DOI to Citation Generator

A DOI is the permanent identifier attached to most journal articles, including those in NepJOL — the Nepal Journals Online platform that hosts the Journal of Nepal Medical Association, Contributions to Nepalese Studies, the Journal of the Institute of Engineering and around two hundred other Nepali titles. Where a DOI exists, it is the fastest route to an accurate reference.

Paste the DOI and this tool retrieves the registered record from Crossref, then formats it in the style your department asks for. Every field stays editable, and nothing is invented: if the registry holds no value for a field, it is left blank and flagged for you to complete from the article.

How to use it

  1. Copy the DOI from the article — on NepJOL it appears on the article's abstract page.
  2. Paste it in and press Look up DOI. A full https://doi.org/… link works too.
  3. Choose your style: APA, MLA, Harvard, IEEE, Chicago or Vancouver.
  4. Check the retrieved fields against the article, fix anything wrong, then copy the reference.

What a DOI is and where to find it

A DOI (Digital Object Identifier) is a permanent address for a piece of research. It begins with "10." followed by a registrant code, a slash and a publisher-assigned suffix — for example 10.3126/jnma.v57i4.4292. Unlike an ordinary link it keeps resolving when a journal moves platform, which is why referencing styles now prefer it.

For Nepali journals, look on the article's page on NepJOL, where the DOI is printed with the abstract. For international articles, check the first page of the PDF, the journal's landing page, or the record in Google Scholar or PubMed.

Why a DOI produces a more accurate reference

Most referencing errors are copying errors: a co-author dropped from a six-author paper, an issue number entered as a volume, a page range mistyped. A lookup removes that whole class of mistake because the author list, journal title, volume, issue, pages and year all come from the publisher's own registration.

It also handles the differences between styles from one record. Vancouver wants Shrestha RK, IEEE wants R. K. Shrestha, APA wants Shrestha, R. K., and Chicago inverts only the first author. Once the structured metadata is available, each of those can be produced correctly without retyping anything.

When a lookup comes back incomplete

Registry records come from publishers, and completeness varies. Some older Nepali journal issues were registered retrospectively with minimal metadata, so page numbers or the full author list may be absent.

When a field is missing, this tool names it and leaves it empty rather than filling it with something plausible. Complete it from the article itself. An invented page range is worse than a blank one: a supervisor checking your sources will find the page does not exist, and that is a much larger problem than an unfinished reference.

Which sources have a DOI

Journal articles, conference papers, academic book chapters, preprints and many datasets carry DOIs. Most articles on NepJOL have one. Older Nepali journal issues published before the platform existed frequently do not, and neither do most theses held in university libraries.

Government publications — Nepal Rastra Bank reports, CBS census volumes, ministry bulletins — usually have no DOI. Cite those as reports using the manual generator, and use the URL citation generator for web pages. A missing DOI says nothing about a source's quality.

Where the DOI goes in the reference

APA and Harvard put the DOI at the end as a full link — https://doi.org/10.3126/… — with no full stop after it. MLA accepts the DOI or a stable URL in the same position. Chicago places it after the page range.

Vancouver and IEEE include it at the end where the publisher supplies one. Give it as a resolvable link rather than a bare string wherever your style allows, so a reader can follow it directly.

Frequently asked questions

Where do I find the DOI for a Nepali journal article?

On NepJOL, the DOI is printed on the article's abstract page alongside the title and authors. It starts with 10.3126 for most journals hosted there.

Can I paste a full doi.org link?

Yes. A link such as https://doi.org/10.3126/jnma.v57i4.4292 works, as does a "doi:" prefix — the wrapper is removed before the lookup.

Why did my DOI return no record?

Either there is a typo, or the DOI was registered with an agency other than Crossref. Check it character by character, then enter the details manually if the lookup still finds nothing.

Are the retrieved details always right?

They are as accurate as the publisher's registration, which is usually reliable but sometimes incomplete. Always check the result against the article before submitting.

Does this work for books, theses and government reports?

Only if they carry a DOI, which most do not. Use the manual generator for print books and reports, and the URL citation generator for web pages.

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