A type of persistent identifier (PID), DOIs are a unique text of characters that are used to identify digital objects, such as journal articles. Here are some of the reasons why DOIs are important practice of open scholarship:
To receive a DOI a publisher must have a membership with an issuing organization. Osgoode Digital Commons has a sponsored membership with Crossref. Osgoode journals that are open access, actively publishing and have an ISSN qualify to receive DOIs from ODC.
Another requirement for DOI minting is that submitted articles will need to use DOIs when citing other works in an article's references section. Reference linking is an obligation for all Crossref members and for all current journal content (published during this and the two previous years).
Instead of:
Soleimani N, Mohabati Mobarez A, Farhangi B. Cloning, expression and purification flagellar sheath adhesion of Helicobacter pylori in Escherichia coli host as a vaccination target. Clin Exp Vaccine Res. 2016 Jan;5(1):19-25.
Display the DOI link:
Soleimani N, Mohabati Mobarez A, Farhangi B. Cloning, expression and purification flagellar sheath adhesion of Helicobacter pylori in Escherichia coli host as a vaccination target. Clin Exp Vaccine Res. 2016 Jan;5(1):19-25. https://doi.org/10.7774/cevr.2016.5.1.19
Osgoode strongly recommends its journals require reference linking from authors and state this requirement in a clear way.
Crossref has a simple text query tool that allows you to copy and paste a reference list and Crossref will match with any existing DOIs to that reference.