An application programming interface (API) is a connection between computers or between computer programs. It is a type of software interface, offering a service to other pieces of software.[1] A document or standard that describes how to build or use such a connection or interface is called an API specification. A computer system that meets this standard is said to implement or expose an API. The term API may refer either to the specification or to the implementation.
Dimensions | IEEE | ScienceDirect | Scopus | Web of Science
What it does: Provides programmatic access to the metadata of their publications, datasets, grants, patents and clinical trials
How it's accessed: Varies, web interface using DSL, and RESTful interface when using Jupyter notebook
Result format: JSON
How to register: Must be part of a subscribing institution to have full text access. UNSW users should set up an individual account, fill out the Dimensions Contact us online form requesting API access, ensuring they provide their UNSW email. They may request further details
Limitations: Maximum number of records returned from a single query 1000
Contact for technical questions: Submit online form via https://www.dimensions.ai/contact-us/
For more information: https://api-lab.dimensions.ai/ , video for using their API with Google Sheets
What it does: Provides flexible query and retrieval of metadata records for more than 4 million documents comprising IEEE journals, conference proceedings, and technical standards
How it’s accessed: HTTP requests using structured URL queries
Result format: JSON, XML
How to register: Follow the steps at https://developer.ieee.org/getting_started
Limitations: Maximum of 200 results may be retrieved in a single query. A query term can only contain a maximum of 10 words
Contact for technical questions: https://developer.ieee.org/contact
For more information: https://developer.ieee.org/
What they do: Multiple APIs available for different use cases, including text mining of full text content, search widgets, displaying journal or book level data, federated searching, and indexing
How they’re accessed: varies, depending on use case
Result format: varies, depending on use case
How to register: Free to register - https://dev.elsevier.com - video for API key generation
Limitations: varies, depending on use case
Contact for technical questions: integrationsupport@elsevier.com
For more information: https://dev.elsevier.com/sd_apis.html
What they do: Multiple APIs available for different use cases, including displaying publications on a website, showing cited-by counts on a website, federated searching, populating repositories with metadata, populating VIVO profiles, and others
How they’re accessed: varies, depending on use case
Result format: varies, depending on use case
How to register: Free to register - https://dev.elsevier.com/
Limitations: varies, depending on use case
Contact for technical questions: integrationsupport@elsevier.com
For more information: https://dev.elsevier.com/sc_apis.html
What it does: Allows text- and data-mining access to content in Web of Science Lite
How it’s accessed: Accessible via Clarivate’s Developers Portal
Result format: JSON or XML
How to register: Must be part of a subscribing institution to have full text access. UNSW users should set up an individual account at Clarivate’s Developers Portal https://developer.clarivate.com and 'Sign Up' filling out a form with name, email address, and an optional description of the project.
Limitations: Maximum number of tokens per user:1. Maximum number of requests/second:2.
Users may use the API to access the Data Fields in accordance with the applicable License Level, in each case as permitted by your subscription.
If a user is using Web of Science data in an article or presentation they must appropriately cite and credit Clarivate Analytics as the source.
Contact for technical questions: https://developer.clarivate.com/content/contact
For more information: https://developer.clarivate.com/
This guide was adapted from MIT's list of scholarly APIS
arXiv | CORE | Crossref | MET | OECD | PubMed | Worldbank
What it does: Gives programmatic access to all of the arXiv data, search and linking facilities
How it’s accessed: API calls are made using any web-enabled client (e.g. a web browser) to make an HTTP GET or POST request to an appropriate URL. API users can use the programming language of their choice
Result format: Atom
How to register: Free to use, no registration or API key required
Limitations: No stated limitations, but high-volume users should contact arXiv at http://arxiv.org/help/contact
Contact for technical questions: Forum discussion for help at arXiv Google Group
For more information: http://arxiv.org/help/api/index , API Manual at https://arxiv.org/help/api/user-manual
What it does: Gives programmatic access to metadata and full text of millions of OA research papers
How it’s accessed: RESTful interface, queries are made as HTTP GET requests
Result format: JSON, CSV
How to register: Free to use, API key required, register for API key at https://core.ac.uk/api-keys/register
Limitations: Maximum 10,000 results. More details at https://api.core.ac.uk/docs/v3#query_large
Contact for technical questions: theteam@core.ac.uk
For more information: https://core.ac.uk/services#api
What it does: Allows access to metadata records for over 75 million scholarly works that have CrossRef DOIs, covering around 5,000 publishers. Can be used for text- and data-mining, checking against funder mandates, and to obtain metadata in a variety of representations.
How it’s accessed: RESTful interface
Result format: JSON
How to register: No registration required
Limitations: No stated limitations
Contact for technical questions: support@crossref.org or submit query via their online form and specify 'Technical support'
For more information: https://www.crossref.org/services/metadata-delivery/rest-api/
MET (Metropolitan Museum of Art)
What it does: Provides datasets of information on more than 470,000 artworks in its collection for unrestricted commercial and noncommercial use.
How it's accessed: RESTful interface
Result format: JSON, CSV
How to register: none required
Limitations: Images not included in the data sets.
Contact for technical questions: openaccess@metmuseum.org
For more information: https://github.com/metmuseum/openaccess
What they do: Allows programmatic access to a selection of OECD datasets
How they’re accessed: two RESTful APIs available for queries in SDMX-JSON or SDMX-ML formats
Result format: JSON, XML
How to register: No registration required
Limitations: 1 million data points; not all OECD datasets are covered
Contact for technical questions: OECDdotStat@oecd.org
For more information: https://data.oecd.org/api/
What it does: Set of 8 server-side programs for searching 38 NCBI Entrez databases of biomedical literature and data
How it’s accessed: To access data, a piece of software posts a URL using a fixed syntax to NCBI's E-Utilities server, then retrieves and processes data. Users can use any programming language that can send the URL and interpret the XML response (e.g. Perl, Python, Java, C++, etc.)
Result format: XML
How to register: Free to register; registration is not necessary but strongly encouraged.
Limitations: 3 URL requests per second; large jobs should be limited to weekends or business hours
Contact for technical questions: eutilities@ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
For more information: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK25500/
What they do: Provide access to World Bank statistical databases, indicators, projects and loans, credits, financial statements and other data related to financial operations
How they’re accessed: Three RESTful APIs available to provide access to different datasets: Indicators (time series data), Projects (data on the World Bank’s operations), Finances (World Bank financial data)
Result format: XML, JSON, RDF, and Atom, depending on specific API used
How to register: Free to use, no registration or API key required
Limitations: Request volume limits are unspecified, but should be “reasonable”
Contact for technical questions: data@worldbank.org or “Contact support” link here
For more information: https://datahelpdesk.worldbank.org/knowledgebase/topics/125589
This guide was adapted from MIT's list of scholarly APIS and an item from Mina Rees Library APIs