CASE STUDY
At a glance
CHALLENGE
Researchers discover content across an increasingly diverse range of tools and platforms. They need to reach trusted content quickly, understand whether they have access, and have confidence they’re reading the most up-to-date version of the scholarly record.
SOLUTION
GetFTR uses Crossref metadata to respond to requests for Open Access content, identify which publisher to send entitlement requests to for subscription content, and add retractions, updates and license to entitlement check responses so that researchers have everything they need when discovering articles.
OUTCOME
Researchers can seamlessly move from discovery to authoritative content, with important signals about access, openness and research integrity available wherever their research journey begins.
“Researchers shouldn’t have to think about the infrastructure behind discovery. Wherever they find research, they should be able to understand what they can access and whether the content they’ve found is current and trustworthy. By building on trusted community infrastructure such as Crossref, we can make those signals available wherever discovery happens.”
Hylke Koers, Programme Manager, GetFTR
Summary
Every day, researchers discover content through discovery tools, library systems, scholarly databases, publisher platforms and, increasingly, AI tools. Making it possible for them to move from discovery to trusted content depends on something most researchers never see: metadata.
Crossref has described metadata as “the connective tissue of the scholarly ecosystem”, linking research outputs, publishers and services into a connected network. It’s a description that resonates strongly with us at GetFTR. Our services are built on trusted community infrastructure, including Crossref and Retraction Watch. Crossref also makes an important point: metadata is never “finished”. The initial deposit is only the beginning. Records become more valuable as publishers continue to update and enrich them throughout the lifetime of a publication.
At GetFTR, we consistently see how high-quality metadata improves discovery, access and trust for researchers.
The Challenge
Finding a relevant article is only one part of the research journey.
Researchers need to know whether they can access it, where to find the trusted Version of Record, whether an Open Access version is available and, increasingly, whether the article has subsequently been corrected, updated or retracted. Those journeys often begin far away from the publisher website and as discovery expands into new environments trusted information needs to be available at the point of discovery.
That relies on accurate, complete and continually updated metadata.
The Solution
Finding the right content
A DOI is far more than a persistent identifier.
When GetFTR receives a request for an article, it uses Crossref metadata to identify the publisher responsible for that DOI so the entitlement request can be routed to the correct destination to determine whether the researcher has access. This helps researchers move from discovery to the trusted Version of Record, wherever their journey begins.
As journals transfer between publishers, updating ownership information in Crossref ensures requests continue to be routed correctly. Accurate metadata also supports more complex scenarios, such as perpetual access rights, helping researchers reach the appropriate version of the content with minimal friction.
Supporting Open Access discovery
Researchers value the ability to understand whether content is available before they click through to the full text.
GetFTR’s Open Access Service provides links to Open Access content from tools that integrate with GetFTR, without a publisher needing to do any extra work. It uses licence metadata deposited with Crossref to identify whether the full text is openly available.
Discovery services can also display licence information directly within the researcher workflow, helping users understand not only that content is openly available, but also the licence under which it can be used. Rich, accurate licence metadata means researchers can understand when content is Open Access, and under what licence, before they click through to the article.
Building trust in the scholarly record
Access is only one part of trusted discovery.
Researchers also need confidence that the article they are reading is the current version of the scholarly record. Articles may be corrected, updated or retracted long after publication, yet researchers often discover them away from the publisher’s website.
To help address this, GetFTR’s Retraction & Update service draws on information from Crossref and Retraction Watch. Crossref metadata includes publisher-deposited information about corrections, updates and retractions, and is enriched with retraction data curated by Retraction Watch.
This information allows GetFTR to surface article status directly within discovery workflows, helping researchers identify important updates before reading, downloading or citing an article.
For Crossref, this is a good example of how shared metadata infrastructure can help trusted information travel through the research ecosystem.
“We are delighted to see how GetFTR has integrated our metadata into its services to help researchers make more informed decisions about the research they find. Our collaboration with Retraction Watch is one example of how shared infrastructure can enable this kind of visibility for retractions and other updates, helping build a more connected and trustworthy scholarly record.”
Martyn Rittman, Ph.D, Program Lead, Crossref
Recording corrections, updates and retractions promptly, and maintaining accurate relationships between research objects, helps ensure changes to the scholarly record can be recognised wherever researchers encounter the work.
Why it matters
Metadata is much more than descriptive information attached to an article. It enables the services researchers rely on every day. Specifically, high-quality Crossref metadata helps GetFTR:
- Connect researchers to trusted full text. Accurate DOI and publisher information helps route researchers to the appropriate Version of Record.
- Make Open Access easier to identify. Licence metadata allows discovery services to show researchers when content is openly available and under what terms.
- Surface research integrity signals. Correction, update and retraction information can reach researchers within the tools where they discover content.
- Keep trusted content connected to emerging discovery environments. As discovery increasingly moves into AI tools, reliable metadata helps authoritative content and important signals remain part of the research journey.
Every DOI registered, journal transfer updated, licence deposited and correction recorded strengthens the services built on this shared infrastructure.
Takeaway
GetFTR is one example of what shared scholarly infrastructure makes possible: helping researchers reach authoritative content while surfacing important signals about access, openness, trust and research integrity along the way.
AI-assisted discovery only raises the stakes. Publishers that keep their metadata complete and current are helping ensure their content remains discoverable, accessible and trustworthy as research journeys evolve.
High-quality metadata doesn’t just benefit one platform; it strengthens the entire scholarly communications ecosystem.
GetFTR is working with Crossref to encourage publishers to keep their Crossref data up to date and complete, helping researchers easily reach trusted full text wherever it is discovered.
If you’d like to learn more about how GetFTR builds on trusted community infrastructure to improve research discovery, or how your organisation can maximise the value of its metadata, please contact our Product Director, Dianne Benham
About the organisations
Crossref is a not-for-profit membership organisation providing open scholarly infrastructure that connects research objects, organisations and people through persistent identifiers and metadata.
GetFTR helps researchers quickly and reliably access the trusted full-text content they need. Working with publishers and discovery platforms, GetFTR delivers real-time access indicators that streamline discovery, support research integrity and promote the responsible dissemination of scholarly knowledge worldwide.
