APA Citation Links: How to Format DOIs and URLs in APA 7

The link in an APA citation is the last element of the reference. If the work has a DOI, write it as a full link beginning https://doi.org/ and leave off any period after it. If it has no DOI but lives on the open web, give the URL. If it came from a library database and has no DOI, give no link at all.

That covers most references. The rest of this guide covers the cases those three sentences leave open: the print book that has a DOI, the database that is the only place a work exists, the 200-character report URL, the page that changes every day, and the old doi: prefix your reference manager keeps inserting.

The official APA 7 rule for DOIs and URLs

The rules sit in Sections 9.34 to 9.36 of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (7th ed.): 9.34 says when to include a DOI or URL, 9.35 says how to format one, and 9.36 covers shortened links. Every reference example in Chapter 10 follows them, including the ones in APA's Common Reference Examples guide.

Format:

Author, A. A. (Year). Title of work. Source. https://doi.org/xxxxx

APA's own journal article example (Section 10.1):

Niepel, C., Hausen, J. E., Weber, A. M., & Möller, J. (2025). Understanding mean-level and intraindividual variability in state academic self-concept: The role of students' trait expectancies and values. Journal of Educational Psychology, 117(5), 772–788. https://doi.org/10.1037/edu0000946

The link has four properties worth copying exactly:

• It comes last, after the source element and its period.
• It is written as a full web address, starting https://. A DOI on its own (10.1037/edu0000946) is not enough.
• It has no label in front. No "DOI:", no "Retrieved from", no "Available at".
• It has no period after it. A period at the end can be read as part of the address and break the link.

What changed from APA 6. The 6th edition accepted doi:10.xxxx and wrote URLs as "Retrieved from http://...". APA 7 dropped both. The OSLIS guide to DOIs and URLs puts it plainly: if a DOI is in an old format, like DOI: XXX or http://dx.doi.org, update it to the current format. "Retrieved" survives in one place only, the retrieval date, covered below.

When to include a DOI, a URL, or no link

Section 9.34 is a decision rule, and the order of the checks matters. Ask about the DOI first, then the URL, then the database.

1. The work has a DOI. Include it, whether you read the online version or a printed copy. A library guide summarizing the manual, Modesto Junior College's APA 7 references page, quotes the rule as: "Include a DOI for all works that have a DOI, regardless of whether you used the online version or the print version."
2. The work has a DOI and a URL. Include only the DOI. The DOI is the persistent identifier; the publisher's page address can change.
3. The work has a URL but no DOI. Include the URL. This covers webpages, news sites, blogs, reports posted as PDFs, and most videos.
4. The work came from an academic research database and has no DOI. Include no URL and no database name. The reference looks the same as one for the print version, because the same article sits in many databases and the database link usually needs a login.
5. The work exists only in one database or archive. This is the exception to step 4. Works that a database publishes itself, original and proprietary content you cannot get anywhere else, get the database name, and a URL when it resolves for readers.
6. The work is print-only with no DOI. No link. The reference ends at the source element.

Where do you find the DOI? On a journal article it is usually printed on the first page of the PDF, often near the top, and it appears in the database record. If you cannot see one, search the article title on Crossref's search page, which Camosun College Library's DOI guide recommends as a free lookup. Not every article has a DOI, and many older ones do not, so a failed search is a real answer: use step 3, 4, or 6.

How to format the link itself

Use the https://doi.org/ prefix. Write the DOI as https://doi.org/ followed by the DOI name, which always starts with 10.. Victoria University's APA 7 guide adds that a DOI shown in any other format "will need to be changed" to this one. The common conversions:

Copy and paste, do not retype. DOIs mix letters, digits, and punctuation (0000157-002, ICPSR36966.v1), and one wrong character sends the reader to an error page or a different work. OSLIS also says not to change the capitalization or punctuation of the DOI or URL.

Live link or plain text. Section 9.35 allows either. Victoria University quotes the manual as allowing "the default display settings for hyperlinks in your word-processing program (e.g., usually blue font, underlined) or plain text that is not underlined", and says links should be live if the work will be published or read online. Pick one display and use it for every reference in the list.

No final period. A reference that ends in a DOI or URL ends without a period. James Cook University's APA guide states it as "Do not place a full stop after the DOI or URL." Every other element keeps its period, so the source element still ends with one before the link.

