CrossRef has made a DOI finding tool publicly available. It’s called Simple-Text Query. You can get the details at Barbara Quint’s article "Linking Up Bibliographies: DOI Harvesting Tool Launched by CrossRef."
What caught my eye in Quint’s article was this: "Users can enter whole bibliographies with citations in almost any bibliographic format and receive back the matching Digital Object Identifiers (DOIs) for these references to insert into their final bibliographies."
Well not exactly. I cut and pasted just the "9 Repositories, E-Prints, and OAI" section of the Scholarly Electronic Publishing Bibliography into Simple-Text Query. Result: error message. I had exceeded the 15,360 character limit. So, suggestion one: put the limit on the Simple-Text Query page.
So them I counted out 15,360 characters of the section and pasted that. Just kidding. I pasted the first six references. Result?
Alexander, Martha Latika, and J. N. Gautam. “Institutional Repositories for Scholarly Communication: Indian Initiatives.” Serials: The Journal for the Serials Community 19, no. 3 (2006): 195-201.
No doi match found.Allard, Suzie, Thura R. Mack, and Melanie Feltner-Reichert. “The Librarian’s Role in Institutional Repositories: A Content Analysis of the Literature.” Reference Services Review 33, no. 3 (2005): 325-336.
doi:10.1108/00907320510611357
http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/00907320510611357Allen, James. “Interdisciplinary Differences in Attitudes towards Deposit in Institutional Repositories.” Manchester Metropolitan University, 2005.
http://eprints.rclis.org/archive/00005180/
Reference not parsedAllinson, Julie, and Roddy MacLeod. “Building an Information Infrastructure in the UK.” Research Information (October/November 2006).
http://www.researchinformation.info/rioctnov06digital.html
Reference not parsedAnderson, Greg, Rebecca Lasher, and Vicky Reich. “The Computer Science Technical Report (CS-TR) Project: A Pioneering Digital Library Project Viewed from a Library Perspective.” The Public-Access Computer Systems Review 7, no. 2 (1996): 6-26.
http://epress.lib.uh.edu/pr/v7/n2/ande7n2.html
Reference not parsedAndreoni, Antonella, Maria Bruna Baldacci, Stefania Biagioni, Carlo Carlesi, Donatella Castelli, Pasquale Pagano, Carol Peters, and Serena Pisani. “The ERCIM Technical Reference Digital Library: Meeting the Requirements of a European Community within an International Federation.” D-Lib Magazine 5 (December 1999).
http://www.dlib.org/dlib/december99/peters/12peters.html
Reference not parsed
Hmmm. According to Quint’s article:
I asked Brand if CrossRef could reach open access material. She assured me it could, but it clearly did not give the free and sometimes underdefined material any preference.
Looks like the open access capabilities may need some fine tuning. D-Lib Magazine and The Public-Access Computer Systems Review are not exactly obscure e-journals. Since my references are formatted in the Chicago style by EndNote, I don’t think that the reference format is the issue. In fact, Quint’s article says: "The Simple-Text Query can retrieve DOIs for journal articles, books, and chapters in any reference citation style, although it works best with standard styles."
Conclusion: I play with it some more, but Simple-Text Query may be best for conventional, mainstream journal references.
Thanks for the feedback. There are a number of different sides to this – “No DOI Match Found” means that the reference was understood but there is no DOI for the item. “Reference not parsed” means that for some reason the reference couldn’t be understood – we are looking into why this happened for these references (all but the first 2 didn’t parse).
In terms of Open Access material it has to be registered with CrossRef for us to find the DOI for it. “The Public-Access Computer System Review” is not in CrossRef but “D-Lib” is so we are looking at that.
I would agree that the strength of CrossRef’s coverage and therefore the Simple Text Query is in mainstream journal references.
Thanks for your reply. I tried a dozen references from a section (3.4 Electronic Serials: General Works) that has fewer non-conventional references and had better luck.
Abate, Tom. “Publishing Scientific Journals Online.” Bioscience 47, no. 3 (1997): 175-179.
No doi match found.
Amiran, Eyal. “The Rhetoric of Serials at the Present Time.” The Serials Librarian 28, no. 3/4 (1996): 209-221.
doi:10.1300/J123v28n03_03
http://dx.doi.org/10.1300/J123v28n03_03
Amiran, Eyal, Elaine Orr, and John Unsworth. “Refereed Electronic Journals and the Future of Scholarly Publishing.” In Advances in Library Automation and Networking, vol. 4, ed. Joe A. Hewitt, 25-53. Greenwich, CT: JAI Press, 1991.
No doi match found.
Anderson, Kent. “The Mutant Journal: How Adaptations to Online Forces Are Forcing STM Journals to Mutate.” Learned Publishing 14 (January 2001): 15-22.
doi:10.1087/09531510125100223
http://dx.doi.org/10.1087/09531510125100223
Arms, William Y. “What Are the Alternatives to Peer Review? Quality Control in Scholarly Publishing on the Web.” The Journal of Electronic Publishing 8 (August 2002). http://www.press.umich.edu/jep/08-01/arms.html
Reference not parsed
Ashcroft, Linda. “Win-Win-Win: Can the Evaluation and Promotion of Electronic Journals Bring Benefits to Library Suppliers, Information Professionals, and Users?” Library Management 21, no. 9 (2000): 466-471.
doi:10.1108/01435120010347937
http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/01435120010347937
Bailey, Charles W., Jr. “Network-Based Electronic Serials.” Information Technology and Libraries 11 (March 1992): 29-35. http://www.digital-scholarship.org/cwb/ital11n1.htm
Reference not parsed
Berin, Andrew. “Unbundled Journals: Trying to Predict the Future.” Learned Publishing 15 (April 2002): 109-112.
doi:10.1087/09531510252848863
http://dx.doi.org/10.1087/09531510252848863
Bollag, Burton. “East African Universities Will Gain Journal Access in New Online Project.” The Chronicle of Higher Education, 16 March 2001, A39.
No doi match found.
Bosch, Stephen. “Buy, Build, or Lease: Managing Serials for Scholarly Communications.” Serials Review 31, no. 2 (2005): 107-115.
doi:10.1016/j.serrev.2005.03.005
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.serrev.2005.03.005
Boyce, Peter B. “Scholarly Journals in the Electronic World.” The Serials Librarian 36, no. 1/2 (1999): 187-198.
No doi match found.
Brown, David J. “Scholarly Journal Publishing: Coming to Terms with the Internet Culture.” Learned Publishing 11 (July 1998): 171-178.
doi:10.1087/09531519850146337
http://dx.doi.org/10.1087/09531519850146337