Membership

Benefits of MDOI Membership

Membership in the MDOI system provides access to a comprehensive infrastructure for persistent identification and metadata stewardship.

Members are able to:

• Create and manage persistent MDOI identifiers for digital objects
• Develop rich, structured metadata records including authorship, provenance, relationships, and contextual information
• Improve discoverability and citation reliability of their work across systems
• Participate in a growing global network of interconnected research and knowledge objects
• Manage records through a secure, user-controlled dashboard
• Maintain both public and private (hidden) records without compromising identifier persistence

Metadata registered within the MDOI system is structured, machine-readable, and interoperable, allowing integration with external platforms and research ecosystems without duplication of effort.

Membership also provides opportunities to contribute to the governance and evolution of the MDOI ecosystem, ensuring that the system remains community-driven, inclusive, and responsive to emerging needs.

MDOI is more than an identifier system. It is a trusted infrastructure for persistence, discoverability, and long-term knowledge stewardship.

Eligibility

MDOI membership is open to entities that produce, manage, or curate scholarly, institutional, or knowledge-based digital content.

Eligible participants include:

• Research institutions and universities
• Publishers, journals, and repositories
• Government agencies and public organisations
• Research funders and collaborative projects
• Libraries, archives, and data centres
• Independent researchers and professionals

Any organisation or individual whose outputs contribute to the scholarly or knowledge record and are intended for long-term reference and traceability is eligible to participate.

Member Responsibilities

All members are required to uphold the integrity, reliability, and persistence of the MDOI system by adhering to the following principles:

1. Accurate Metadata Registration — Members must deposit complete, accurate, and timely metadata for all registered objects. Metadata should reflect the true identity, ownership, and characteristics of the object.
2. Rights-Based Deposit — Only content for which the member has legal authority or appropriate rights may be registered within the MDOI system.
3. Unique and Persistent Resolution — Each MDOI must resolve to a dedicated and stable landing page that provides clear descriptive information about the object and, where applicable, access to it.
4. Proper Identifier Use — MDOIs must be consistently displayed and used in publications, systems, and communications to ensure traceability, citation, and interoperability.
5. Metadata Maintenance — Members are responsible for maintaining their records over time, including updating URLs when content locations change, enhancing metadata as additional information becomes available, and ensuring long-term accessibility and preservation.
6. Interoperability and Linking — Members are encouraged to include references and relationships within metadata records, strengthening connections across the MDOI ecosystem and enhancing discoverability.
7. Sustainability Contributions — Members contribute to the sustainability of the MDOI infrastructure through dashboard-based maintenance contributions, ensuring continued operation, security, and long-term service reliability.

Sustainability Model

The MDOI Foundation operates under a lean, not-for-profit, cost-recovery model designed to ensure accessibility and long-term continuity.

• Individual Membership
• Organisational Membership

This model supports:

• Identifier resolution and uptime
• Metadata storage and preservation
• Platform security and system maintenance
• Continuous development and service improvement

Contributions are applied per dashboard, not per registered item, ensuring equitable participation regardless of output volume.

Flexible Participation Model

The MDOI system is designed to accommodate varying levels of technical capacity and institutional readiness.

Participants may:

• Register and manage identifiers directly through their dashboard
• Operate through institutional or partner-supported workflows
• Integrate MDOI services within existing systems and repositories

This flexibility ensures that both established institutions and emerging research communities can effectively participate in the global identifier ecosystem.