This article will address the topic of Wikipedia:Digital Object Identifier, which has been the object of interest and study in various areas throughout history. From its origins to the present, Wikipedia:Digital Object Identifier has been the subject of debate, research and controversy, making it a fundamental reference point for understanding different aspects of human life. Through a detailed and rigorous analysis, the implications and meanings of Wikipedia:Digital Object Identifier will be explored, as well as its relevance in the current context. Likewise, different perspectives and approaches will be analyzed that will shed light on this broad and diverse topic. Thus, we will seek to offer a complete and enriching vision that contributes to the knowledge and understanding of Wikipedia:Digital Object Identifier in all its dimensions.
This help page is a how-to guide. It details processes or procedures of some aspect(s) of Wikipedia's norms and practices. It is not one of Wikipedia's policies or guidelines, and may reflect varying levels of consensus and vetting. |
A digital object identifier (DOI) is a unique persistent identifier to a published work, similar in concept to an ISBN. Wikipedia supports the use of DOI to link to published content. Where a journal source has a DOI, it is good practice to use it, in the same way as it is good practice to use ISBN references for book sources.
It may be better to use other identifiers instead; for example where content is freely available, generally {{PMC}} and {{PMID}} -based links will link to both free content and non-free content, while the DOI links are sometimes only to paywall-restricted content. |
There are several ways to cite a reference via DOI. In general, you should avoid entering explicit URLs to the doi.org website. By using one of the following methods, the actual links are centrally managed and can be adjusted if the external website alters the way the URLs must be formatted.
A wiki-formatted link, for example:
Is handled and displayed as:
A DOI is not case-sensitive.
This is an alternative way to generate a link to the article.
gives:
It generates an external URL link rather than a wikilink. In addition, the "doi:" string is displayed as a separate link (to the Digital object identifier page) rather than being part of the reference link itself. This template is also used internally in various {{cite}} templates via a parameter doi=
.
Wikipedia citations (including DOI) can be generated from the DOI by several citation tools such as Citer. Many tools can generate a full citation from a variety of reference IDs, e.g. DOI, ISBN, PMID, PMCID, OCLC.
Note that these Wikipedia guidelines do not conform to revised DOI display guidelines issued by CrossRef, which recommend displaying DOIs in URL format, for example, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.iheduc.2008.03.001
This approach avoids a number of common issues with citations in Wikipedia: