EZID now offers QR codes

By Joan Starr, EZID Service Manager

The EZID User Interface now displays a QR code representing the URL form of the DOI or ARK. The QR Code appears on the Manage tab. If the identifier is doi:10.1234/FOO, for example, the QR code represents the URL (http://dx.doi.org/10.1234/FOO).

A QR code is a type of two-dimensional barcode that can be scanned by many mobile phone cameras.  In EZID the QR code can be thought of as a kind of persistent graphical hyperlink. Uses include automatically reading a web address from a printed page or offline display into a mobile phone’s browser.   Simply right click on the code to copy the image and use it anywhere you’d like.

If you’d like to test this new function, go to EZID’s Help tab. You’ll see there that you can make test DOIs and test ARKs without an EZID account. Just click Create. Once you do, you’ll be on the Manage tab where you will see the QR code for the new identifier. For information about getting an EZID account, contact us.

You might already have ideas about how to use EZID QR codes. Jeremy Scheff has written about including QR Codes on academic posters presentations for material that doesn’t fit onto the poster. (How well does your dataset fit?) And Marc Kuchner advocates using QR codes to “market” science (http://www.postdocsforum.com/2011/07/05/marketing-your-science-using-mobile-barcodes/), including building relationships within the scientific community. Please feel free to post comments here and let us know how you are using the codes.

For those curious about QR codes more generally, Wikipedia has a nice summary page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QR_code.