Structural Threat to FAIR and Data Citation Principles: Inaccessible DOI Landing Pages in Some Commercial Repositories

[Pogrebnoj-Alexandroff]

I would like to raise a concern relevant to FAIR principles, Data Citation Principles, and the long-term reliability of scholarly communication infrastructures.

There are increasing cases where commercial repositories restrict access to previously open scientific works, including materials with assigned DOIs. Authors may lose access to their own publications, while the DOI continues to resolve to an empty, inaccessible, or paywalled landing page.

This situation represents a structural threat to the global scholarly communication ecosystem:

• FAIR Accessibility and Reusability are violated when DOI landing pages no longer provide access.
• Data Citation Principles cannot be fulfilled if cited resources become inaccessible.
• DOI persistence becomes unreliable as a mechanism for long-term scholarly reference.
• Reproducibility and verification are compromised.
• Independent researchers are disproportionately affected.

Given FORCE11’s role in shaping global standards for research communication, I would like to suggest initiating a discussion on:

1. How FAIR and Data Citation Principles should address cases where DOI-assigned materials become inaccessible.
2. Whether repository accountability guidelines should be strengthened to ensure long-term accessibility.
3. How the scholarly communication community might detect or annotate cases where DOI endpoints no longer provide access.
4. Potential recommendations for protecting authors and readers when repositories restrict access to DOI-assigned works.

This issue is becoming increasingly common and represents a systemic risk to the integrity of scholarly communication.

Thank you for considering this topic for discussion within the FORCE11 community.