Writers and scholars rely heavily on published works. Writers use these legacy works, in the form of citations, to support the new work. The common practice of listing all references cited in the new work became known as the reference list. Entries on the reference list follow the journal's bibliographic style. For the Journal of the American Association of Nurse Practitioners (JAANP), the use of the American Psychological Association (APA) style guide directs the order and format of elements contained within the reference. One such element is the Digital Objective Identifier (DOI). The use of the DOI is quite valuable; however, JAANP has received a number of manuscripts for consideration with an inappropriate use of the DOI.

Technology afforded the migration of access to scientific publications from the native print format to a digital environment. Technology also afforded the evolution of an infrastructure to support scholarly activities and referencing. International publishers collectively created DOIs in the late 1990s. By 2000, the publishers had a formalized approach to the assignment and tracking of DOIs as a means of digital scientific content (International DOI Foundation, 2015; Paskin, 2009). The use of DOIs allow an expanded discovery and access to a wealth of digital material. Uniform utilization of DOIs for scholarly publication offers many advantages to the scientific community.

Sharing and/or managing intellectual property are among the values of using the DOIs. As an enduring identifier, a DOI spans across the publication life of the material as an entity versus a location on a digital network. A number of organizations facilitate the acquisition of the DOI. These organizations, commonly known as registration agencies, provide reference linkage to books and book chapters, journals and journal articles, reports, conference proceedings and articles, dissertations, data sets, and other formats such as video and sound recordings (Crossref, 2016; Wang, 2007). As a unique identifier, the DOI is registered in what is called a handle server; as a result, the digital object is made available for others to easily locate and cite (Kahn & Wilensky, 2006). The DOI allows the search for a published work anywhere on the Internet by using a search engine, registration company, or DOI International website.

Publishing standards strongly encourage writers to incorporate a DOI in referencing digital material. Citation in scholarly writing plays a key role in an author's integrity and literacy. A well-constructed reference list allows substantive support to the written work and credit to the original author, while allowing the reader to trace the source of the original work. Authors should incorporate the DOI as both an identifier and a link in the citation. Utilization of a link will help users unfamiliar with DOI to still access the material (Crossref, 2017). By including a DOI, there is a persistent link to locate the published content. The use of the DOI allows the reader to quickly obtain the original material that the author is citing.

Locating a DOI within a digital source to cite should not be difficult. Publishers often clearly display the DOI on the first page of the reference, either online or in print work. Free DOI lookup is available through Crossref link by including author, title, and publisher information (DOI Query) or a search through the system's Internet browser. There is also the capability to look up multiple DOIs by submitting an entire reference list into the query form at Crossref (Multiple DOI Query). Not all electronic resources or printed material, such as textbooks, have a DOI, so follow the written reference format for citing these sources.

When using a DOI, an author needs to take care in listing the DOI in its correct form to create the working link to the published content. In maintaining adhere to current citation recommendations, start the line with https://doi.org, which of followed by/10, then a prefix and suffix separated by a forward slash. The prefix is the organizational number consisting of four or more digits followed by the suffix that is a flexible amount of numbers and letters assigned by the publisher (Crossref, 2017).

Previous DOI formats, including http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/x.xxx.2018.06.002, or doi: 10.1016/x.xxx.2018.06.00, are still acceptable formats for APA style but be consistent in the citations (McAdoo, 2017). The DOI must be exact. To avoid transcription errors, copy and paste the DOI from the original source document to end of the reference section, or use bibliographic software. Here is an example of APA writing style for referencing a DOI.

Gaynor, B., Habermann, B., & Wright, R. (2018). Waist circumference measurement diffusion in primary care. The Journal for Nurse Practitioners, (14)9, 683-688. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nurpra.2018.06.002.

Authors obtain references from electronic databases, such as PubMed, CINHAL, or EMBASE. Many of the popular databases are only available through subscription or require payment to download material. Authors affiliated with a subscribing institution can access to the database through institutional subscriptions. This type of access is commonly known as a proxy. The proxy authenticates the author as a member of the organization and acts a mediator between the request of the database and the delivery of the requested material. The exchange of information is often seamless and not visible to the author.

The use of a proxy, however, can introduce errors in the DOI link. Here is an example where an author accessed a commercial bibliographic database using a university's proxy. Although the result is a hyperlink, any reader not affiliated with the university identified by the proxy would not be able to access by simply activating the link. Note how the name of the university became part of the proxy and DOI.

Cameron, J., Boxburgh, M., Taylor, J., & Lauder, W. (2010). Why students leave in the U.K.: An integrative review of the international research literature. Journal of Clinical Nursing, 20(7-8), 1086-1096. Doi-org.proxy.ABC_University.edu/10.1111/j.1365-2702.2010.03328

Reviewers for JAANP also have a need to use the original work's DOI in the peer-review process. Without doubt in the example, a reviewer most likely could locate the original citation using a combination of the elements of authors, year, title, journal, issue, and page numbers. The reviewer could then satisfy any question that might arise during the review. The inclusion of the institution in the proxy could also interfere with the blinded peer review process.

Examples below indicate the differences in incorrect citation with a proxy and correct citation without a proxy

Incorrect

Goolsby, M. J., & Roberts, M. E. (2018). Examining our four priorities. Commentary from the guest editors. Journal of the American Association of Nurse Practitioners, 30(12), 724-726. Retrieved from: https://www-ncbi-nlm-nih-gov.proxy.########.edu/pubmed/30540632.

Correct

Goolsby, M. J., & Roberts, M. E. (2018). Examining our four priorities. Commentary from the guest editors. Journal of the American Association of Nurse Practitioners, 30(12), 724-726. doi: https://10.1097/JXX.0000000000000167.

In summary, DOIs are a universal methodology for historically saving and locating electronic sources. As we expand our ability to communicate in a common language in publishing, care should be taken to include source material in established DOI format without proxies. The use of DOIs will expand both the access and discovery of scholarly literature available.

References