OJS 3.3 Tutorial

Published on 11 Jul 2026

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Unlike OJS 3.4, DOI registration in OJS 3.3 requires two separate plugins: the DOI Plugin and the Crossref XML Export Plugin.

Step 1 — Enable the DOI Plugin

Ask your OJS administrator to install the DOI Plugin, if not already installed, and to add the DOI prefix assigned by Crossref (format 10.xxxx, e.g., 10.1234).
To check whether the DOI Plugin is already set up:

Go to Settings > Website.
Select the Plugins tab.
Search under Public Identifier Plugins and find DOI.
Click the checkbox on the right side of the plugin description to enable it.

Image source: https://www.crossref.org/documentation/register-maintain-records/ojs-plugin/ojs-3.3/

Step 2 — Set Up the Crossref XML Export Plugin

Make sure you are using OJS version 3 or higher for the plugin to work properly.

Go to the Tools menu.
Select the Import/Export tab.
Click Crossref XML Export Plugin.

Image source: https://www.crossref.org/documentation/register-maintain-records/ojs-plugin/ojs-3.3/

There are three ways to deposit content with Crossref:

Automatic registration via the OJS plugin.
Manual registration through the plugin interface.
Manual registration by uploading/exporting XML.

To enable automatic deposits, check the box at the bottom of the DOI Plugin settings page.
Image source: https://www.crossref.org/documentation/register-maintain-records/ojs-plugin/ojs-3.3/

Step 3 — Fill in the Plugin Configuration

Complete the following fields on the plugin settings page:
Image source: https://www.crossref.org/documentation/register-maintain-records/ojs-plugin/ojs-3.3/

Depositor name — the name of the organization registering the DOIs (not authenticated by Crossref).
Depositor email — the email of the person responsible for registering content with Crossref (also not authenticated).
Username — the username element of your Crossref depositor credentials, used for authentication. May be a set of letters (role credentials) or an email address (user credentials).
Password — the password associated with your Crossref depositor credentials.

Username format note: For shared, organization-wide role credentials (letters-only username), enter the username and password as-is. For personal user credentials (username in email format), the username field must be entered as email address + role, with your personal password in the password field.

401 error note: An incorrect username/password combination will produce a "401 unauthorized status code" error during registration.