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Scholarly APIs
An application programming interface (API) allows sharing of information between software. Scholarly APIs are most often web-based API services that allow advanced access to a scholarly database for the purposes of automating searches or compiling custom datasets for research projects. In contrast to traditional information database access and user interaction via a website, scholarly APIs are typically accessed using a scripting programming language and return data in machine-readable format such as JSON or XML data. Interacting with scholarly APIs programmatically can allow researchers to efficiently and reproducibly repeat searches, as well as create custom datasets than can immediately be used in downstream software computations.
In general, scholarly APIs are designed for the collection of small to medium sized datasets; that is, in the range of 100s or up to a few thousand API queries (various with API). If you need large bulk datasets, an API is likely not the method to use, and there may be bulk data downloads available from the database instead.
Tutorials for Using Scholarly APIs
Before interacting with any scholarly API, it is important to review the scholarly API’s usage policies carefully, which generally includes information such as query limits, permitted use-cases, and data reuse policies. If you have any questions and/or are unsure how to begin, please contact us!
Some scholarly APIs provide introductory tutorials, so check the scholarly API documentation links below for tutorial content. Moreover, UA Libraries is actively developing tutorials on how to use scholarly APIs. Our tutorials can be found on GitHub:
- UA Libraries Scholarly API CookbookIn progress online tutorial book for interacting with scholarly APIs such as Crossref, Scopus, and U.S. Census Data.
- UA Libraries EDirectChemInfoRepository containing code examples for using the NCBI EDirect Unix command line software for PubMed and PubChem.
Selected Scholarly APIs
Bibliographic and General
- Crossref APIThe crossref API allows searchable access to millions of document bibliographic information. In addition to basic article bibliographic data, additional data is sometimes available such as article abstracts, reuse license, funder information, and references. No registration is required; results are returned in JSON format.
- CORE APICORE is a collection of over 200 million open access research papers from institutional repositories and open access journals. Their API allows access to both metadata and full-text. Registration is required; results returned as JSON or XML.
- Scopus APIsThe Elsevier Scopus APIs allow programmatic access to Scopus indexed document metadata, abstracts, citations, and PlumX metrics. Registration is required; results returned as JSON, XML and others.
- ScienceDirect APIThe Elsevier ScienceDirect APIs allow retrieval of full-text articles, journal metadata, article associations, and more. Registration is required. Full-text information is returned as XML, other data returned as XML, JSON, and more.
- Springer Nature APIsSpringer Nature offers a variety of APIs for document metadata, journal information, and full-text. Registration is required; results returned as JSON, XML, and others.
- Web of Science Lite APIThe Clarivate Web of Science Lite API provides programmatic searching of Web of Science and retrieval of basic document metadata. Registration is required; results returned as JSON or XML.
- Wiley APIThe Wiley API allows full-text retrieval of Wiley documents for text mining use. Registration is required; results returned as PDF.
Business
- World Bank APIThe World Bank Indicators API provides access to various economic country data such as population, income, energy, and education data. The World Bank APIs also allow programmatic access to metadata (e.g., data sources), and climate data. No registration is required; results returned as XML or JSON.
- U.S. Treasury Fiscal Data APIThe U.S. Treasury FiscalData API allows access to numerous federal finance data such as interest rates, treasury statements, bond securities, and debt. No registration is required; results returned as JSON, XML, or CSV.
- Alpha Vantage Stock APIThe Alpha Vantage Stock API allows programmatic access to time series stock data, cryptocurrency, and other economic data. Registration is required; results returned as JSON or CSV.
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics APIThe U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) API allows programmatic access to BLS statistics such as employment, price indexes, and compensation. There is an open API (V1) and a V2, which requires registration and allows more data access. results are returned as JSON or excel format.
Scientific and Engineering
- arXiv APIProgrammatic access to arXiv preprint literature metadata. No registration required, results returned in Atom format.
- CAS Common Chemistry APIThe CAS Common Chemistry API allows programmatic access to ~ 500,000 substance information. Allows searching by CAS RN, SMILES, InChI, and name. Registration is required; results returned as JSON.
- NCBI/NLM/NIH APIs (PubChem, PubMed, etc.)NCBI provides access to a multitude of APIs for their databases such as PubMed, PubChem, PMC, Gene, BLAST, and more. Registration is usually not required, but registration may be an option for more advanced API access. Results returned in a variety of formats depending on data types, but typically includes at least XML and JSON.
- IEEE Xplore APIIEEE Xplore APIs allow programmatic access to IEEE metadata and open-access article full-text. Registration is required; results returned as JSON or XML.
Social Sciences and Humanities
- HathiTrust Data APIHathiTrust data API allows retrieval of HathiTrust metadata and some repository data such as digitized page images and OCR text. Registration is required; results returned as XML, JSON, or binary (e.g., for images).
- Library of Congress APIsThe Library of Congress offers several APIs for obtaining digital collection metadata, and primary research materials. Registration is required for access to some collections; results generally returned as JSON or binary for images.
- U.S. Census Data APIThe U.S. Census Bureau offers several APIs for accessing census data, health statistics, business information, and more. Registration not required, but registering allows more queries and features; results returned as JSON.
- Digital Public Library of America APIProvides API access to DPLA content including primary materials in U.S. Aviation, sports, immigration, photography, and much more. Registration is required; results returned as JSON-LD.
Law
- Caselaw Access Project APIProvides API access to over 6 million U.S. Court Case metadata and text. Registration may be required depending on use; results returned as JSON, HTML, or XML
Additional APIs
- Public list of free APIsA community curated list of over 1400 public APIs. Contains a variety of APIs relevant to researchers such as health data, patent literature, and government data.