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APA Style Guide, 7th Edition: URLs and DOIs

The most current edition of APA style guide

General Rules for URLs or DOIs

URLs or DOIs (9.34)

Uniform Resource Locators (URLs) are used for items found on the free Web, when no DOI is available. URLs are constantly changing, moving, or being deleted. Researchers should check each URL before submitting a paper to make sure it still links to the correct content. The URL is copied and pasted to the end of the reference, no Retrieved from is necessary before pasting the URLDo not put a period after the URL, this may be mistaken for part of the URL. URLs should be live if the reader is expected to be able to access the information online.   

Maintain spacing and characters exactly for retrieval purposes. If off by one character, readers will not be able to retrieve the content.

Example:

Frank, S. & Bronheim, S. (2007, Spring). Building integrated systems to address sudden unexpected infant deathhttps://nccc.georgetown.edu/documents/MI_BL.pdf

A Digital Object Identifier (DOI) is a string of numbers and characters that allows a reader to locate content online using a persistent link. It is unique to each piece of information it is assigned. Whether in print or electronic, if a DOI is assigned USE it in your citation. If a DOI is given then no other retrieval information is needed. This is true for any publication on the Internet, in print, or in a database. Some DOIs may not have the https before it, if it is only the alphanumeric string, put it in a retrievable format by adding the prefix https://doi.org/ Place a DOI at the end of your citation in the following format https://doi.org/xxxxxxxxxxxx

Maintain spacing and characters exactly for retrieval purposes. If off by one character, readers will not be able to retrieve the article. Try it out here, copy and paste the following DOI into a search engine to see where it leads.

Example:

Head, A. J., DeFrain, E., Fister, B., & MacMillan, M. (2019). Across the great divide: How today's college students engage with news. First Monday, 24(8). https://doi.org/10.5210/fm.v24i8.10166