(se also a corresponding guide for books.)
Here's the smallest amount of information that you need to know to make correct, minimized, NISO OpenURL 1.0 links for journals and journal articles:
a 1.0 OpenURL using the "journal metadata format can be made as follows
<baseurl>?url_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:journal&<key1>=<value1>&<key2>=<value2>&...&<key2>=<value2>
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<baseurl> is the bit that you need to customize for each institution, it's the address of their OpenURL link service.
url_ver=Z39.88-2004 says "this is a version 1.0 OpenURL".
rft_val_fmt=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:journal says "this URL uses the info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:journal metadata format to describe the thing that the link is about".
The journal metadata <key>s are summarized below (order does not matter, all elements are optional.) Values need to be URL-encoded. In other words:
<space> --> %20 # --> %23 % --> %25 & --> %26 + --> %2B < --> %3C = --> %3D > --> %3E ? --> %3FYou also need to escape accented characters, such as:
é --> %C3%A9 ü --> %C3%BCbut you'll want professional help for them!
It's strongly recommended that you add a "referrer id" like this:
rfr_id=info:sid/<your-domain>:<your-id>
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If you have a doi or a url for the thing you're linking to,you can add them like this:
rft_id=info:doi/<the-url-encoded-doi>
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rft_id=http://<the-rest-of-the-url-encoded-url>
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| Key | Explanation |
|---|---|
| rft.atitle | Article title. |
| rft.title | Journal title. Provided for compatibility with version 0.1. Prefer jtitle. |
| rft.jtitle | Journal title. Use the most complete title available. Abbreviated titles, when known, are records in stitle. This can also be expressed as title, for compatibility with version 0.1. "journal of the american medical association" |
| rft.stitle | Abbreviated or short journal title. This is used for journal title abbreviations, where known, i.e. "J Am Med Assn" |
| rft.date | Date of publication. |
| rft.volume | Volume designation.Volume is usually expressed as a number but could be roman numerals or non-numeric, i.e. "124", or "VI". |
| rft.issue | This is the designation of the published issue of a journal, corresponding to the actual physical piece in most cases. While usually numeric, it could be non-numeric. Note that some publications use chronology in the place of enumeration, i.e. Spring, 1998. |
| rft.spage | First page number of a start/end (spage-epage) pair. Note that pages are not always numeric. |
| rft.epage | Second (ending) page number of a start/end (spage-epage) pair. |
| rft.pages | Start and end pages, i.e. "53-58". This can also be used for an unstructured pagination statement when data relating to pagination cannot be interpreted as a start-end pair, i.e. "A7, C4-9", "1-3,6". This data element includes the OpenURL 0.1 definition of "pages". |
| rft.artnum | Article number assigned by the publisher. Article numbers are often generated for publications that do not have usable pagination, in particular electronic journal articles, i.e. "unifi000000090". A URL may be the only usable identifier for an online article, in which case the URL can be treated as an identifier for the article (i.e. "rft_id=http://www.firstmonday.org/ issues/issue6_2/odlyzko/ index.html"). |
| rft.issn | International Standard Serials Number (ISSN). The issn may contain a hyphen, i.e. "1041-5653" |
| rft.eissn | ISSN for electronic version of the journal. Although there is no distinction by format in the assignment of ISSNs, some bibliographic services now carry both the ISSN for the paper version and a separate ISSN for the electronic version. This data element is included here to allow the OpenURL to carry both ISSNs and distinguish them. |
| rft.aulast | First author's family name. This may be more than one word. In many citations, the author's family name is recorded first and is followed by a comma, i.e. Smith, Fred James is recorded as "aulast=smith" |
| rft.aufirst | First author's given name or names or initials. This data element may contain multiple words and punctuation, i.e, "Fred James" |
| rft.auinit | First author's first and middle initials. |
| rft.auinit1 | First author's first initial. |
| rft.auinitm | First author's middle initial. |
| rft.ausuffix | First author's name suffix. Qualifiers on an author's name such as "Jr.", "III" are entered here. i.e. Smith, Fred Jr. is recorded as "ausuffux=jr" |
| rft.au | This data element contains the full name of a single author, i. e. "Smith, Fred M", "Harry S. Truman". |
| rft.aucorp | Organization or corporation that is the author or creator of the document, i.e. "Mellon Foundation" |
| rft.isbn | International Standard Book Number (ISBN). The ISBN is usually presented as 9 digits plus a final check digit (which may be "X"), i.e. "057117678X" but it may contain hyphens, i.e. "1-878067-73-7" |
| rft.coden | CODEN |
| rft.sici | Serial Item and Contribution Identifier (SICI) |
| rft.genre |
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| rft.chron | Enumeration or chronology in not-normalized form, i.e. "1st quarter". Where numeric dates are also available, place the numeric portion in the "date" Key. So a recorded date of publication of "1st quarter 1992" becomes date=1992&chron=1st quarter. Normalized indications of chronology can be provided in the ssn and quarter Keys. |
| rft.ssn | Season (chronology). Legitimate values are spring, summer, fall, winter |
| rft.quarter | Quarter (chronology). Legitimate values are 1, 2, 3, 4. |
| rft.part | Part can be a special subdivision of a volume or it can be the highest level division of the journal. Parts are often designated with letters or names, i.e. "B", "Supplement". |