Q. What is a DOI?

What is a DOI?

A DOI or Digital Object Identifier is a permanent link to a digital object such as an online journal article.  It is a type of web address but is different from a URL (Uniform Resource Locator), the most common type of web address, as the content a DOI takes you to will not change.

Most web pages change their content and their style regularly.  Some web pages disappear altogether.  A DOI will always take you to the same journal article, encyclopaedia entry or other resource that it did last time. This makes it a useful tool for retrieving a particular source.  As a result, your referencing style may ask you to include a DOI if available in your reference for some source types.

Most recent journal articles will have a DOI.  You should provide the DOI in your reference if you have it as it will make your reference easy to trace. 

What does a DOI look like?

A DOI is a string of letters and numbers that will always start with a 10.  E.g.

10.1096/fasebj.31.1_supplement.636.23

10.1007/s11239-008-0273-3

It works best as a web address when there is https://doi.org/ in front of the DOI.  E.g. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijgfs.2025.101108

Some articles you access via the University of Worcester will have our authentication information (https://doi-org.apollo.worc.ac.uk/) in front of the DOI. 

E.g. https://doi-org.apollo.worc.ac.uk/10.1177/019685990831633  

Where can I find the DOI?

For journal articles, you will often find the DOI underneath the article title and author details.  On the article PDF itself you might find the DOI on first page of the article under the article title and author details at the top of the page or in a side panel, or you might find the DOI at the top of the page in the header or the bottom of the page in the footer.

What do I do if my journal article doesn't have a DOI?

If there is no DOI and your article has a volume number, issue number and page range, then you can just leave out the DOI from your reference.

If you don't have volume number and page range and you don't have a DOI, then to make the article traceable give the URL and the date you accessed the article.