DOI Applications > Introduction to DOI Applications

In order to maintain a persistent identifier, an active management service in collaboration with registrants is required. To justify that management service, a DOI application normally provides more value than simply registering a DOI — typically a Registration Agency offers an added value service, such as citation linking or metadata management.

DOI names can identify many types of content, and may resolve to more than just a permanent, indirect link to that content. They can also provide or point to any useful information about the object when that information has been provided by the registrant or a third party. This information can include any type of descriptive metadata and any type of service related to the object, such as rights clearance, alerting services, data visualization or any other associated information or service. The information can be used in many ways by DOI applications customized to meet users' needs.

NOTE No ability to search from metadata to DOI name (reverse look-up) is provided by the DOI System. It may be offered by Registration Agencies or other services as a value-added feature. A variety of technologies are in use for this purpose among the RAs, including the Cordra registry system as well as custom applications.