metadata | share of sampled records | quarterly | Sampled comparison | OBSERVED |
Where the evidence comes from.
Named public datasets and institutional records, each with its licence class. Sources by agreement are used only under their terms and never republished.
| Source | What it gives | Licence class |
|---|---|---|
| Crossref metadata | DOI metadata for journal articles, books, preprints, conference papers, grants and more | Open metadata, no restrictions on reuse |
| DataCite metadata | DOI metadata for datasets, software, instruments and other research outputs | CC0 |
| ORCID registry | Contributor identifiers and the works, affiliations and awards linked to them | CC0 for the public data file |
| ROR (Research Organization Registry) | Affiliation identifiers for the organisations named in registrations | CC0 |
| ISSN Portal | Identifiers and key titles for serial publications | Basic records open; full records by subscription from the ISSN International Centre |
| OpenAlex | An open index of works, authors, institutions and venues built from registration and other metadata | CC0 |
| Crossref Participation Reports | Field-level metadata completeness for each member organisation | Open |
Who decides, and what the evidence serves.
Registry prepares evidence. The decisions below are taken by the authorities named, under their own rules, and never by the platform.
| Who decides | The question | Evidence this page serves |
|---|---|---|
| Publishers and repository managers | Which metadata to deposit, and how to fix incomplete or duplicated registrations | Completeness against the agency schema, resolution checks and suspected duplicates |
| Institutional librarians | Which outputs to report for the institution and how to attribute them | Contributor and affiliation identifiers in the registered metadata |
| Funders | Which outputs to attribute to an award in reporting and evaluation | Funder and award identifiers in registrations, checked against the award record |
| Registration agencies | How to support members whose deposits fall short of schema or resolution requirements | Field-level completeness and resolution records for the member’s identifiers |
Outputs this topic produces
- Registration views showing identifier, registration agency, metadata fields and resolution state
- Metadata completeness checks against the agency schema before deposit
- Relation maps linking preprints, versions of record, datasets and software
- Lists of suspected duplicate registrations for steward review
What experts ask about registrations.
- Which metadata fields are needed for discovery, and which for verification?
- How should versions, translations and derived works relate to one another?
- How are authors, institutions and funders identified unambiguously?
- What should an identifier resolve to after a work is withdrawn?
- How can registration status avoid being read as a quality judgement?
How persistent identifiers work.
Web addresses break when sites are reorganised. Persistent identifier systems separate a work’s identity from its location: a registration agency issues an identifier, the publisher maintains the metadata and the current location, and a resolver redirects readers. Digital Object Identifiers are the familiar example for publications and datasets, with parallel open identifiers for researchers and research organisations.
Registration also creates relationships. A record can state that a report is a new version of an earlier one, that it is translated from another, that it relies on a dataset or that it has been corrected. When those relations are recorded consistently, a reader holding any version can find all the others.
What a good registration holds.
- 01
Descriptive metadata
Title, contributors with their roles, dates, language, abstract and subject terms, in an open schema.
- 02
Relations
Links to versions, corrections, datasets and methods, so the record sits in a graph rather than alone.
- 03
Rights and access
The licence and access conditions, consistent with rights and disclosure.
- 04
Limits
Metadata quality varies with the care of whoever supplies it. An identifier proves that a work was registered, not that it was reviewed or is correct, and identifier systems depend on the institutions that maintain them.
How it is studied, and what the methods cannot say.
- 01Data engineering, interoperability and stewardshipSchema-validated ingestion · Persistent identifier reconciliation · Lineage capture in pipelinesApplied here
- 02Digital identity and public digital systemsIssuer authentication and authority · Contributor disambiguation by the personApplied here
- 03Cybersecurity and cryptographyTamper-evident record history · Signed exports and releases · Threat modelling of edit pathsApplied here
Where this page’s references lead.
The bodies and documents this page is read against. Status and editions change; each link goes to the issuing body.
Questions and answers.
What does a DOI guarantee?
Why do some works have two DOIs?
Should datasets and software be registered?
Why do contributor and affiliation identifiers matter?
Does a registered publication mean it was peer reviewed?
Can a publication have more than one identifier?
What happens to an identifier if a work is withdrawn?
Contribute evidence from this page.
Reports is the Consortium’s quarterly publication. What you know about this subject can become evidence, a case or a correction in the next edition, credited to you and published under CC BY 4.0 where it is your own work.
- EmailGateway GW-GCRISend it from this pageEvidence, a correction, a case, a method, a review, a translation or profile input. It arrives tagged with this page, so the editor who owns it receives it.
- ZenodoOpen depositDeposit it and submit to the communityPublish your own record on Zenodo with your ORCID iD, then submit it to the Reports community there. Curators review it; the DOI stays yours.
- ReportsGCRISee every way to contributeThe contribution types, how each is reviewed, what credit you receive, the licence and what is never accepted.
Never send personal data, sensitive infrastructure detail or anything you have no right to share. A contribution is reviewed before use; sending it confers no authorship or editorial rights, and sponsorship never buys a finding.
Bring a method, a dataset or a question.
Information and enquiries are open today. An enquiry receives a reference and names the next step; applications, payments, compute allocations and registrations open only when their team, terms and review capacity exist.
Legal documents.
Maps, data and figures on this site are shown for context and general information. They are not advice, forecasts or warnings; the limits of the information are set out in the Disclaimers and Data Notices.