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Identifiers

DOI (Digital Object Identifier)

Also called: DOI, digital object identifier

A permanent identifier for a document — usually a journal article — that resolves to its current location no matter how many times the publisher moves it.

A DOI looks like 10.1038/nature12373: a prefix identifying the registrant, a slash, and a suffix the registrant chooses. It is registered rather than derived, and the registrant undertakes to keep it resolving. That is what makes it the most reliable thing you can put in a reference.

Modern styles want it as a full URL — https://doi.org/10.1038/nature12373 — rather than the bare string or the old “doi:” prefix. APA 7 and MLA 9 both moved to the https form.

Because a DOI is registered metadata, it is also machine-resolvable: hand one to Crossref and you get the authors, title, journal, volume, and pages back. That is why pasting a DOI into a citation generator produces a complete reference and pasting a URL often does not.

Correct form in a reference

https://doi.org/10.1000/jsc.2021.145 — not doi:10.1000/jsc.2021.145 and not dx.doi.org.

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See also

ISBNA 13-digit identifier for a specific edition and format of a book, assigned per product rather than per title.PMID and PMCIDPubMed's numeric identifier for a biomedical citation (PMID) and PubMed Central's identifier for a full-text copy (PMCID).arXiv IDThe identifier for a preprint on arXiv, in the form 2403.01234, with a version suffix marking which revision you read.Handle / persistent URIA persistent identifier issued by a repository, of which the DOI is the best-known implementation.PermalinkA URL the publisher undertakes to keep working, as opposed to a session, search, or tracking URL that will rot.

More in identifiers

ISBNISSNPMID and PMCIDarXiv IDORCID iDOCLC numberHandle / persistent URI

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