Many OJS users can attest to facing at least one of the below Crossref-related issues:
- What is a timestamp value? How can I solve this issue?
- Why do I get a 401 error while attempting to deposit my content?
- How do I sign-up for the Cited-by service?
1. Timestamp reset (What is a timestamp value? How can I solve this issue?)
Timestamps were essentially introduced to help publishers identify the latest version of metadata record that they have registered/updated with us (Further read on timestamps).
For instance, if you have been registering your content using the web deposit form or Metadata Manager, and you have migrated your platform to OJS, this may necessitate a metadata update for resolution URLs of some or all of your previously registered DOIs. If resubmitting a full metadata upload, you may receive this error message in your submission logs:
<msg>Record not processed because submitted version: is less or equal to previously submitted version </msg>
Essentially, this timestamp error implies that the DOI you are attempting to deposit is already registered, and that the current timestamp in your deposit is numerically lower than (or, equal to) the timestamp used in a previous deposit. This happens because some versions of OJS use a different number of digits in the timestamp format than does our web deposit form and Metadata Manager helper tools.
To solve this timestamp error, you will need to have the timestamp of all the previously registered DOIs reset to a lower value.
Unfortunately, you’ll need to contact Crossref support at support@crossref.org in order for us to reset your timestamps for you.
2. 401 UNAUTHORIZED STATUS CODE ERROR! (Why do I get a 401 error while attempting to deposit my content?)
Many of our members have written to us in the recent past with this problem. Essentially, the 401 status code error relates to an incorrect username or password in the OJS plugin settings.
You may have seen the 401 status code error before. It looks like this:
If the combination of username and password is incorrect, OJS will return a 401 unauthorized status code error at the time of registration. This error indicates that the username and password are incorrectly entered into OJS. That is, they do not match the username and/or password set with Crossref.
- If you are using organization-wide, shared role credentials, you can simply add in your shared username and password.
- If you are using personal user credentials that are unique to you, you’ll need to add your email address and your role into the username field, and your personal password into the password field. Here’s an example of what this will look like:
Username: email@address.com/role
Password: your Crossref Password
If you just enter the username as ‘{email-address}’ that will result in the 401 error.
Additionally please ensure that the “Use the Crossref test API (testing environment) for the DOI deposit. Please do not forget to remove this option for the production.” option is not enabled.
More on how configure the OJS Crossref XML Export Plugin in our documentation page here: https://0-www-crossref-org.libus.csd.mu.edu/documentation/register-maintain-records/ojs-plugin/
Occasionally we, the Crossref support team, will be contacted by an OJS user who insists that the credentials entered into the plugin settings match the credentials they use to access their Crossref account (i.e., they can log in to doi.crossref.org). So, what’s the issue? The user has copied and pasted the credentials from a password manager or rich-text editor and that copying/pasting process has introduced a leading or trailing blank space that is causing the error. The blank space is leading to a mismatch. Thus, we recommend typing the username and password into the settings in order to ensure there are no blank spaces in the credentials.
3. Cited-by service sign up/ Cited-by plugin (I want to sign up for the Cited-by service?)
The cited-by service gives our members full access to citations, helping them to build a picture of how their own research has been received by the community.
To utilize this service as an OJS user, you must register reference metadata with Crossref. Once you have registered references, you will have to contact support@crossref.org to have the Cited-by service enabled for your account. From there, if you are interested in displaying your cited-by counts, you may install the OJS Scopus/Crossref Plugin in your OJS instance (more on this below).
Check our Participation Reports to assess if you are registering reference metadata.
You can check if you have references registered with us through searching the Participation Reports here: Participation Reports
Diagrammatic steps are as below:
Step 1
Step 2
Step 3
NOTE: 0% references means you are not eligible. >1% reference means you are eligible for the service.
Using the OJS Scopus/Crossref Plugin
The plugin uses your Crossref login credentials, the same ones you use to deposit content with us. There are no Crossref API credentials, the plugin just uses the Crossref login credentials. You can use the same credentials for the plugin. If you have further questions about the plugin, you may ask in the PKP forum - https://forum.pkp.sfu.ca/t/scopus-crossref-plugin/65009 - where other OJS users are discussing.
You can register references for existing DOIs, either using the OJS References Plugin, shown here Reference Linking and Deposit
Or, you can add references to your existing DOI manually, one DOI at a time, using the following instructions:
Our Simple Text Query form allows you to add references to a DOI that you have already registered with Crossref. Please note that this method will overwrite any references previously deposited for the content item - if you’ve previously added references to an item, and want to add more references using Simple Text Query, you need to include both the existing and the new references in your deposit.
- Start at Simple Text Query form
- Enter your references into the form. Don’t check List all possible DOIs per reference. Click submit
- Select the Deposit button and complete the fields
- your email address - this is used to send you a submission log after your reference deposit has been processed
- the parent DOI is the DOI of the content item for which you are adding references. It must already be registered with Crossref
- your Crossref account credentials
- Click Deposit again.
Once you have registered references, please do let us know at support@crossref.org so that we can enable cited-by service for your account.
Related read: Ticket of the month - January 2023 - DOI submissions using OJS (Open Journal Systems)