I love the idea for this plugin. Given that none of the reference managers seem to have a shortDOI field, and many people (including publishers) are unfamiliar with them, I think a useful option would be to use the URL field - i.e. instead of "10/g8g8", keep the long form in the DOI field, but use: https://doi.org/g8g8 as the URL. This would have the advantages of leaving out the redundant "10/" without ambiguity, and being self-explanatory to people who are unfamilar with shortDOIs and even DOIs in general.
I suppose they might drop the service, but I trust the DOI foundation not to break a huge number of existing persistent links after ten years, given its whole selling point is persistence. On the use of the 10/, although the shortdoi page gives that option, e.g. "doi:10/aabbe can be used in place of doi:10.1002/(SICI)1097... {etc}", that display format has long since been deprecated: "DOIs should: •always be displayed as a full URL ... •not be preceded by doi: or DOI:" https://www.crossref.org/display-guidelines/ And since the shortdoi page also gives the option of URLs without the 10/, I think that's the natural display format, and the URL field is the natural place to store them until software catches up. I've used them in a couple of preprints, and I'm happy with how compact and readable they are, e.g. here: https://doi.org/fm32 Although clickable, they could easily be read out over the phone or typed in from a printout, which would be effectively impossible with long DOIs. They're also self-explanatory to people who are unfamiliar with DOIs, i.e. nearly everyone.
The preferred approaches for readability of DOIs are (1) publishers should mint shorter DOIs (this has largely happened—the SICI ones you mention aren’t really made anymore) or (2) embed the DOI link with the display text being the item title, a DOI or CrossRef button, or similar anchor (as is generally done on journal websites).
ShortDOIs are great for sharing a quick link over email or for display on presentation slides, but they shouldn’t be used in publications (eg, this may interfere with citation cross-linking, which relies on matching DOIs)
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https://doi.org/g8g8
as the URL. This would have the advantages of leaving out the redundant "10/" without ambiguity, and being self-explanatory to people who are unfamilar with shortDOIs and even DOIs in general.
If you do use them, I suggest keeping the 10/ for clarity.
On the use of the 10/, although the shortdoi page gives that option, e.g. "doi:10/aabbe can be used in place of doi:10.1002/(SICI)1097... {etc}", that display format has long since been deprecated:
"DOIs should:
•always be displayed as a full URL ...
•not be preceded by doi: or DOI:"
https://www.crossref.org/display-guidelines/
And since the shortdoi page also gives the option of URLs without the 10/, I think that's the natural display format, and the URL field is the natural place to store them until software catches up. I've used them in a couple of preprints, and I'm happy with how compact and readable they are, e.g. here:
https://doi.org/fm32
Although clickable, they could easily be read out over the phone or typed in from a printout, which would be effectively impossible with long DOIs. They're also self-explanatory to people who are unfamiliar with DOIs, i.e. nearly everyone.
ShortDOIs are great for sharing a quick link over email or for display on presentation slides, but they shouldn’t be used in publications (eg, this may interfere with citation cross-linking, which relies on matching DOIs)