How to Submit Metadata to Crossref: Current Registration Methods

If you’ve been in the academic research and publishing field, especially as an editor or publisher, then you must have heard of Crossref. Chances are high that you’ve used it to get your journal’s DOI (Digital Object Identifier) and submit your metadata for cross-referencing.

For the uninitiated, Crossref is one of the official DOI registration agencies of the International DOI Foundation. The DOIs they generate for journal articles make the latter “easy to find, cite, link and assess”. More about DOI in the next section.

This guide is for publishers registering content and metadata with Crossref. You may deposit Crossref-compatible XML directly or use Crossref’s guided tools, which convert form entries to XML for you. Select a route that supports your record type and required metadata.

First, let’s take a quick look at what DOI is and why it is important. Feel free to skip the next section if this is something you already know.

A DOI (Digital Object Identifier) is a persistent identifier for a digital object such as a journal article, book, dataset, report, or other research output. Unlike a normal URL, the DOI itself is designed to remain associated with the object even when its location on the web changes.

For Crossref members, a DOI consists of a Crossref-assigned prefix and a suffix chosen by the member. It follows the basic structure:

https://doi.org/[prefix]/[suffix]

The DOI becomes active when the DOI and its associated metadata have been successfully registered with Crossref. The DOI string itself cannot be changed or deleted after registration, but its associated metadata can be updated.

For publishers, this means DOI registration is not a one-time task. If an article moves to a new URL, for example, the publisher needs to update the DOI metadata so that the DOI continues to resolve to the correct location.

The Crossref DOI registration process can be broken down into four main stages:

1. Become a Crossref member
2. Create your DOI
3. Prepare your metadata
4. Deposit and verify your submission

If you already have a Crossref membership or DOI prefix, you can skip to the relevant step.

You need to be a Crossref member to register content and deposit metadata with Crossref.

Before applying, review Crossref's membership requirements, membership terms, and current fees. Crossref charges an annual membership fee for most members as well as a separate content registration fee for each new metadata record. There are no fees for updating the metadata associated with an existing record.

Crossref's fees can change, so check the official fee schedule before budgeting for DOI registration. For example, Crossref has announced further reductions to most content registration fees and the removal of back-year registration fees from January 1, 2027.

If you are eligible for membership, you can apply to become a Crossref member.

The prefix identifies the registrant, while the suffix identifies the individual content item. Crossref recommends deciding on a consistent approach to DOI suffixes as part of setting up your publishing workflow.

Keep your DOI structure consistent and avoid treating the DOI as a substitute for the article's metadata. The DOI is the persistent identifier; the metadata associated with it is what helps other systems identify, link, and cite the work.

To register content with Crossref, you need to submit metadata describing the content. Depending on the record type, this can include information such as:

• DOI
• Title
• Authors and contributors
• Affiliations
• Publication dates
• Journal title and ISSN
• Article or issue information
• Online location or landing-page URL
• References
• Funding information
• License information
• Abstracts and other bibliographic metadata

Crossref stores deposited metadata as XML, but you do not necessarily need to create XML manually. Crossref provides several registration methods that collect information through forms and convert it into XML for you.

Crossref's Metadata Manager allows members to register and update records without needing to write XML themselves.

The current Metadata Manager supports journal articles, books and chapters, reports and working papers, dissertations, grants, and certain post-publication updates. A journal ISSN is required when registering journal articles through the tool.

This is a practical option if you want a guided, form-based workflow rather than preparing XML manually.

The Crossref Web Deposit form provides another form-based route for depositing metadata. It supports several record types, including journals, books, conference proceedings, reports, and dissertations. JATS XML can also be uploaded through the web deposit workflow.

If your journal uses Open Journal Systems (OJS), you can use the Crossref XML plugin to create and send DOI metadata from your publishing platform.

Crossref provides separate instructions for OJS 3.3, 3.4, and 3.5, so check the documentation for your version before configuring the plugin.

Publishers with an XML-based production workflow can create Crossref-compatible XML and submit it directly.

Crossref currently supports several direct XML deposit routes, including uploading XML through its admin tool and submitting XML through HTTPS POST. Direct XML deposits are useful when metadata is generated automatically as part of an existing publishing or production workflow.

