Application Programming Interfaces (APIs)

Many platforms make their data available for download through an interface (Application Programming Interfaces, APIs). In addition to the freely accessible data services, university members can also use the APIs of licensed data sources. Sometimes an individual API key needs to be registered for this. 

Would you like some assistance with the use of APIs or are you not finding what you want in the overview? You are very welcome to contact us. 

Scientific publications and metadata

Scientific publications and metadata
Platform/provider Description Access, data licence
OpenAlex

Documentation
  • REST API with endpoints for various entities: works, authors, sources, institutions, topics, publishers, funders
  • Metadata including citation data and full-text links
  • Authors data
  • Data sources, Data dump
  • Tutorials
  •  Jupyter Notebook in the DS Toolbox

Freely accessible; CC0

 
CrossRef

Documentation 

 

 Freely accessible; Metadata: "free to use"; Funder data: CC0
Scopus

Documentation

 Freely accessible; CC BY
Frontiers

Website
  • Full texts and metadata (XML, PDF, EPUB) via article webpages 
 Freely accessible; CC BY
MDPI

Documentation
  • Metadata: OAI-PMH API
  • Full texts: Bulk download via sFTP (journal batches: XML, PDF)
 Freely accessible; CC BY; for sFTP access request required
Public Library of Science (PLoS)

Documentation 
  • Full texts: Data dump recommended, a few also via webpage (XML, PDF)
  • Metadata (incl. abstracts): Search API (XML, JSON)
 Freely accessible; CC BY
PubMed Central

Documentation 
  • Open Access full texts (XML, TXT, PDF, BioC): API, FTP, S3
  • Accepted Author Manuscripts (XML, TXT, BioC): FTP, S3
  • Historical OCR Dataset (18th–20th c., TXT): FTP
 At least TDM license, partly CC licenses, partly also for commercial use
Elsevier (ScienceDirect)

Documentation

 
  • Metadata (incl. abstracts): ScienceDirect Search API, Article Metadata API
  • Full texts: Article (Full Text) Retrieval API
  • Swagger portal, overview of Quota and access-restricted APIs
 Journal content licensed for TDM (non-commercial use); Developer portal account + API key required
IEEE Xplore

Documentation 
  • Metadata (incl. abstracts): Metadata Search API (XML, JSON, max. 10 requests/sec, 200 requests/day)
  • SDKs: Java, PHP, Python 2, Python 3
  • Dynamic Query Tool for easy query creation
 Entire content licensed for TDM (non-commercial use); Registration required
IOP

Documentation
  • Metadata (XML) and full texts (XML, PDF) via direct request with DOI list
  • Data delivery via sFTP
 Content licensed for TDM (non-commercial use); Separate permission required for AI use; Mandatory licensing for TDM output
Springer Nature

Dokumentation
  • Metadata (incl. abstracts): Basic Meta API (JSON, XML/PAM)
  • Open Access Content: Open Access API (Metadata: JSON; Full texts: XML/JATS)
  • Full texts: Basic TDM API (XML/JATS)
  • Python Wrapper for all APIs
 Journal content licensed for TDM (non-commercial use); User key required for APIs, for full texts on request; Rate limits
Wiley

Documentation 

 Journal content licensed for TDM (non-commercial use); TDM token required

Other providers' resources (national libraries, etc.)

Other providers' resources
Platform/provider Description Access, data licence
Memobase 

Documentation 
  • Platform for the audiovisual cultural heritage of Switzerland by memoriav.ch 
  • Image files (IIIF) 
  • Metadata (REST: JSON-LD, OAI-PMH: XML/EDM, IIIF: JSON/RiC) 
 Freely accessible, various licenses
Swiss Federal Archives’ AppLab 

Documentation 
  • Databases of the Federal Archives: official publications, federal law, consultations, state accounts, swiss weekly newsreel, other relevant collections 
  • Metadata (Dumps, REST API: JSON) 
  • Digitized Documents: partial full texts (XML) 
 Freely accessible 
German Digital Library 

Documentation 

  
  • 40 million objects/documents relating to culture and science 
  • Metadata (CC0) 
  • Digital reproductions, images, audio files, videos 
  • People data 
 Freely accessible, various licenses, API key required 
German National Library 

Metadata services 

DNBLab 

 
  • National bibliographic title data and selected collections 
  • Authority data (Integrated Authority File, "Gemeinsame Normdatei" GND), digitalized tables of contents 
  • Dumps (including sFTP), various APIs and formats (SRU, OAI, linked data) 
  • Jupyter Notebook tutorials for querying and using data 
 Freely accessible, public domain 
Europeana Newspaper Collection 

Documentation 

 Freely accessible, public domain, API key required for full texts
Gallica (French National Library – “Bibliothèque nationale de France” BnF) 

Documentation 

 Freely accessible, non-commercial use (licensing terms) 
Internet Archive  
KB National Library of the Netherlands 

Data services 
  • Data services & APIs 
  • Delpher Open Newspaper Archive: Dutch newspapers 1618-1876: Bulk download of full texts (OCR, ALTO, XML) and scans (JP2/JPEG, PDF) via APIs 
 Freely accessible, various licenses
Project Gutenberg   Freely accessible, public domain

Legal aspects

The resources and their interfaces are subject to various legal and technical terms of use. Please consult these before any automated access. In particular, automated access is often excluded for licensed content that is not listed here and may cause the provider to block access to the database. Please contact us to check the legality of access if you are in any doubt. 

According to the Swiss Federal Act on Copyright and Related Rights, duplication and storage of legally accessible content for scientific purposes as in the context of TDM is permitted. 

The use of e-media or parts thereof in combination with artificial intelligence (AI) technologies is in many cases contractually prohibited. If you are planning to use AI in this way, you must contact us in advance to clarify the relevant framework conditions. 

For any questions or clarifications, please reach out to us.