diff --git a/src/app/core/submission/vocabularies/vocabulary.service.spec.ts b/src/app/core/submission/vocabularies/vocabulary.service.spec.ts
index faa58235203..9f6d32c44fa 100644
--- a/src/app/core/submission/vocabularies/vocabulary.service.spec.ts
+++ b/src/app/core/submission/vocabularies/vocabulary.service.spec.ts
@@ -352,6 +352,18 @@ describe('VocabularyService', () => {
             })
           }));
         });
+
+        it('should encode the value', () => {
+          scheduler.schedule(() => service.getVocabularyEntriesByValue('https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/', false, vocabularyOptions, pageInfo).subscribe());
+          scheduler.flush();
+
+          expect(service.findVocabularyById).toHaveBeenCalledWith(vocabularyOptions.name, true, true, jasmine.objectContaining({
+            findListOptions: jasmine.objectContaining({
+              filter: 'https%3A%2F%2Fcreativecommons.org%2Flicenses%2Fby-sa%2F4.0%2F',
+              exact: false,
+            })
+          }));
+        });
       });
 
       describe('getVocabularyEntryByValue', () => {
diff --git a/src/app/core/submission/vocabularies/vocabulary.service.ts b/src/app/core/submission/vocabularies/vocabulary.service.ts
index 1ff5b30ee08..e384c58ce30 100644
--- a/src/app/core/submission/vocabularies/vocabulary.service.ts
+++ b/src/app/core/submission/vocabularies/vocabulary.service.ts
@@ -126,7 +126,7 @@ export class VocabularyService {
   getVocabularyEntriesByValue(value: string, exact: boolean, vocabularyOptions: VocabularyOptions, pageInfo: PageInfo): Observable<RemoteData<PaginatedList<VocabularyEntry>>> {
     const options: VocabularyFindOptions = new VocabularyFindOptions(
       null,
-      value,
+      encodeURIComponent(value),
       exact,
       null,
       pageInfo.elementsPerPage,