We govern the Digital Object Identifier (DOI) system on behalf of the agencies who manage DOI registries and provide services to their respective communities. We are the registration authority for the ISO standard (ISO 26324) for the DOI system and we are governed by our Registration Agencies., A DOI is a unique string of letters and numbers used to identify an article or ebook. It is more reliable and permanent than a URL., They are widely used to identify academic, professional, and government information, such as journal articles, research reports, data sets, and official publications. A DOI aims to resolve to its target, the information object to which the DOI refers., What is a DOI and how do I use them in citations? A DOI, or Digital Object Identifier, is a string of numbers, letters and symbols used to uniquely identify an article or document, and to provide it with a permanent web address (URL)., The DOI system provides a technical and social infrastructure for the registration and use of persistent interoperable identifiers, called DOIs, for use on digital networks., .