Even after they are "published" journal articles can be updated with supplementary data, corrections or even retractions. That's where Crossmark comes in.
Crossmark is a standardized online tool that helps readers to locate the most up-to-date version of a document with a single click and is prominently featured in journal articles appearing in the ASCE Library database.
When you find and download the pdf of an article in ASCE Library you may notice the Crossmark logo on the first page. It looks like this:
The Crossmark logo on an article indicates that ASCE is maintaining the content it publishes and is used to alert readers to changes in the article content—if and when they occur.
Clicking the Crossmark logo on a document will tell you its current status and may also give you additional publication-record information about the document. Here's what you will typically see when you click on the icon (which is embedded on the pdf):
If an update does exist, the status information will include a link called a DOI (Digital Object Identifier), which leads to the most up-to-date version and any associated documents such as Errata, Expressions of Concern, and Retractions.
Lots of scholarly publications receive a DOI these days, regardless of whether they are ever edited/updated/revised, because a DOI not only uniquely identifies an item (almost like a social security number for a work), but it also helps researchers locate the item (or "resolve" to it) even if it moves or its URL changes. So among other things, DOIs solve the problem of "broken links."
The organization assigning and managing the DOIs is Crossref, a non-profit group of thousands of publishers and societies that interlinks millions of items from a variety of content types, including journals, books, conference proceedings, working papers, technical reports, and data sets.
For more details about DOIs check out the FAQ: What is a DOI? How would I find it and why would I use it?
