A DOI, Digital Object Identifier, is a unique number assigned to electronic publications by publishers at the article or chapter level. You need to try and find the DOI for all articles retrieved electronically (whether through a database, the library’s website, Google, Google Scholar, etc.)
- APA requires you to list a DOI if one is available
- Sometimes DOI’s may appear in the citation sent from a database but often they are not included.
- Check the first page of an article carefully to see if a DOI is available. DOI’s often appear at the top of the page but may also appear in other places such as the side or bottom of the page or within the abstract.
- If there is no DOI listed, you can check CrossRef, http://search.crossref.org/ to see if one is available there. Search by entering the article title in the search box.
