diff --git a/journals/views.py b/journals/views.py
index 94fdc4ba69a9b88f9f321b4ada54e996765423ff..378f0bbb0bfcde5869e04d6bcc42bea6a6aaee18 100644
--- a/journals/views.py
+++ b/journals/views.py
@@ -550,7 +550,7 @@ def create_metadata_xml(request, doi_label):
         + publication.doi_string + '/pdf</resource>\n'
         '</item></collection>\n'
         '</doi_data>\n'
-        '<pages><first_page>' + publication.paper_nr + '</first_page></pages>\n'
+        '<pages><first_page>' + paper_nr_string(publication.paper_nr) + '</first_page></pages>\n'
     )
     try:
         if publication.metadata['citation_list']: