DOI Metadata > Metadata Interoperability > Motivations for Interoperability

Standardization of any kind is driven by a need for interoperability. If a Registration Agency (RA) is issuing DOI names for referents for use within a private domain where that RA is able to command all aspects of metadata gathering and output, then it has no need for standardization or conformance with DOI data model obligations. The RA will lay out its schemas and declarations, and its providers and users should conform to them. Such a situation is described as restricted use of the DOI System, and applies typically where an organization becomes an RA for the specific purpose of issuing DOI names for use only within its own private organization.

However, such isolation is unusual. Normally, when a DOI name is issued to a referent, one fundamental assumption may be made about interoperability: the RA or the referent provider may wish (now or in the future) that the DOI name should be available for use in services provided by other RAs. For example, where several RAs are issuing DOI names to journal articles from different publishers, it is likely that some RAs and publishers will want their DOI names to be included in journal-related services supported by other RAs.

In a similar way, many RAs will want DOI names issued by other RAs to be available for inclusion in services they themselves are providing. Such interoperability is one of the principal benefits of the DOI System.

As the RA network grows, such requirements are emerging, and where specific opportunities do not yet exist they are anticipated. In such circumstances neither the RA nor the referent provider wishes to issue a second DOI name for the referent, nor to provide and capture the input metadata all over again from its source.