Search DOI Metadata with Queries

DataCite services support searching DOI metadata according to OpenSearch query string syntax. This guide contains examples to get you started with querying DataCite DOI metadata.

The same query string syntax is used for:

• The query parameter of the DataCite REST API
• The Works search in DataCite Commons
• Arbitrary queries (base64-encoded) in the DataCite OAI-PMH service

Construct a query string

A query string can be used to search DOI metadata, as well as other administrative information associated with the DOI.

Specify the field to search

A specific metadata field can be provided in the query. For example:

• publicationYear:2016 (REST API) (Commons)
• publisher:DataCite (REST API) (Commons)

Nested fields are joined by a .. For example:

• creators.nameIdentifiers.nameIdentifierScheme:ORCID (REST API) (Commons)
• titles.title:"CrowdoMeter Tweets" (REST API) (Commons)

For a complete list of fields, see Supported fields below.

When a field is not specified, the query by default searches commonly queried fields (including title, creator name, creator nameIdentifier, publisher, description, subject, and relatedIdentifier). For example:

• climate (REST API) (Commons)

Wildcards

The wildcards * and ? are supported. * matches zero or more characters and ? matches any single character. For example:

• creators.nameIdentifiers.nameIdentifier:* (REST API) (Commons)
• subjects.subject:robot* (REST API) (Commons)

Exact match searches

Enclose the query in quotations " " to search for exact matches only. For example:

• creators.affiliation.name:"Oklahoma State University" (REST API) (Commons)

Boolean operators

By default, all terms are optional, as long as one term matches. Use + or - to specify terms that have to match or not match, respectively. For example, to search for DOIs containing both "climate" and "change" in the title field:

• titles.title:(climate +change) (REST API) (Commons)

The boolean operators AND, OR and NOT (case-sensitive) are also supported.

When multiple operators are used together, use parentheses to combine them. For example:

• types.resourceTypeGeneral:Software AND types.resourceType:XML (REST API) (Commons)
• publicationYear:2016 AND types.resourceTypeGeneral:(Preprint OR JournalArticle) (REST API) (Commons)
• (titles.title:(climate AND change) OR descriptions.description:(climate AND change)) AND (publicationYear:2023) (REST API) (Commons)

Supported fields

Metadata fields

Nested fields use the same structure as in the "attributes" section of the REST API response for a DOI metadata record. You can also refer to the DataCite XML to JSON mapping for a full list of how DataCite metadata is represented in JSON.

