# Creating a Digital Object Identifier Link

The digital object identifier (DOI) may be used to cite and link to electronic documents. The DOI consists of a unique alpha-numeric character string which is assigned to a document by the publisher upon the initial electronic publication. The DOI will never change. Therefore, it is an ideal medium for citing a document, particularly Articles in Press because they have not yet received their full bibliographic information.

The correct format for citing a DOI is shown as follows:

doi:10.1016/j.physletb.2003.10.071

When you use the DOI to create URL hyperlinks to documents on the web, they are guaranteed never to change.

Complete the following steps to resolve a DOI:

1. Open the following DOI site with your browser:

   http://dx.doi.org

2. Enter the entire DOI citation in the text box provided, and then click Go.

   The article that matches the DOI citation appears in your browser window.

The DOI scheme is administered by the International DOI Foundation. Many of the world's leading learned publishers have come together to build a DOI-based article linking scheme known as CrossRef.

## Related Topics

Browsing Open Documents

Exporting Article Citations

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