In the first half of this year we’ve been talking to our community about post-publication changes and Crossmark. When a piece of research is published it isn’t the end of the journey—it is read, reused, and sometimes modified. That’s why we run Crossmark, as a way to provide notifications of important changes to research made after publication. Readers can see if the resesarch they are looking at has updates by clicking the Crossmark logo.
We’re happy to note that this month, we are marking five years since Crossref launched its Grant Linking System. The Grant Linking System (GLS) started life as a joint community effort to create ‘grant identifiers’ and support the needs of funders in the scholarly communications infrastructure.
The system includes a funder-designed metadata schema and a unique link for each award which enables connections with millions of research outputs, better reporting on the research and outcomes of funding, and a contribution to open science infrastructure.
In our previous blog post about metadata matching, we discussed what it is and why we need it (tl;dr: to discover more relationships within the scholarly record). Here, we will describe some basic matching-related terminology and the components of a matching process. We will also pose some typical product questions to consider when developing or integrating matching solutions.
Basic terminology Metadata matching is a high-level concept, with many different problems falling into this category.
Update 2024-07-01: This post is based on an interview with Euan Adie, founder and director of Overton._
What is Overton? Overton is a big database of government policy documents, also including sources like intergovernmental organizations, think tanks, and big NGOs and in general anyone who’s trying to influence a government policy maker. What we’re interested in is basically, taking all the good parts of the scholarly record and applying some of that to the policy world.
The Crossmark button gives readers quick and easy access to the current status of an item of content, including any corrections, retractions, or updates to that record.
Crossmark provides a cross-platform way for readers to quickly discover the status of a research output along with additional metadata related to the editorial process. Crucially, the Crossmark button can also be embedded in PDFs, which means that members have a way of alerting readers to changes months or even years after it’s been downloaded.
Research doesn’t stand still: even after publication, articles can be updated with supplementary data or corrections. It’s important to know if the content being cited has been updated, corrected, or retracted. Crossmark makes this information more visible to readers. With one click, you can see if content has changed, and access valuable additional metadata provided by the member, such as key publication dates (submission, revision, acceptance), plagiarism screening status, and information about licenses, handling editors, and peer review.
Crossmark lets readers know when a substantial change affecting the citation or interpretation has occurred, and that the member has updated the metadata record to reflect the new status.
Watch the introductory Crossmark animation in your language:
Members can report updates to readers and showcase additional metadata.
Researchers and librarians can easily see the changes to the content they are reading, which licenses apply to the content, see linked clinical trials, and more.
Anyone can access metadata associated with Crossmark through our REST API, providing a myriad of opportunities for integration with other systems and analysis of changes to the scholarly record.
How Crossmark works
Members place the Crossmark button close to the title of an item on their web pages and in PDFs. They commit to informing us if there is an update such as a correction or retraction, as well as optionally providing additional metadata about editorial procedures and practices.
The Crossmark button can be added to any platform that links to the content using the DOI.
While members who implement Crossmark provide links to update policies and commit themselves to accurately reporting updates, the presence of Crossmark itself is not a guarantee. However, it allows the community to more easily verify how members are updating their content.
If you use Crossmark, the Crossmark button must be applied to all of your new content, not just content is updated. Selective implementation means that a reader, such as a research or librarian, who downloaded a PDF version before the update would have no way to know that it has been updated. We also encourage you to implement Crossmark for backfile content, although doing so is optional. At least, we encourage you to do so for backfile content that has been updated.
Obligations for Crossmark
Any member can provide update metadata and register an update policy. If you are a member who implements the Crossmark button, you must:
Maintain your content and promptly register any updates.
Include the Crossmark button on all digital formats (HTML, PDF, ePub).
Implement Crossmark using the script provided by us.
Not alter the Crossmark button in any way other than adjusting its size.
Implementing the Crossmark button involves technical changes to your website and production processes. Check that you have the necessarily expertise to implement these before you start. If not, you can start to deliver update metadata and implement the Crossmark button at a later point.
Any organisation can also implement the Crossmark button on pages where they display content. If you do so, you must follow the guidelines above, except for the first point if you are not reponsible for the content.
There are no additional fees to participate in Crossmark.
How to participate in Crossmark
There are several steps to fully implementing Crossmark for members and these can be implemented incrementally over time:
First, devise an update policy, assign a DOI to it and register its metadata with us. You should then add the DOI to all of your metadata records (at least going forward and backfill if you are able to). The policy statement is a page on your website that explains your participation in the service, commitment to maintaining versions of any record that displays the Crossmark icon; and policies on corrections, retractions, withdrawals, and other updates.
Second, add relevant metadata about editorial processes, procedures, and updates to metadata records. This can include information about key dates in the editorial process, peer review and editor decisions, clinical trials and licensing.
Third, publish corrections and retractions for works where necessary. See our guidance on registering updates(/documentation/register-maintain-records/maintaining-your-metadata/registering-updates/).
Fourth, implement the Crossmark button online and in PDFs. This is done by including a snippet of code containing the DOI of the related content. When the button is clicked a dialog box appears that displays information taken from the metadata record.
To see which Crossref members are registering Crossmark information, visit Participation Reports. These reports give a clear picture for anyone to see the metadata Crossref has including Crossmark data.