Towards text copyright detection using metadata in web applications

PurposeThis paper aims to present the semantic content identifier (SCI), a permanent identifier, computed through a linear‐time onion‐peeling algorithm that enables the extraction of semantic features from a text, and the integration of this information within the permanent identifier.Design/methodology/approachThe authors employ SCI to propose a mechanism for simultaneously checking the authenticity and degrees of similarity between different information objects, and present an empirical investigation of the method. A management scenario for the control of the authentication process and the detection of the degree of violation of documents is proposed.FindingsSuch a mechanism could be adopted as a component of libraries' strategy for the protection of the copyrights for documents published on the web.Practical implicationsThe use of the proposed numeric code can be utilised efficiently as a constituent part of the digital object identifier (DOI) system, making its computation more efficient and meaningful.Originality/valueThe identifier proposed in the paper can result in a more efficient index for identifying and retrieving objects in a digital library, as well as online repositories and commercial applications that can handle information retrieval requests more effectively.