Skip to Main Content

Citation and Style Guides: DOI- What is That?

DOI- What is It?

Formatting DOIs

APA, MLA, and Chicago formats require "http://doi.org/" or "https://doi.org/" before the DOI number/letter string.

  • Example: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.applanim.2019.04.002

AMA does not require "https://".  Instead, you must put "doi: " before the number/letter string.  Be sure to include a space between "doi:" and the string.

  • Example: doi: 10.1179/2045772311Y.0000000042

DOIs and URLs

DOI stands for "digital object identifier"; URL stands for "uniform resource locator."  Both are hyperlinks, but DOIs are more authoritative.  URLs can change overtime, while DOIs are permanent.  Always use a DOI over a URL.

Not every source will have a DOI; if you cannot find a DOI, you can use the URL.

DOIs are not related to the peer-review status of an article.  A peer-reviewed article and a non-peer-reviewed article can both have DOIs.

UCNJ LibGuides at Union College