Could you please explain what you mean by "activate"? A DOI is a number assigned to digital objects, e.g. a file with an article. It cannot be activated - a file has a number or has not. Do you mean how to assign a DOI? However, an article does not have to have a DOI to be cited. And articles published in printed form only, not in a digital format, cannot have a DOI.

I see. In this case only the publisher is able to correct this. Hopefully it is a real DOI and not a fake one, like some predatory journals indicate.

I am afraid that what Wolfgang R. Dick feared is true. The thing is that the journal “Educational Research Applications” is published by “Gavin Publishers” and this publisher is listed in the Beall’s list of potential predatory publishers (https://beallslist.net ).

Unfortunately, some journals/publishers (including predatory ones) assign a DOI but then it appears that it is a fake one. I checked some older papers of the journal and none of the DOI’s seem to work. I am afraid the DOI is not real.

Best regards.

Hi, use the following website https://www.journalguardians.com/ to identify list of predatory journals and away from that, moreover they have been adopted fake indexing and fake impact factors. Some fake journals are using their own DOI and it is noway related to real DOI and does not useful for indexing and citations.