What is a Digital Object Identifier (DOI)?

A digital object identifier (DOI) is a unique identifier associated with an object, such as an electronic document. A publisher might assign a journal article a DOI when it is published online; however, DOIs may be assigned to more than just articles. [Other examples of objects which sometimes have DOIs include images, data and data sets, books, and book chapters.] The benefit of a DOI is it is a persistent identifier that is available and managed over time; this means it will not change if the item or object is moved or renamed (From EZID).