DOIs
Most works have a single DOI, but some have several. A paper posted to arXiv gets an arXiv DOI (10.48550/arxiv.1102.1523), then a new one when a journal publishes it (10.1109/mcse.2011.37). Both point to the same work, The NumPy Array (W2146292423). Other reasons include a working paper and its journal version, a Zenodo record’s version DOIs, and a dataset registered in two places.
OpenAlex keeps every DOI by giving each location (each copy of the work) its own doi: the NumPy work’s arXiv location carries the arXiv DOI and its journal location carries the journal DOI. The doi filter matches all of a work’s DOIs, so either one finds it. The work’s own doi holds the best one, picked as described below.
Examples
| Situation | Example | DOIs |
|---|---|---|
| Preprint and journal article | The NumPy Array (W2146292423) | 10.48550/arxiv.1102.1523 (arXiv), 10.1109/mcse.2011.37 (journal) |
| Working paper and journal article | The Worldwide Governance Indicators (W2127999605) | 10.1596/1813-9450-5430 (World Bank), 10.1017/s1876404511200046 (Hague Journal on the Rule of Law) |
| Zenodo concept and version | Suggestions for Calculating Nest Success (W55139997) | 10.5281/zenodo.16204874 (concept), 10.5281/zenodo.16204875 (version) |
| One dataset, two registries | TIMIT Acoustic-Phonetic Continuous Speech Corpus (W3127686677) | 10.35111/17gk-bn40 (LDC), 10.57702/3vf2hii4 (TIB) |
Which DOI is the work’s doi
The work’s doi is picked by source:
- A Crossref DOI, with a published version’s DOI ahead of a preprint’s.
- A DataCite DOI, with a concept DOI ahead of its version DOIs. (arXiv and Zenodo DOIs are DataCite DOIs.)
- A DOI printed on a PubMed, MAG, or repository record.
When two DOIs tie, for instance two Crossref published versions, the alphabetically first one wins. The other DOIs are not lost: each stays on its location.
Finding a work by any of its DOIs
- The works
doifilter matches the work’s owndoior any location’sdoi, so a preprint DOI finds the published work:/works?filter=doi:10.48550/arxiv.1102.1523returns W2146292423. - A single lookup works the same way:
/works/doi:10.48550/arxiv.1102.1523. - To list every DOI of a work, read its locations:
/works/W2146292423?select=id,doi,locations. has_doichecks only the work’s owndoi.
Matching a list of DOIs (up to 100 OR-ed with |) can return fewer works than you sent DOIs. That happens when two of your DOIs belong to the same work: a preprint DOI and its article DOI both find one work.
When a DOI belongs somewhere else
Occasionally a work holds a DOI for something that isn’t a version of it, such as a book review merged into the book it reviews. That is a matching error. Report the work and the DOI that doesn’t belong; see Fixing data errors.
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