We’re over halfway through the year already, and it’s the summer here in the UK. But that doesn’t mean it’s time to relax - we’re all busy starting to plan for next year! (Just one of the many reasons why our July 2025 ticket of the month is being released in August - oops!)
I’m sure it’s the same for many of you - and for some of you, next year could be a big year with a change of hosting platform for your content. You might be focused on making sure that your DOIs still resolve after a change of platform - but actually, it’s equally important to ensure that your new platform provider will be able to continue to register rich, complete metadata records. Perhaps you’ve even chosen the new platform based on their ability to create and register more metadata, like abstracts and references, or offer new capabilities like adding data citations or ROR IDs for affiliations.
We have a short platform migration guide to help you with your planning, which offers guidance on things like:
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What to consider even before you start selecting a new platform provider
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Planning the changeover process
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The change over itself (and what that may mean for your resolution URLs)
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What you should do after the migration is complete
The guide gives advice on how to plan for what you really need right now, and what you’re going to need in the future. For example, what metadata are you going to want to register with us and share with the global scholarly community next? What other Crossref services might benefit you in the future, for example Crossmark or Similarity Check? What different record types are in your plans - perhaps grants, blogs, or preprints?
The guide also has a handy checklist which you can include in your Request For Proposal documentation, to ensure that you’re asking the right questions of potential suppliers up front.
I hope this helps to remove a little bit of the stress of a platform migration. Good luck!