Hello Simon,
If I'm reading this correctly, if the demand for a DOI is for the underlying data only you could use a data-focused DOI provider such as DataCite. This would not require the title of the publication, only the title of the underlying data, and therefore be in accordance with the journal's policy. Because it would be about the data and not the publication, you may not want to keep it in your publications repository at all, though you'd probably want to have somewhere to store data DOIs.
Best wishes,
Pete
-----Original Message-----
From: Research Data Management discussion list [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Simon Smith
Sent: 19 January 2016 12:05
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Journal Editorial Policies and DOIs
Dear All,
I've run into a bit of a problem with a journal publisher, which I'm having some trouble resolving. This may be partly because the publisher doesn't really seem to understand the issues in question. I'm sure it's also partly because I'm quite new to RDM, so I thought I would try calling on the collective wisdom of The List to see what people who do understand the issues think.
One of our researchers has had a paper accepted by an journal based in the US. Although the journal is open access (Gold), it has a very strict embargo policy: no information about the article -- and I mean none at all, not even the title -- can be released prior to publication. This seems somewhat over-cautious, but I suppose ours is not to reason why.
However, and this is where the problem arises, the publisher also requires a DOI for the underlying data. As I say, I'm quite new to RDM, but I'm assuming that the process for is pretty much the same everywhere: i.e. to get a DOI, you have to create a metadata record which is made live in the publications database. That metadata record has to include the title of the paper to which the data relates and some relevant information.
So the publisher wants a DOI, but doesn't want any information about the paper made public and the only way to get the DOI is to make some information about the paper public.
I'm in conversation with the publisher about this, but so far their responses have displayed a slightly surprising lack of understanding. One suggestion was that we publish the metadata with a fake title for an indefinite period. I'm not entirely sure that's what RDM, university libraries, or scholarly research should be about. The latest move is to say that it might be okay to create the metadata record, with the information, needed to get the DOI as long as the DOI is only held in our publications database. I'm beginning to suspect that the publisher doesn't know a lot about DOIs.
I would be very grateful for any advice or suggestions that list members might have, if anyone else has had to deal with this kind of situation, if it's particularly common in particular disciplines or with particular journals, anything at all really.
Thanks in advance for your time.
Best regards,
Simon Smith
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