The Origin
The DOI system was created to solve a major problem in digital publishing: scholarly and professional content needed a stable identity independent of changing website locations.
In the late 1990s, the publishing and information industries began developing a persistent identifier system that could support reliable linking, citation, metadata exchange, and digital content management. The DOI Foundation became the governing body for the DOI system, and the system later became an international standard.
ISO 26324
The DOI system has been standardized as ISO 26324. DOI.org states that ISO 26324 was approved in 2010, published in 2012, and later revised. ISO describes the standard as covering DOI syntax, description, resolution components, and the general principles for creating, registering, and administering DOI names.
Crossref and Reference Linking
In scholarly publishing, Crossref played a major role in making DOI-based reference linking a normal part of academic communication. Crossref was incorporated in January 2000, and its collaborative reference-linking system went live in June 2000.
Today, Crossref operates open scholarly infrastructure connecting research objects, people, organizations, and actions across the global research ecosystem.