For many years, PubPub has made it possible for communities to assign DOIs to a range of outputs and component Pubs. Knowledge Futures and Crossref are building together to test the limits of what’s possible for high-volume, high-granularity DOI management. That means fast prototypes, real building, and learning through the process.

What this looks like

We’re starting by building. The goal is to get working prototypes in front of real use cases as quickly as we can, and let the technical, UX, operational, and infrastructure questions get answered through that process. What does it take to register and manage DOIs at a level of volume and granularity that goes beyond what most existing tools support? We’ll find out by trying.

A broader orientation for KF

This is also an example of where Knowledge Futures is headed more generally. We’re taking what we’ve learned from building publishing infrastructure and applying it across different parts of the scholarly communication ecosystem. Not siloed within PubPub development, but open to building more broadly and collaborating across organizational lines.

We’ve spent close to a decade learning what it takes to build and maintain reliable infrastructure for knowledge communities. That experience doesn’t have to live inside one product. We think working this way puts us in a stronger position as stewards of the things we maintain, and it opens the door to more collaboration across the ecosystem.

Aligned direction with Crossref

As Crossref adoption has skyrocketed, enabling DOIs for a vast range of research objects and organizations, they are looking to support these objects at scale—further upstream than traditional outputs. Alongside its fee remodelling effort begun in 2023, Crossref is backing this work with a $258k investment, partnering with Knowledge Futures to explore new models for the future of open research infrastructure.

Get involved

We’d love to hear your thoughts about high-volume, high-granularity DOIs. What’s your use case? What would it unlock for your community? Want to be involved in the design process? This collaboration with Crossref is just one piece of where we’re headed. If you’re curious about what we’re up to, or have something you’d like to share with us, get in touch. We’d love to tell you what we’re working on and hear what excites you too.