Version control is the management of changes to a document, file, or dataset. Versions of a document may include the following:
Version control is important for:
How do I decide if I should assign a DOI to a work, and at what stage? This table sets out seven publication stages of a research object (a publication such as a journal article, book, or dataset). A work may not go through all of these seven stages, so you only need to consider the stages relevant to your publication.
| Publication stage | Eligible for a DOI? | Which DOI? |
|---|---|---|
| 1 Draft | No DOI for draft item | n/a |
| 2 Preprint | Yes | DOI A |
| 3 Pending publication (PP) | Yes | DOI B |
| 4 Advanced online publication/ahead of print (AOP) | Yes | DOI B |
| 5 Author accepted manuscript (AAM) | Yes | DOI B |
| 6 Version of record (VoR) | Yes | DOI B |
| 7 Updated | Yes | DOI C |
Research can undergo changes after it is published for various reasons. For example, it may be withdrawn, corrected, or retracted. It’s important that these changes are accurately reflected in the scholarly record, so that readers know how to find the most up-to-date work, as well as what research can be relied upon and cited.
When an editorially significant update is made to a document, you should not modify the original document, but instead issue a separate document (such as a correction or retraction notice) which explains the change. This separate document will have a different DOI and different metadata from the document that it updates. This process is complementary to versioning.
The metadata for the update should include a link to the item being updated, as well as information on the type of update, as part of the Crossmark section of the metadata:
<updates>
<update type="retraction" label="Retraction" date="2009-09-14">10.5555/12345678</update>
</updates>
A full example of an XML file following best practice can be found here. If you are not comfortable editing XML, you can also register Crossmark metadata using our Web Deposit Form.
Note that you don’t need to use all aspects of Crossmark to register updates. Learn more about the different ways of registering updates in our documentation.
You should also reflect the status of the work in the original DOI’s metadata record by adding “RETRACTED:” in front of the article title. We recommend doing the same for the title listed on the item’s landing page. You may also want to replace the abstract of the work with a retraction statement in both the metadata and on your website or publishing platform.
Finally, if you participate in the Similarity Check service, you should remove the full-text URL from the item’s metadata. To get a retracted work to be removed from the Similarity Check text comparison database, get in touch with Turnitin at tiisupport@turnitin.com.