Answered By: Libguide Admin
Last Updated: Apr 14, 2016     Views: 61

 A Digital Object Identifier, or DOI, is a unique string of characters used to identify one particular online item such as a scholarly article.  It should start with 10. but is sometimes preceded by "doi:" which is not actually a part of the DOI name.  A DOI generally looks like this: 10.1006/jmbi.1998.2354

Sometimes a DOI will not be provided, or you may have a DOI without knowing what article it is assigned to.  If the DOI is not provided, you can use the free DOI lookup from Crossref.org by entering the citation information.  If you have a DOI and want to know what unique item it is assigned to, you can enter the DOI into the DOI website and get a webpage associated with that DOI.

You may need the DOI for some citation styles that require or prefer that the DOI is included for electronic articles.

 

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