Playing tag: The Oxford association keeping track of academic content around the world

Founded in 2000, Crossref started with the support of 15 American and European publishers and societies, including OUP and now has more than 11,000 members globally.

Its mission was to simplify the process of linking between journal articles on different publisher platforms.

Before Crossref, publishers needed to make individual agreements to link to one another’s websites, something which was essential given that a references section in an academic article can contain links to a number of other articles from different publishers.

Pentz explains: “Crossref, a not-for-profit, neutral, membership organisation was formed to make research outputs easier to find, cite and link for the scholarly community.”

Ed Pentz of Crossref. Pic: Crossref

One aspect of Crossref’s technology is the Digital Object Identifier system based on the Handle System created by Corporation for National Research Initiatives, founded by Bob Kahn.

Along with fellow American internet pioneer Vint Cerf, he first proposed the Transmission Control and Internet Protocols (TCP/IP) at the heart of the Internet.

Crossref has grown over the past 20 years from a staff of one – Pentz – to 40 based in Oxford, the US, Ireland and France.

The Oxford branch was opened in 2004, and Crossref moved to The Oxford Trust-run Oxford Centre for Innovation just over three years ago.

Crossref isn’t a one-trick pony – the company has expanded its services over the years. Not only does it offer content registration and reference linking, it also enables members to screen content for plagiarism.

Ed points out: “We have our original reference-linking mechanism to make cross-referencing more efficient. We have also partnered with Turnitin to create a system for members to check their scholarly material before publication, to ensure originality”.

The team is also working on a research organisation registry to develop an identifier for universities, research organisations and funders.

Around 85 per cent of its income comes from an annual membership fee and a one-off charge for registering each piece of content.

Pentz believes the main challenge for Crossref in 2020 is to balance out the needs of its huge membership, which consists of big global academic publishing houses, as well as small independent publishers around the world.

And the ultimate aim is to improve the service and make it as easy for those who are technical, as for those who aren’t.

About the Author

Georgina Matthews

Georgina Matthews is a writer and editor and currently works as Communications Manager for The Oxford Trust. She has been writing about science and tech business for the last few years.