Library FAQs

A DOI (Digital Object Identifier) is a unique identifier for digital objects that is more permanent than a URL, they are frequently used for academic journal articles.  Because the DOI is permanent it insures you can find the article regardless of website changes. Citation styles, like APA, require the DOI in a citation for an electronic journal article.

DOIs may only have numbers, have a combination of letters and numbers, or be a URL.

• If your DOI starts with https://, simply paste it into your web browser. This will usually lead you to a journal publisher's page for the article.
• You can turn any DOI starting with 10 into a URL by adding http://doi.org/ before the DOI. For example, 10.1371/journal.pone.0294593 becomes https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0294593

If you don't know the DOI for an article you can look:

1. On the first few pages of the article along with other citation information
2. CrossRef DOI search
3. The library database where you retrieved the article may have a DOI

Not all articles have DOIs, for example if it was published before 1998 (even into the early 2000s) or only published in print it will not have a DOI.