• creators
  • creators.name
  • creators.lang
  • creators.nameType
  • creators.givenName
  • creators.familyName
  • creators.nameIdentifiers
    • creators.nameIdentifiers.nameIdentifier
    • creators.nameIdentifiers.nameIdentifierScheme
    • creators.nameIdentifiers.schemeUri
  • creators.affiliation
    • creators.affiliation.name
    • creators.affiliation.affiliationIdentifier
    • creators.affiliation.affiliationIdentifierScheme
    • creators.affiliation.schemeUri
• titles
  • titles.title
  • titles.lang
  • titles.titleType
• publisher
  • publisher.name
  • publisher.publisherIdentifier
  • publisher.publisherIdentifierScheme
  • publisher.schemeUri
  • publisher.lang
• publicationYear
• subjects
  • subjects.subject
  • subjects.subjectScheme
  • subjects.schemeUri
  • subjects.valueUri
  • subjects.classificationCode
  • subjects.lang
• contributors
  • contributors.contributorType
  • contributors.name
  • contributors.lang
  • contributors.nameType
  • contributors.givenName
  • contributors.familyName
  • contributors.nameIdentifiers
    • contributors.nameIdentifiers.nameIdentifier
    • contributors.nameIdentifiers.nameIdentifierScheme
    • contributors.nameIdentifiers.schemeUri
  • contributors.affiliation
    • contributors.affiliation.name
    • contributors.affiliation.affiliationIdentifier
    • contributors.affiliation.affiliationIdentifierScheme
    • contributors.affiliation.schemeUri
• dates
  • dates.date
  • dates.dateType
  • dates.dateInformation
• language
• types
  • types.resourceType
  • types.resourceTypeGeneral
• alternateIdentifiers (or identifiers)
  • alternateIdentifiers.alternateIdentifier (or identifiers.identifier)
  • alternateIdentifiers.alternateIdentifierType (or identifiers.identifierType)
• relatedIdentifiers
  • relatedIdentifiers.relatedIdentifier
  • relatedIdentifiers.relatedIdentifierType
  • relatedIdentifiers.relationType
  • relatedIdentifiers.relatedMetadataScheme
  • relatedIdentifiers.schemeUri
  • relatedIdentifiers.schemeType
  • relatedIdentifiers.resourceTypeGeneral
• sizes
• formats
• version
• rightsList
  • rightsList.rights
  • rightsList.lang
  • rightsList.rightsUri
  • rightsList.rightsIdentifier
  • rightsList.rightsIdentifierScheme
  • rightsList.schemeUri
• descriptions
  • descriptions.description
  • descriptions.lang
  • descriptions.descriptionType
• geoLocations
  • geoLocations.geoLocationPoint
    • geoLocations.geoLocationPoint.pointLongitude
    • geoLocations.geoLocationPoint.pointLatitude
  • geoLocations.geoLocationBox
    • geoLocations.geoLocationBox.westBoundLongitude
    • geoLocations.geoLocationBox.eastBoundLongitude
    • geoLocations.geoLocationBox.southBoundLatitude
    • geoLocations.geoLocationBox.northBoundLatitude
  • geoLocations.geoLocationPlace
  • geoLocations.geoLocationPolygon
    • geoLocations.geoLocationPolygon.polygonPoint
      • geoLocations.geoLocationPolygon.polygonPoint.pointLongitude
      • geoLocations.geoLocationPolygon.polygonPoint.pointLatitude
    • geoLocations.geoLocationPolygon.inPolygonPoint
      • geoLocations.geoLocationPolygon.inPolygonPoint.pointLongitude
      • geoLocations.geoLocationPolygon.inPolygonPoint.pointLatitude
• fundingReferences
  • fundingReferences.funderName
  • fundingReferences.funderIdentifier
  • fundingReferences.funderIdentifierType
  • fundingReferences.schemeUri
  • fundingReferences.awardNumber
  • fundingReferences.awardUri
  • fundingReferences.awardTitle
• relatedItems
  • relatedItems.relatedItemType
  • relatedItems.relationType
  • relatedItems.relatedItemIdentifier
    • relatedItems.relatedItemIdentifier.relatedItemIdentifier
    • relatedItems.relatedItemIdentifier.relatedItemIdentifierType
    • relatedItems.relatedItemIdentifier.relatedMetadataScheme
    • relatedItems.relatedItemIdentifier.schemeURI
    • relatedItems.relatedItemIdentifier.schemeType
  • relatedItems.creators
    • relatedItems.creators.name
    • relatedItems.creators.nameType
    • relatedItems.creators.givenName
    • relatedItems.creators.familyName
  • relatedItems.titles
    • relatedItems.titles.title
    • relatedItems.titles.lang
    • relatedItems.titles.titleType
  • relatedItems.publicationYear
  • relatedItems.volume
  • relatedItems.issue
  • relatedItems.number
  • relatedItems.numberType
  • relatedItems.firstPage
  • relatedItems.lastPage
  • relatedItems.publisher
  • relatedItems.edition
  • relatedItems.contributors
    • relatedItems.contributors.contributorType
    • relatedItems.contributors.name
    • relatedItems.contributors.nameType
    • relatedItems.contributors.givenName
    • relatedItems.contributors.familyName

Additional fields

In addition to the metadata fields above, the following fields are searchable as part of the query string: