Have you ever wondered what is DOI in APA?
When we make citations and references under the APA standards, the term “DOI” It appears constantly and although we are told what a two or three words is, the truth is that it is not completely clear what it is. Taking this into consideration and because we know that knowledge and a bit of general culture are never too many, we decided to explain to you what is DOI in APA.
Let's start at the beginning: what is DOI in APA?
Surely you have wondered what is behind that term "DOI" that you have read so much while doing your research under the APA Standards format. The simplest answer is that DOI stands for “Digital Object Identifier”, ie: Digital Object Identifier, but that doesn't really tell us anything.
In simpler words, the DOI is a kind of fingerprint; a unique, exclusive and permanent form of identification for electronic publications (magazines, articles, books, software, videos, etc.). At the same time, it is like a kind of library archivist, since it works to give us the description of that digital object and where we can locate it on the network. This is achieved due to metadata such as the name of the author, title of the digital work, among other details.
You can locate the DOI of a digital article at the end of it. There you will see (if it has one) a series of numbers and letters without any apparent meaning, but it is the DOI.
What is the DOI for?
The DOI has multiple functions. Although the main one is to identify any electronic content, it also serves to locate them at all times. Remember that the Internet is very wide and it is easy for a resource to simply be “lost”. The DOI prevents it.
But for our purposes, perhaps the most important function of the DOI is to be able to cite that electronic source.
How to cite a DOI?
The rule NISO Z39.84, DOI Synta, is what establishes the structure of this electronic fingerprint in this way:
It starts with the DOI directory which is nothing more than a URL. It is followed by a prefix that identifies the publishing entity and ends with a suffix to indicate the digital source. The suffix and prefix are separated by a "/".
In that sense, DOIs look like this:
This information is vital for the construction of electronic source citations.
Worse, DOIs are not generated automatically, but must be requested at registration agencies. One of the best known in Crossref, although not the only one. And yes, it has a cost.
Why use a DOI?
In the information age, sometimes finding something can become like finding a needle in a haystack. Under that premise, DOIs guarantee that you will always have access to an electronic source even if you change your address. Imagine that there is a digital magazine you want to use and that, a year later, it changes its name. Its URL will also change and whoever wants to access the same magazine could “lose it” because they would no longer know how to locate it. The DOI avoids those situations.
Another advantage is that it is a way of quick and easy access and identification, which affects the use and visibility of electronic sources. Likewise, it favors intellectual property because and citations in research papers and scientific articles.
How to locate an electronic object with DOI?
As already mentioned, DOI articles are much easier to locate and can be done across different platforms.
The main one is the official DOI website (htto://dx.doi.org/). There are also search engines such as MEDRA (multilingual European Registration Agency of DOI) (http://www.medra.org/) and Crossref (http//crossref.org/). And of course, we always have the trusty Google. Whose search engine also facilitates the location of some electronic resource through its DOI.
Making references with DOI
DOIs are often very long and reproducing them in their entirety can be annoying to the eye. That is why there are platforms for “shorten” DOIs and make them more attractive and easier to manipulate (cut, paste...).
One of the best known platforms in shortdoi.org in which the hyperlink of the DOI that you want to shorten is copied and generates a shorter one.
According to him Manual of the American Psychological Association (APA in English), the DOI is written in citations after the volume, issue, and pages of the online publication. After typing a period, the DOI is inserted in lowercase.
In that sense, the structure of the reference would be as follows:
Author's last name, author's first initial. (Year of publication). Article name. Publication name in italics. Volume, (Edition number), pages where the article is located. doi: http://enlacedeldoi
Under that format, an example is as follows:
Marichal, K. (2019). Dream inspiration: the truth behind dreams. Active Psychology, 15(5), 25-31. doi: http//doi.org/9gu
However, there are publications that prohibit the use of tools to shorten the DOI, so always ask if the electronic publication has any regulations for referencing and citations.
Use the DOI or the URL?
The APA standards stipulate that, if it exists, the ideal is always publish the DOI of the scientific article instead of its URL. This, preventing a possible change of electronic address, which favored the loss of the object.
First, check to see if the item has a DOI visible. If you can't find it, go to crossref.org and tries to find the electronic source in its browser. If you didn't, then you have several options:
If what you want to cite is in an online database, choose share your URL. If it is only available in that database, then include the name of the database and its access number or the url of the database. It is up to you.
As you can see, the emergence of DOIs is not a whim to complicate researchers, but a way to prevent scientific articles from "disappearing" on the web.