Become a member - Crossref

Connect your content with the global network of online scholarly research.

Our tools and services allow people to find, cite, link, and assess your publications. This leads to greater discovery and tracking of published research outputs.

About you

We have 10013 members from 114 countries. Many types of organizations interact with Crossref. You could be a research institution, a publisher, a government agency, a research funder, or a start-up. In order to become a member, register content and deposit metadata you’ll need to meet one criterion:

You want to share research outputs through metadata and persistent identifiers and/or you represent organizations who do.

Your content could include:

Journals and journal articles
Books and book chapters
Conference proceedings
Technical reports
Working papers

Preprints
Standards
Theses and dissertations
Reviews
Components (e.g. graphs, figures)

If you don’t meet the criteria to become a member but instead want to look up metadata or add it into your own software, check out our Metadata Delivery services.

A promise

Joining Crossref is a promise to look after your content. For our part, we promise to maintain and develop the community infrastructure for the long-term.

Membership therefore comes with a bit of work on your end. Crossref members make every effort to improve the quality and completeness of metadata. Once you’re in, we give you a prefix for your DOIs (Digital Object Identifiers), you create the suffixes and you begin to register content with us.

You do this by regularly depositing metadata that includes persistent identifiers and comprehensive information about the content. Your work to create and maintain the metadata is ongoing.

To apply to join Crossref please click the ‘join’ button below. This application form will ask you for information such as:

Organization name
Organization website (URL)
Business contact, billing contact, metadata/technical contact (we need three different people)
Fee category
Confirmation that you have read a summary of your membership obligations.

Member obligations

Thanks for your interest in joining Crossref and participating in the scholarly content network. Here are some of the terms that set out your obligations as a member. This is a summary of (and not a substitute for) the membership agreement which you will recieve by email following your application, and should be carefully reviewed to understand the full terms and conditions. Your first year’s membership fee is payable before your account is created and ready for use.

Advice for small publishers

We have thousands of small publisher members from all over the world. Being small-scale doesn’t limit your ability to connect your content with the global network of online scholarly research. Each Crossref member also gets to cast their vote to create a board that represents all types of organizations. If you publish one journal or thousands, you’re welcome to join our growing community. Apply Find out more about what becoming a member involves.

2018 membership agreement

This online agreement is for reference only. Agreements cannot be processed without an accompanying application; once you have completed your application form you will recieve a copy of this agreement for you to sign. Please note we are unable to accomodate requests to change or customize the Crossref membership agreement. Membership Agreement 2018 This membership agreement, version 5.5, and any duly executed addenda and any other attachments hereto (“Agreement”) sets forth the terms and conditions under which a qualified institution becomes a member of The Publishers International Linking Association, Inc.

Not all DOIs are made equal

There are many other DOI registration agencies that are members of the International DOI Foundation. But no other DOI registration agency offers the broad range of infrastructure and services that specifically support scholarly content. Others specialize in a particular region or language or content type. Or even totally different industries such as construction, or movies. And no one else does it quite like us, either. Take a look through our six truths, to understand the guiding principles that are important to our community.