1. I’m publishing an article online. Do I need a DOI?
Whether you need a DOI for an online article depends on several factors, including the purpose and audience of your publication. Here are some considerations to help you decide whether obtaining a DOI for your online article is necessary:

• Academic or Scholarly Article. If your online article is a piece of scholarly research intended for academic or scientific purposes, obtaining a DOI is strongly recommended. DOIs are widely used in academia to ensure that research articles are properly attributed, citable, and discoverable.
• Journal or Academic Publisher.  Many academic journals and publishers automatically assign DOIs to the articles they publish. If your article is accepted by such a publisher, they will likely handle the DOI assignment for you.
• Independently Published Article. If you are independently publishing your article on a personal blog, website, or another platform, it's not mandatory to have a DOI. However, having a DOI can make your work more discoverable for researchers and readers.
• Data Sharing and Repositories. If your article includes datasets, research data, or supplementary materials, it's a good practice to obtain DOIs for each of these data components. Data repositories often provide DOI services for this purpose.
• Citation and Attribution. If you want to ensure that readers can easily and accurately cite your article in their own research, having a DOI is beneficial. DOIs simplify the citation process and contribute to the proper attribution of your work.
• Persistent Linking. If you want to provide a stable and permanent link to your article, a DOI is a good choice. It helps ensure that the link remains reliable even if the URL changes.
• Funding and Institutional Requirements. Check whether your funding agency, institution, or publisher has specific requirements or recommendations regarding DOIs for published research. Some organizations may encourage or require the use of DOIs.

2. What happens if the website that the DOI references is deleted? Can the work still be accessed via the DOI?
When a DOI refers to a website or digital content that has been deleted or is no longer accessible, the persistent nature of the DOI can be both an advantage and a challenge. Here's what happens in such a scenario:

• Permanent Identifier. The DOI itself remains valid and unchanged, even if the linked content becomes inaccessible or is deleted. DOIs are designed to provide a persistent and permanent way to identify digital objects.
• Content Unavailability. If the content's URL (web address) specified in the DOI metadata is no longer valid (e.g., the website is deleted, the content is moved to a new location, or the content is no longer accessible), users will encounter an issue.
• DOI Metadata. Even if the linked content is unavailable, the metadata associated with the DOI remains valuable. Researchers, scholars, or users interested in the content may still be able to retrieve information about the work, which may be useful for citation purposes or to understand the context of the work.
• Archived Copies. If the content was publicly available online, it may have been captured and archived by web archiving organizations, such as the Internet Archive. These archived copies can sometimes be accessed through dedicated web archive services.
• Citing the DOI. While the linked content's unavailability may pose challenges, the DOI remains valuable for citations and references, as it provides a unique and persistent identifier for the work. 

3. What if I forget or can’t find my article’s DOI? Should I create a new DOI?
Creating a new Digital Object Identifier (DOI) for a digital resource when you've forgotten the existing DOI is generally not recommended. DOIs are meant to be unique, permanent identifiers, and duplicating DOIs for the same resource can lead to confusion and citation issues within the academic and research community. 

4. I'm trying to find a resource using its DOI, but it's not working.

The DOI link will not always find full text that Appalachian State University Libraries subscribe to. Try placing "LibKey.io/" before the DOI (or PubMed ID number). For example: Instead of typing https://doi.org/10.4085/1062-6050-0516.21, you may need to type libkey.io/10.4085/1062-6050-0516.21 to access the resource. (Thanks to John Wiswell, Associate Professor and Health Sciences Librarian, for providing this information and example!)