A landing page served at a persistent identifier's resolved URL after the underlying resource has been withdrawn, retracted, or made permanently unavailable, providing metadata describing the former resource, the reason for its absence, and (where applicable) a successor identifier.

ByCASRAI Editorial Board

· Last updated 10 Jul 2026

Examples

Worked examples

Is an instance
A DataCite DOI for a dataset whose landing page now reads 'This dataset has been withdrawn due to a data quality issue' with metadata still intact.
Is an instance
A retracted Crossref-DOI article whose publisher landing page now shows 'RETRACTED:' prefix and links to the retraction notice DOI.

Counter-examples

Looks similar, but isn't

Not an instance
A 404 Not Found page is not a tombstone — it loses the metadata.
Not an instance
A 'page moved' notice with no withdrawal information is not a tombstone.

Editorial commentary

Tombstone pages preserve the resolvability of the identifier even though the resource itself is gone. The page typically displays the original title, authors, type, date, and a clear withdrawal notice. For retracted journal articles, Crossref publishes a tombstone via the publisher’s landing page combined with a ‘is-retracted-by’ relationship to the retraction notice DOI. For datasets, DataCite supports a withdrawal workflow that turns the landing page into a tombstone while keeping the DOI resolving. Tombstoning is the recommended alternative to deleting an identifier.

References

DataCite, 'Best Practice — Update Metadata for Withdrawn DOIs' (support.datacite.org).

Also known as

Withdrawal page · DOI tombstone · Tombstone landing page

Machine-readable encodings

Use in your systems

JATS XML <role> element

xml

<role vocab="credit"
      vocab-identifier="https://casrai.org/dictionary/"
      vocab-term="Tombstone page"
      vocab-term-identifier="https://casrai.org/dictionary/term/tombstone-page" />

Schema.org DefinedTerm (JSON-LD)

json

{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@type": "DefinedTerm",
  "@id": "https://casrai.org/dictionary/term/tombstone-page",
  "name": "Tombstone page",
  "identifier": "https://casrai.org/dictionary/term/tombstone-page",
  "description": "A landing page served at a persistent identifier's resolved URL after the underlying resource has been withdrawn, retracted, or made permanently unavailable, providing metadata describing the former resource, the reason for its absence, and (where applicable) a successor identifier.",
  "inDefinedTermSet": "https://casrai.org/dictionary/domain/persistent-identifiers#set",
  "url": "https://casrai.org/dictionary/term/tombstone-page",
  "sameAs": [
    "Withdrawal page",
    "DOI tombstone",
    "Tombstone landing page"
  ],
  "license": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
  "publisher": {
    "@id": "https://casrai.org/#organization"
  },
  "dateModified": "2026-07-10T02:10:36",
  "inLanguage": "en"
}

Referenced across the research world

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