DOI (digital object
identifier) is an identification code for published works like journals. The
code was developed and implemented in the year 2000 by the International DOI
Foundation (IDF) and is assigned by the
publisher. A DOI is created by a registration agency (Crossref)
involving an alphanumeric code beginning with “10”
and a prefix of four or more numbers. A slash comes after the prefix followed
by a suffixed allocated by the publisher.
DOIs generate unique
uniform resource locators (URLs) beginning with https://doi.org/.
For instance, the DOI https://doi.org/10.1086/679716 leads
you to the article “Scott’s Editing: History,
Polyphony, Authority” authored by Robert Mayer, published in the May 2015 issue
of Modern Philology. DOIs are used as electronic links to an article’s location
and helps to identify the subject of the article. They should always be used in
printed or electronic articles or other published works. DOIs are commonly inserted
on the first page of journal articles.
Crossref
has recently changed the DOI format so that it becomes
more secure and web-friendly. There is a little difference between the two
formats, but check the new format and insert it into your references.
Citations
and References
Though sometimes used interchangeably, citation and reference are in fact different things. A citation is a note put into parentheses within the text and a reference is the full expansion of that note, including the information necessary to find the referenced work.
for example, (Kaufman 2017)
is an in-text citation in parentheses, or it can be just a number in bracket.
Then a reference list lists
all the citations in an alphabetical or numerical order, depending on the guidelines
of the author. An alternate for the “reference” is “bibliography”, they may be
used interchangeably. In the following you can find a list of some style guides
and the way they listed DOIs in their references.
American Psychological Association (APA)
The American Psychological
Association (APA)
referencing style is used principally in the social
sciences realm. APA has “author-date” style for in-text citations (e.g.,
Johnson, 2017). The comma comes after the name and before the date.
When referencing the
citations in the reference list, for all electronic media in APA style, the DOI
will come in the end:
Author, A. A., & Author, B. B. (Date of publication). Title of
article. Title of Journal, volume number, page range. doi:0000000/000000000000
or http://dx.doi.org/10.0000/0000.
An example of a reference
in APA style looks like this:
Morey, C. C., Cong, Y., Zheng, Y., Price, M., & Morey, R. D.
(2015). The color-sharing bonus: Roles of perceptual organization and attentive
processes in visual working memory. Archives of Scientific Psychology,
3, 18–29. https://doi.org/10.1037/arc0000014.
American Medical Association (AMA)
The American Medical
Association (AMA)
style is mainly used by medical researchers and those
related to the medical and scientific publishing industry. Like in APA style,
DOI comes at the end of a reference, the only difference being the lack of
initial https://. An example of AMA
reference style looks like this:
Coppinger T, Jeanes YM, Hardwick J, Reeves S. Body mass, frequency
of eating and breakfast consumption in 9-13- year-olds. J Hum Nutr Diet.
2012; 25(1): 43-49. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-277X.2011.01184.x
The Modern Language
Association (MLA)
style is most generally used in the field of humanities
and art. There is a little difference in in-text citations in MLA style, in
that it includes a page number in place of a date after the name of the author
(e.g., Kaufman 32). In case the name of author is mentioned within the text,
the citation parenthesis only contains the page number. MLA style is a bit different from APA or AMA
in that its in-text citations include a page number (e.g., Johnson 15) instead
of a date after the author name. If the author name is used within the text
itself, only the page number will be noted in the citation.
It is not necessary to
insert a DOL or URL in a reference in MLA style, yet it is better to include it
particularly if the journal prefers it. An MLA style reference example would be
as the following:
Alonso, Alvaro, and Julio A. Camargo. “Toxicity of Nitrite to
Three Species of Freshwater Invertebrates.” Environmental Toxicology,
vol. 21, no. 1, 3 Feb. 2006, pp. 90-94. Wiley Online Library, doi:
10.1002/tox.20155.
- In MLA
style the full names of the authors are mentioned. The last names of the
authors come first and the first name come last. The names are arranged by the
first author’s last name first and subsequent authors’ first then last names.
The title of the work is in quotation marks. - No DOI?
- Older
published papers may not include a DOI. In such cases, one can use the words
“retrieved from” in your reference with a link to the journal’s address on the
Internet. An example of an APA reference with no DOI is like this: - Author,
A. A., & Author, B. B. (Date of publication). Title of article. Title of
Journal, volume number. Retrieved from
http://www.journalhomepage.com/full/url/.
- As
always, be sure to check author guidelines of your target journal for specific
rules on citations and references.