Answered By: Ken Winter
Last Updated: Apr 10, 2017     Views: 53

A DOI, or "Digital Object Identifier" is a unique and permanent alphanumeric ID that publishers may assign to electronic versions of articles, books, and other digital resources to make them easier to find online. DOIs have been widely adopted by publishers and are included in many citation styles used by researchers to cite publications and required for submissions to journals and professional publications. For this reason, many of the library's databases allow you to search by DOI. 

When you ask the library to get an article for you, providing the DOI speeds up the process for us and helps ensure we get you exactly what you need!

The DOI, when available (Articles published prior to 2000 are less likely to have DOIs.), can usually be found in a few key places: 

On the first page of an e-journal article, often near the copyright notice. (Example: TRR article)

Where a DOI appears in a TRR article.

In the database record for an article (Example: TRR Online)

Screen capture showing the DOI for an article from Transportation Research Record.

NOTE: You can see if an article has a DOI by searching CrossRef, the official DOI Registration Agency of the International DOI Foundation. Just like books have ISBNs and journals have ISSNs, many articles will have a DOI that identifies that specific article. So, an article with a DOI will be part of a journal, which will have an ISSN.  Be careful not to confuse a DOI with an ISBN!
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