shortDOI

A shortDOI is a redirect alias, in the form 10/abcde, generated by the International DOI Foundation's shortDOI Service (shortdoi.org) for an existing, already-registered DOI name. It is not a separately registered persistent identifier: it resolves through the same DOI Handle System and https://doi.org/ resolver as the underlying DOI, is issued only once per DOI (requesting a shortDOI for a DOI that already has one returns the existing alias rather than minting a new one), and carries none of a DOI's registration guarantees on its own -- the original DOI remains the identifier of record for citation, archiving, and metadata purposes.

ByCASRAI Editorial Board

· Last updated 18 Jul 2026

Worked examples

Is an instance

A DOI such as 10.1038/s41586-021-03819-2 can be given the shortDOI alias 10/gnzp (or similar), which resolves to the same article via https://doi.org/10/gnzp.

Is an instance

Requesting a shortDOI a second time for the same underlying DOI returns the previously issued alias rather than minting a new one -- the shortDOI Service's API response includes an 'IsNew' field indicating whether the alias was just created or already existed.

Looks similar, but isn't

Not an instance

A generic third-party link shortener (bit.ly, tinyurl, etc.) pointed at a doi.org URL is not a shortDOI -- it is an unrelated redirect layered on top of one, outside the DOI Handle System and not administered by the International DOI Foundation.

Not an instance

A shortDOI is not a substitute DOI name and should not be registered, cited in a reference list, or treated as the authoritative identifier for an object -- style guides and repositories expect the full DOI (or its https://doi.org/ resolver form) in formal citation.

shortDOI is a free redirect-alias service operated by the International DOI Foundation (IDF) — the same body that owns the DOI specification (ISO 26324) and operates the DOI Handle System — at shortdoi.org. Given an existing DOI name, the service returns a much shorter alias of the form 10/abcde, which resolves through the standard https://doi.org/ resolver exactly like the original DOI. Launched in May 2010, the service was built for the same reason general-purpose URL shorteners exist: many DOIs, particularly those with long human-readable suffixes, are unwieldy to paste into a tweet, an email subject line, a slide, or a printed handout.

How it works

A shortDOI is generated, not separately registered. Submitting a DOI to the shortDOI Service (via its web form or its API, with optional ?format=xml or ?format=json output) checks whether that DOI already has a shortDOI; if so, the existing alias is returned, and if not, a new one is minted. Each DOI can have only one shortDOI. Because the alias resolves through the same Handle System infrastructure as any other DOI, following a shortDOI link (e.g. https://doi.org/10/gnzp) lands the user on exactly the same target as the full DOI would.

What a shortDOI is not

A shortDOI is not itself a new, independently registered persistent identifier. It does not follow the standard DOI prefix/suffix syntax (a registrant-assigned prefix under 10.NNNN), carries no metadata record of its own with a Registration Agency, and does not inherit the persistence commitments a DOI registrant makes when registering a DOI (see DOI). It is best understood as a convenience pointer layered on top of an already-registered, already-authoritative DOI — the underlying DOI remains the identifier that should appear in formal citations, reference metadata, and archival records.

When researchers use it

shortDOIs are most useful in genuinely space-constrained or manually-typed contexts: social media posts, SMS or messaging apps, presentation slides, printed materials, or verbally read-out links. They are rarely appropriate in a formal citation, a manuscript reference list, or a data/software citation, where the full DOI (or its resolver-form URL) is the expected, machine-parseable form that citation managers, Crossref/DataCite metadata, and style guides such as APA are built around.

References

International DOI Foundation, shortDOI Service (shortdoi.org).
International DOI Foundation, ‘DOI Handbook’.

Use in your systems

JATS XML <role> element

xml

<role vocab="credit"
      vocab-identifier="https://casrai.org/dictionary/"
      vocab-term="shortDOI"
      vocab-term-identifier="https://casrai.org/dictionary/term/shortdoi" />

Schema.org DefinedTerm (JSON-LD)

json

{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@type": "DefinedTerm",
  "@id": "https://casrai.org/dictionary/term/shortdoi",
  "name": "shortDOI",
  "identifier": "https://casrai.org/dictionary/term/shortdoi",
  "description": "A shortDOI is a redirect alias, in the form 10/abcde, generated by the International DOI Foundation's shortDOI Service (shortdoi.org) for an existing, already-registered DOI name. It is not a separately registered persistent identifier: it resolves through the same DOI Handle System and https://doi.org/ resolver as the underlying DOI, is issued only once per DOI (requesting a shortDOI for a DOI that already has one returns the existing alias rather than minting a new one), and carries none of a DOI's registration guarantees on its own -- the original DOI remains the identifier of record for citation, archiving, and metadata purposes.",
  "inDefinedTermSet": "https://casrai.org/dictionary/domain/persistent-identifiers#set",
  "url": "https://casrai.org/dictionary/term/shortdoi",
  "sameAs": [],
  "license": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
  "publisher": {
    "@id": "https://casrai.org/#organization"
  },
  "dateModified": "2026-07-18T06:30:55",
  "inLanguage": "en"
}