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Linking to Oxford Journals

Oxford Journals provides a number of mechanisms for linking to our online journal content: these are detailed below. We are committed to supporting the latest technical innovations to aid linking and access to our content. Please contact us if you have any questions or feedback.

Journal metadata, URLs, and online coverage
URL-based linking algorithms
OpenURL linking
CrossRef and DOIs
RSS web feeds
Proxy servers
Specifications for Third Party Linking Agreement
Cover images


Journal metadata, URLs, and online coverage

Download a list of journal codes, ISSNs, home page URLs, collection information and holdings coverage as a Microsoft Excel file or a comma-separated text file. The spreadsheet contains the following fields:

  1. Prefix - to allow identification and sorting of journals whose titles begin with "The".
  2. Journal Title - the journal name.
  3. Homepage URL - the primary URL for the journal.
  4. Print ISSN - ISSN for the print version.
  5. Online ISSN - ISSN for the online version.
  6. PDF Starts - the volume, issue and year at which articles become available as full text PDF.
  7. Full Text HTML Starts - the volume, issue and year at which articles become available as full text HTML.
  8. Oxford Journals Archive Collection - Pre-1996 content is purchasable as separate-subject based products. There are five archive collections: Medicine, Law, Science, Humanities, and Social Sciences. Some journals appear in multiple collections.
  9. International URL - sites are browsable from an alternative URL for users in specific global locations.
  10. HighWire/OAI-PMH Code - code representing the journal in HighWire systems, for example to retrieve data via OAI-PMH. This code is also used for digitized archive local loading data.
  11. Domain Name Code - code used in the subdomain for the journal website i.e. http://code.oxfordjournals.org.
  12. OUP code 1 - for internal OUP use.
  13. Short title - an abbreviated title for the journal, usually an abbreviation used by PubMed or ISI.
  14. Archive-Current boundary - a current subscription to a journal gives access to all content back to 1996. Pre-1996 content is purchasable separately via an Oxford Journals Archive product. This column gives the volume/issue number of that boundary.
  15. Oxford Journals Collection - current subscriptions can be purchased by institutions as 'collection' packages. This column indicates which collection a journal is part of. Journals can appear in multiple collections. Note that these are different to the Oxford Journals Archive packages.
  16. Open Access - indicates what Open Access model a journal participates in.


URL-based linking algorithms

Using the home page URL spreadsheet available above, URL-based links to specific pages can be created using the following algorithms.

If an article has a DOI, the DOI should be used for persistent linking. DOIs for Oxford Journals can be looked up via CrossRef.

OpenURL "Inbound" linking

In order to link to Oxford Journals content using an OpenURL syntax, use the CrossRef OpenURL Resolver.

Please note that use of the previous Oxford Journals OpenURL resolver is deprecated in favour of CrossRef's OpenURL resolver. Users of that mechanism should migrate to the CrossRef resolver by end 2006.

OpenURL "Outbound" linking

If you are the administrator of an institution which has an OpenURL link server, you can add outbound OpenURL reference links to reference lists on Oxford Journals online. See the OpenURL for Librarians page for details on how to activate these links.

CrossRef and DOIs

Oxford Journals deposits DOIs and metadata for our journal content with CrossRef. For an introduction to CrossRef services see the CrossRef Fast Facts page.

Anyone wishing to link to Oxford Journals content can query the CrossRef database using bibliographic metadata and receive DOIs for successful matches.

If you know the DOI of an article (e.g. doi:10.1093/nar/gkh704), simply append it to http://dx.doi.org/ to make a link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/nar/gkh704

Libraries can now look up DOIs or retrieve metadata from CrossRef for free.

RSS web feeds

Our journal RSS web feeds provide another method to receive Oxford Journals metadata and links. Find out more about what RSS feeds are available and download an RSS OPML file on the Oxford Journals RSS web feeds information page.

Proxy servers

If your institution uses EZProxy you can download details of Oxford Journals websites for inclusion in your ezproxy.cfg file.

Specifications for Third Party Linking Agreement

For further details on Third Party linking agreements and PDF retrieval see the section on metadata distrubution on the technical information page

Cover images

You can create a link which pulls in the current cover image of a journal with the following linking syntax:
<a href="http://brain.oxfordjournals.org/current.dtl">
<img src="http://brain.oxfordjournals.org/current_cover.gif" alt="cover image"/>
</a>

For example:
cover image