Hello!
Happy spring or autumn depending on which part of the world you’re in.
At Crossref, we’re all about identifiers but did you know there are multiple different ID numbers and codes connected with each Crossref account? These different identifiers have varying internal and external purposes. Today, I thought I’d break down each type of ID you might encounter as a Crossref member.
Billing ID
What is it?
Billing IDs are six-digit alphanumeric strings: four letters followed by two zeroes (e.g., XXXX00). At various times in the past we have also referred to them as the “billing customer ID”, “customer ID”, or “Intacct ID”. We will give you a billing ID if your organization needs to send us money - so independent members, sponsors, and other paying subscribers, but not sponsored members. (All sponsored members share their sponsor’s billing ID.)
It’s super important that you know your organization’s billing ID. Always include your billing ID in communications and payment descriptions. Our Billing team uses the billing ID to match payments to the proper accounts.
How do I find mine?
Take a look at any of your invoices; your billing ID will appear at the bottom. Your billing ID will also appear when you log into the payment portal.
Member ID
What is it?
Member IDs are automatically assigned to each new Crossref member. They are purely numerical identifiers (e.g., 12345) that our systems use to identify each unique Crossref account. If you are a Crossref member with multiple DOI prefixes, you will only have one member ID. Unlike your billing ID (above), it usually isn’t very important to know an organization’s member ID, but it can be helpful when using our API to find records related to a specific member
How do I find mine?
Visit our Participation Reports tool and search for your organization name. The resulting URL of your participation report ends with a number; this is your member ID. For instance, the Universidad Autonoma Indigena de Mexico’s participation report URL is https://0-www-crossref-org.libus.csd.mu.edu/members/prep/20280 so their member ID is 20280.
DOI prefix
What is it?
DOI prefixes are assigned to all Crossref members so they can create and register DOI records. DOI prefixes are numerical strings with a specific format: a 10, a period, and four, five, or someday six digits (e.g., 10.5555). Members pair their prefixes with a DOI suffix of their choosing to create DOIs, then register those DOIs and the associated metadata records with us via their depositor credentials (see Role, below). DOI prefixes are assigned sequentially (e.g., 10.5555, 10.5556, 10.5557, and so on) and one Crossref account may be associated with one or occasionally multiple DOI prefixes.
It’s critical that you know your account’s DOI prefix as you will not be able to register any new metadata records, nor update the existing metadata records for your existing DOIs, without it.
It’s useful to note that just because a DOI record is on a specific prefix, this doesn’t tell you who the current steward of that DOI record is - ownership of DOI records (and indeed prefixes) moves between different members over time as journals move between publishers. You can find out more about this in my colleague Isaac’s blog post “What can often change, but always stays the same?” and in our help documentation about transferring responsibilities for DOI records, titles and prefixes.
How do I find mine?
If you do not know your account’s DOI prefix you should email member@crossref.org and we can help you track it down.
Role
What is it?
A depositor role is an alphanumeric string (typically four characters but sometimes more or less, e.g., xxxx, abc1, or bf8as) associated with certain permissions related to a DOI prefix (see above). Roles are often connected with a single DOI prefix but may be connected to multiple prefixes, even multiple prefixes across different accounts. For instance, a service provider organization may have a role that they use to conduct deposits on a dozen different members they work with. We use roles to manage 1) who has depositor access 2) to which DOI prefixes.
If you use a different set of user credentials for each person at your organization to register your content with us, you might not need to know the role associated with your prefix(es). (You’ll know that your organization uses “user credentials” if you put your email address into the Username field when logging into Crossref systems.) Many systems will make the connection between your email address and your organization’s role for you behind the scenes so you don’t need to know it. However, some systems (such as OJS) might need to know your role even if you make use of user credentials, as they’ll need both your personal email address and the role associated with your prefix (more here).
If your organization uses one set of shared role credentials, you will put your role into the “username” field when using our system, so it’s crucial that you know it.
How do I find mine?
If you have user credentials then you can log into the admin console; at the top of the page you will see a little message saying “Welcome xxxx”; xxxx is your role. If you use role credentials and you don’t know your role please email us at member@crossref.org.
In any case if you are having trouble finding your billing ID, a member ID, or anything else, you can always contact us and we’ll be happy to assist you further.
Kindly,
—Collin