A digital object identifier (DOI) is a type of persistent identifier used to uniquely identify objects. The DOI system is particularly used for electronic documents such as journal articles. The DOI system began in 2000 and is managed by the International DOI Foundation.
DOI means “digital identifier of an object” rather than “identifier of a digital object”.
Metadata about the object is stored in association with the DOI name. It may include a location, such as a URL, where the object can be found. The DOI for a document remains fixed over the lifetime of the document, whereas its location and other metadata may change. Referring to an online document by its DOI provides more stable linking than simply referring to it by its URL, because if its URL changes, the publisher only needs to update the metadata for the DOI to link to the new URL.
Source: Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_object_identifier
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