Individual DOI minting for Open Repository: a script for creating a DOI on demand for a DSpace repository

Area of Science:

• Library and Information Science
• Digital Curation
• Scholarly Communication

Background:

• Digital Object Identifiers (DOIs) are crucial for persistent identification and citation of research outputs.
• Manual DOI minting is time-consuming for repository librarians, especially with mixed content types.
• Existing bulk DOI minting solutions may not suit repositories with unique item requirements.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop an automated, on-demand DOI minting solution for an institutional repository.
• To address the challenge of minting DOIs for diverse original materials alongside pre-existing publications.
• To enhance the efficiency and accuracy of the DOI minting workflow.

Main Methods:

• A paired programming approach was used to develop a Python script for automated DOI minting.
• The script leverages Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) from DataCite and the Open Repository platform.
• Weekly one-hour sessions focused on development, testing, metadata integration, and data cleaning.

Main Results:

• A functional Python script was created to mint DOIs on demand for individual repository items.
• The script enhances metadata quality within DataCite and improves the overall accuracy of DOI assignments.
• The DOI minting process has become significantly more efficient for repository staff.

Conclusions:

• Custom scripting offers an effective solution for automating DOI minting in institutional repositories.
• Collaborative development, combining library and technical expertise, fosters skill enhancement and successful tool creation.
• Future development aims to further integrate DOI minting with repository metadata updates.