How to get Persistent Identifiers for your publications

Getting a DOI for your publication 

Digital Object Identifiers (DOIs) have become the standard means of persistently linking to objects, including reports, articles, datasets, etc.   

DOIs for Research Outputs 

DOIs are usually used to link to the Version of Record of a publication found on the publisher’s website.  Creating a DOI incurs a cost and is typically done through a Registration Agency such as Crossref or DataCite. 

The Library Research Support team can ‘mint’ (register) a DOI for output records in Pure which meet the following criteria: 

• Your publication has not had and will not have a DOI assigned elsewhere 

• The University of Bristol Research Portal is the location that hosts the definitive authoritative record of the publication 

• There will be a file uploaded to the Pure record, and that file will be openly available. (We do not create DOIs for metadata-only records) 

• The output is one of the following:  

• An article in a journal hosted by or published through the University of Bristol. (Not Bristol University Press) 

• A book or edited collection hosted by or published through the University of Bristol. (Not Bristol University Press) 

• A report, white paper, or other ‘grey’ literature 

• A working/discussion paper (not elsewhere deposited to a pre-print server) 

• A non-textual item (e.g. digital or visual product, artefact, exhibition, performance, composition, design, device or product) 

• A University of Bristol institutional policy document 

• An Educational Resource 

If the above applies to your research output, and you would like us to assign a DOI to it: 

• Create the record in Pure  

• Email lib-research-support@bristol.ac.uk, including the output type and Pure ID (found at the top left of the record after you’ve saved it). Provide a brief description of how you will share this publication.   

• The Research Support team will create a DOI that links to the Pure record in the Bristol Research Portal.  

If the above does not apply to your output, it will not be assigned a DOI. You should use the Handle instead, which still provides a persistent link. See below for how to identify your record’s Handle. 

DOIs for Datasets 

Datasets published on the data.bris Research Data Repository are automatically assigned a DOI upon publication, which is then shared with the author. The same DOI appears on both the data.bris catalogue entry and the mirrored data record in Pure record.  

If you have any questions about DOIs for datasets, please contact data.bris@bristol.ac.uk  

Finding your Pure Record’s Handle 

Every public record in the Bristol Research Portal is assigned a Handle. This is a unique identifier that points to the Pure record and any public files.  

To find the handle for a record, search for the record in the University of Bristol Research Portal. The right-hand side of the page will have all the relevant links to the publication. Right click “Persistent Link” and select copy link. You can then paste the link into your document or social media.