APIs for Scholarly Resources

This research guide lists some of the well-known and often-used APIs in research and academia. Use the tabs on the left to browse the list.

What is an API?

API stands for Application Programming Interface. Essentially, it’s a standardized method that enables online software/services to communicate with each other by way of exchanging data. APIs are used in many different ways such as adding new data on a website through another (e.g. automatically tweet a new blog post), retrieving data from public open data repositories, or updating content that resides in another website.

In research and academia, however, data retrieval is the most common usage of APIs. Generally, you will need some knowledge of programming (e.g. R or Python) to use API.

Questions or Feedback?

If you have any feedback, questions, or know of other APIs that should be included in this list, email us at collections@ucalgary.libanswers.com.