Use the URL of the work itself. The URL should take the reader to the work you cited: the article page, the report PDF, the video. A home page or a search results page does not count.

Worked examples

Every example below is either taken from APA's Common Reference Examples guide (section numbers noted) or from a university library guide, and every DOI was checked against doi.org.

1. Journal article with a DOI

Niepel, C., Hausen, J. E., Weber, A. M., & Möller, J. (2025). Understanding mean-level and intraindividual variability in state academic self-concept: The role of students' trait expectancies and values. Journal of Educational Psychology, 117(5), 772–788. https://doi.org/10.1037/edu0000946

The DOI goes after the page range. This is the most common shape in a psychology or education reference list. The full article format is in our guide on how to cite a journal article in APA 7.

2. Journal article from a database, no DOI

Kingston, B. (1994). Women in nineteenth century Australian history. Labour History, (67), 84–96.

This example comes from James Cook University's guide. The article was read through a database, it has no DOI, so the reference ends at the page range: no database name, no URL. It is identical to the reference for the printed journal.

3. Authored book with a DOI (Section 10.2)

Levenson, H., Jinich, S., Vaz, A., & Rousmaniere, T. (2025). Deliberate practice in emotionally focused couple therapy. American Psychological Association. https://doi.org/10.1037/0000436-000

Books have DOIs too, especially academic and professional titles. Include it even if you used a printed copy from the library shelf. Without a DOI, a print book reference ends at the publisher (see how to cite a book in APA 7).

4. Edited book chapter with its own DOI (Section 10.3)

Zeleke, W. A., Hughes, T. L., & Drozda, N. (2020). Home–school collaboration to promote mind–body health. In C. Maykel & M. A. Bray (Eds.), Promoting mind–body health in schools: Interventions for mental health professionals (pp. 11–26). American Psychological Association. https://doi.org/10.1037/0000157-002

Compare the endings in APA's examples: the whole-book DOIs end -000, and this chapter's ends -002. When a chapter has its own DOI, cite that one, because it points to the part you used.

5. Webpage with a URL, no DOI (Section 10.16)

Taras, Z. (2024, May 30). Situational irony can be funny, tragic or even terrifying. HowStuffWorks. https://entertainment.howstuffworks.com/arts/literature/situational-irony.htm

The site name comes before the URL and ends with a period. When the author and the site name are the same organization, the NUS Libraries APA 7 basics sheet says to omit the site name, so the source element is the URL alone. More webpage cases are in how to cite a website in APA 7.

6. Online newspaper article (Section 10.1)

Bernstein, J. (2024, June 3). The man who couldn't stop going to college. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2024/06/03/magazine/benjamin-bolger-college-harvard-yale.html

A news article on the paper's own site gets the direct article URL. The printed version of the same article, cited from the paper copy, has no URL and ends with the page.

7. Report posted as a PDF (Section 10.4)

Winthrop, R., Ziegler, L., Handa, R., & Fakoya, F. (2019). How playful learning can help leapfrog progress in education. Center for Universal Education at Brookings. https://www.brookings.edu/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/how_playful_learning_can_help_leapfrog_progress_in_education.pdf

The URL points straight at the PDF file. That is correct: the PDF is the work. Long URLs like this one are the main reason the shortening rules below exist.

8. Webpage with a retrieval date (Section 10.16)

Worldometer. (n.d.). Current world population. Retrieved October 17, 2025, from https://www.worldometers.info/world-population/

A retrieval date is for content designed to change and not archived, like a live counter, a dashboard, or a profile page. The format is "Retrieved Month Day, Year, from" before the URL. Most webpages do not get one: a dated article is a fixed version, and APA's own news and webpage examples above have no retrieval date.

9. Dissertation from a database (Section 10.6)

Horvath-Plyman, M. (2018). Social media and the college student journey: An examination of how social media use impacts social capital and affects college choice, access, and transition (Publication No. 10937367) [Doctoral dissertation, New York University]. ProQuest Dissertations and Theses Global.

This is step 5 of the decision rule in practice. ProQuest is where this dissertation is published, so the database name is the source element and the publication number identifies the work. APA's example gives no URL here. Our APA 7 dissertation guide covers the versions from institutional repositories, which do get a URL.

Long links: shortDOIs, URL shorteners, and line breaks

Section 9.36 lets you shorten a DOI or URL that is long or complex. You do not have to; it is an option.

