diff --git a/dspace-api/src/main/java/org/dspace/importer/external/datacite/DataCiteImportMetadataSourceServiceImpl.java b/dspace-api/src/main/java/org/dspace/importer/external/datacite/DataCiteImportMetadataSourceServiceImpl.java
index 10cbab3f954..ad6e260bd0d 100644
--- a/dspace-api/src/main/java/org/dspace/importer/external/datacite/DataCiteImportMetadataSourceServiceImpl.java
+++ b/dspace-api/src/main/java/org/dspace/importer/external/datacite/DataCiteImportMetadataSourceServiceImpl.java
@@ -143,12 +143,16 @@ public Collection<ImportRecord> getRecords(String query, int start, int count) t
             Iterator<JsonNode> iterator = dataNode.iterator();
             while (iterator.hasNext()) {
                 JsonNode singleDoiNode = iterator.next();
-                String json = singleDoiNode.at("/attributes").toString();
-                records.add(transformSourceRecords(json));
+                JsonNode singleDoiNodeAttribute = singleDoiNode.at("/attributes");
+                if (!singleDoiNodeAttribute.isMissingNode()) {
+                    records.add(transformSourceRecords(singleDoiNodeAttribute.toString()));
+                }
             }
         } else {
-            String json = dataNode.at("/attributes").toString();
-            records.add(transformSourceRecords(json));
+            JsonNode singleDoiNodeAttribute = dataNode.at("/attributes");
+            if (!singleDoiNodeAttribute.isMissingNode()) {
+                records.add(transformSourceRecords(singleDoiNodeAttribute.toString()));
+            }
         }
 
         return records;