Via SciSpace: SciSpace also offers a Crossref XML converter for publishers to help convert publisher content into Crossref-compatible XML. If you use a third-party conversion workflow, validate the resulting XML and confirm that the metadata matches your Crossref record requirements before depositing it.

If you use Metadata Manager or the web deposit form, you do not need to upload a separate XML file. If you upload XML, a queue receipt is not final registration; verify the submission and test the DOI landing page.

Once your XML has been generated there are different ways to deposit it to Crossref.

1. Via Crossref’s Admin Tool: If you’ve generated the XML in-house, via vendors or via SciSpace, you can use the admin tool for submission. It is a simple interface and submission is pretty straightforward.
2. Via Metadata Manager or the web deposit form: enter the record fields in the chosen interface; Crossref generates and deposits XML from the form. Check which record types each tool supports.
3. Via OJS’ Crossref XML Export Plugin: If you use OJS, the Crossref XML Export Plugin can be used to conveniently deposit Crossref XML. Read more about how you can configure OJS for Crossref deposits.
4. Via HTTPS POST: An automated XML file deposit enters a queue; follow the current POST files via HTTPS to Crossref instructions and inspect the submission log before treating the DOI as registered.

POST https://doi.crossref.org/servlet/deposit?operation=doMDUpload&login_id=USER&login_passwd=PSWD HTTP/1.1
Accept: image/gif, image/x-xbitmap, image/jpeg, image/pjpeg, */*
Accept-Language: en-us 
Content-Type: multipart/form-data; boundary=---------------------------7d22911b10028e
User-Agent: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.1; Q312461)
Host: Myhost
Content-length: 1304 Pragma: no-cache -----------------------------7d22911b10028e
Content-Disposition: form-data; name="fname"; filename="crossref_query.xml"
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<doi_batch version="4.3.0" xmlns="http://www.crossref.org/schema/4.3.0" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.crossref.org/schema/4.3.0 http://www.crossref.org/schemas/crossref4.3.0.xsd">
<head>
...
</head>
<body>
<journal>
....
</journal>
</body>
</doi_batch>
-----------------------------7d22911b10028e--

The more complete your metadata, the more useful your Crossref record can be to downstream services and systems.

For journal articles, this may include the article title, authors, affiliations, dates, journal information, DOI, online location, funding information, license information, abstract, and references, depending on what your workflow and record type support.

Crossref specifically encourages members to include references with registered content. References can be added during the initial registration or to an existing record later, depending on the deposit method.

Before submitting, check that your metadata is consistent with the article and journal landing page. Inaccurate titles, author names, dates, URLs, or identifiers can create problems for indexing, linking, and citation services.

Registering a DOI is only part of maintaining your Crossref record.

Crossref expects members to maintain their metadata over the long term, including updating URLs when content moves to a new website. Metadata updates for existing records do not incur an additional Crossref content registration fee.

If your publishing platform or website changes, your DOI does not need to change. Instead, update the DOI's associated resolution URL so that the existing DOI continues to direct readers to the correct article.

For large platform migrations, Crossref provides a bulk URL update process.

If an article's metadata changes, you can generally resubmit the metadata record with the updated information. Be careful when using direct XML deposits: Crossref notes that updates should contain the complete bibliographic metadata for the record, because fields not included in the new submission can be overwritten or removed.

Keeping your Crossref records accurate helps ensure that your articles remain correctly linked and represented across systems that use scholarly metadata.

Crossref is one part of the academic publishing workflow. Once your metadata and DOI registration are in place, you may also need to work with research papers, references, citations, and other publishing tasks.

SciSpace helps researchers and academics read, understand, organize, and work with research papers more efficiently. From chatting with PDFs and extracting information to checking references and working with citations, SciSpace brings several research workflows into one platform.

Explore SciSpace and see how it can support your research workflow →

If you're working on the technical side of academic publishing, these guides may also be useful:

1. How to Get Your Articles Indexed in PubMed: The Go-To Guide for Publishers
2. Top 4 MS-Word (Docx) to JATS XML Converters
3. PDF to JATS XML Conversion — Why it’s important for an Academic Publisher
4. Top 5 Reference XML Generation For Academic Publishers