The Crossref Service Providers program supports closer collaboration between Crossref and organisations that help our members register, manage, and maintain their metadata through technical platforms and integrations.
Crossref Service Providers are organisations that work collaboratively with us to help support member obligations and best practices, such as providing best practice metadata represented in Participation Reports on behalf of members.
Members looking for advice on how to evaluate service providers can consult guidance on working with a service provider in our documentation.
Organisations eligible for the Service Providers program include:
These organisations play an important role in helping members implement metadata best practices, maintain DOI stewardship, integrate Crossref services into their workflows, and troubleshoot technical challenges on our platform. This free program provides a formal framework for collaboration between Crossref and these service providers to support richer and more complete scholarly metadata.
The program is designed to support the registration and maintenance of high-quality and rich metadata, thereby contributing to a more connected and complete research nexus. To achieve this, we have developed two service provider tiers. The Basic tier reflects that participants in the program are able to provide members with core metadata support, while the Advanced tier includes participants who can provide all the capabilities of the Basic tier plus additional features that enable even richer metadata support for Crossref members.
Organisations participating in the Service Providers program will be listed on our website and, in turn, will receive a badge to use on their website signalling their participation in our Service Providers program. Your organisation will also receive advance communication about relevant Crossref updates and any changes to our schema. You will also receive access to our test systems for integration testing, and have opportunities to provide us with feedback on services, workflows and other developments.
By participating in the program, participants will commit to making an effort to stay up to date with Crossref services and policies and share information about their client service offerings and workflows, including metadata delivery options. Similarly, participants will commit to creating and maintaining test accounts for Crossref to facilitate efficient member support.
It is expected that service providers on our program will promote metadata best practices as represented in our Participation Reports, ensure that their clients’ content and landing pages are maintained and actively resolving, and make reasonable efforts to accommodate services and schema changes.
Applications to join the program are open and will be reviewed on a continuous basis. After completing the form below, you will be invited to an accreditation call which will involve demonstrations of the required functionality. This will help us assess which of the requirements your organisation is able to meet, and which tier would be most suitable.
We recommend reviewing the questions to ensure that the appropriate technical and operational requirements can be met before beginning the application. If you require clarification on any of these questions, please do not hesitate to reach out to us.
In addition to meeting all the Basic Tier requirements, applicants must confirm whether they:
Each participant in the program will be required to renew their accreditation at the beginning of each calendar year starting in 2028. This will be done through the submission of a re-accreditation form which may include new requirements such as support for a new schema version. You are invited to complete the application form below to be considered for the program. We look forward to working with you.
Nota Bene: The Service Providers Program is separate from the Sponsors Program where organisations (that may or may not offer tools for metadata registration) act as facilitators to make membership and participation in Crossref more accessible by lowering technical and financial barriers.
