How do I query the REST API and what’s in the response?

DataCite’s REST API allows any user to retrieve, query and browse DataCite DOI metadata records. You can run a query for a single DOI, as follows:

GET /dois
$ curl https://api.datacite.org/dois/10.6084/m9.figshare.21545982

You can also run a query to retrieve a list of DOIs, for example, search for all DOIs with a specific “publisher”.

GET /dois
$ curl https://api.datacite.org/dois?query=publisher:DataCite

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To run a GET request use curl from the command line, an application like Postman, or simply paste into your browser.

A successful query will generate a response from the REST API which includes all of the metadata fields in JSON format. The response also provides a list of additional fields at the bottom providing extra information about the DOI. The additional information for a single DOI includes; metadataVersion, state and citationCount, see the full list in the guide about queries for a single DOI with the REST API. For a list, you will see aggregated information for all the DOIs in the list, such as; resourceTypes, licenses and citations, see full list in the documentation about retrieving a list with the REST API.