How to find a DOI for a journal article

A DOI, or Digital Object Identifier, is a persistent identifier for a publication. It is commonly shown as a number beginning with 10. and may also appear as a link beginning with https://doi.org/.

Where to look

• Publisher article page: check the article details, abstract, or citation information area.
• PubMed: open the article record and look in its identifier details for a DOI, when one is listed.
• Crossref: search by article title or authors in its public metadata search, then compare the result with the publication.

A DOI link and a plain DOI identify the same item. Copy the complete value, without surrounding quotation marks or sentence punctuation. If the article has no DOI, you can try a title or keyword search, but check the candidate list carefully before selecting a record.

If the lookup finds no result

Check for a missing character or extra punctuation and compare the DOI with the publisher page. A valid DOI can still lack a matching record in the sources available to the tool. You can also look up a source by its title or keywords, then review the returned candidates.

Once you have a result, follow the steps in our NLM journal citation guide and compare the details with the article.