For DOIs, use shortDOI. The shortDOI Service is run by the DOI Foundation. It creates an alias of the form 10/abcde, and doi.org treats the shortDOI identically to the full DOI. The service returns the existing shortDOI if one was already made, so each DOI has exactly one. Applied to the Niepel article:

Full: https://doi.org/10.1037/edu0000946 Short: https://doi.org/hcnrzm

Both addresses open the same article. For a short DOI like this one the saving is small, and some instructors want the full DOI. James Cook University notes that APA prefers short DOIs and URLs, but a shortDOI hides the publisher prefix (10.1037 tells a reader at a glance it is an APA journal). Use it for the genuinely unwieldy ones, such as old Wiley DOIs full of brackets and semicolons.

For URLs, any shortener that resolves. OSLIS's summary of 9.36: some websites provide their own short URLs, a general shortener such as Bitly is acceptable, and "any shortened DOI or URL is acceptable in a citation as long as you check the link." Two cautions from practice. A shortener hides where a link goes, so a reader cannot tell a Brookings PDF from a random file. And a shortener can shut down or let the link lapse, which leaves the reference with no working address at all. For the Brookings report above, a full URL that wraps across two lines is the safer choice.

Do not break a link by hand. Bow Valley College's library answers the question directly: "Do not add line breaks manually to a hyperlink. It is acceptable if your word-processor automatically adds a break or moves the hyperlink to its own line," citing Section 9.35. So no pressing Enter or inserting a space inside the URL to make the line look tidier. If Word pushes the whole link to the next line and leaves a gap, that is acceptable. The same goes for the hanging indent: let the document's paragraph settings do it (see hanging indent in Microsoft Word), never manual spaces.

Special cases

The DOI does not resolve

First check for a copying error: a missing character, a trailing period you pasted in, or a space. If it still fails, search the title in Crossref to find the registered DOI. If no working DOI exists, treat the work as having none and use the URL or database rules.

The URL needs a login or is session-specific

Database links often include session codes and expire, and links into a learning management system require a login. James Cook University shows an example of a database link several lines long and says never to use one. For works that need the database (step 5 of the rule), MJC's guide says that if the URL is session-specific or requires a login and will not resolve for readers, give the database or archive home or login page instead.

The page is gone

MJC's guide says to look for an archived version through the Internet Archive and, if there is none, not to use that resource. A reference the reader cannot follow is a reference to nothing, and a source you cannot point anyone to is weak evidence anyway.

A wiki or page with permanent version links

Some sites keep every version at its own address. For these, link the version you read instead of adding a retrieval date: a Wikipedia article's "View history" page gives a permanent link for each edit. Our Wikipedia APA 7 guide shows the exact reference.

A preprint that was later published

Cite the version you used. If you read the published article, use its DOI. If you read the preprint, cite the preprint with its own link, as in APA's Section 10.8 example: Latimier, A., Peyre, H., & Ramus, F. (2020). A meta-analytic review of the benefit of spacing out retrieval practice episodes on retention. PsyArXiv. https://psyarxiv.com/kzy7u/

No author, no date

The link rules do not change. A missing author moves the title to the front and a missing date becomes (n.d.), as in the Worldometer example, but the link still sits last and still takes no period.

The link never goes in the in-text citation

The DOI or URL belongs to the reference list only. The in-text citation stays author and year: (Niepel et al., 2025) or Niepel et al. (2025). A URL in parentheses mid-sentence is a web habit, and APA has no in-text form for it. The reader finds the link by matching the author and year to the reference list entry.

Common mistakes and how to avoid them

• Keeping the doi: prefix. Reference managers and older databases still export doi:10.xxxx. Replace it with https://doi.org/ before you submit, every time.
• Adding a period after the link. It looks like the end of a sentence, so people add one. Read the last character of every reference that ends in a link and delete any period you find.
• Including the database URL. A database link copied from your browser bar will not open for your reader, and APA does not want it for widely available articles. End the reference at the page range.
• Putting both a DOI and a URL. Only the DOI goes in.
• "Retrieved from" before every URL. That was APA 6. In APA 7, "Retrieved" appears only with a retrieval date.
• Retyping a DOI from a printed page. Paste it from the publisher's page or the database record, then click it once to make sure it opens the right work.
• Breaking a long URL by hand. It splits the link. Let the word processor wrap it.

A five-minute check before submitting catches all seven: click every link in the final document, and read the last character of each reference.

Quick-reference table