FAQ

What is the PLOS Search API?

The PLOS Search API gives developers access to rich data that can be flexibly integrated into applications for the web, desktop or mobile devices.  It allows PLOS content to be queried using any of the twenty three terms in the PLOS Search. By opening the PLOS content and data through this API we hope to encourage the development of more tools that will improve the way PLOS users discover and interact with our (and their) content.

What is “Solr”?

Solr is an open-source search platform from the Apache Lucene project. Essentially, Lucene is a Java-based indexing and search tool. Solr provides a friendly way to query Lucene and format the results.

How does the PLOS Search use Solr?

The Query Builder on our Advanced Search Page uses JavaScript to create complex, well-formatted queries from a minimum of user input. The Query Builder code is self-contained; it submits queries to the Solr API only when the Search button is clicked.

The Search Results Page shows faceting on the left (number of articles per journal, per subject category, and per article type) and suggests related searches on the right (authors, editors, and institutions). Every time a query is submitted through the search form, additional queries are submitted to Solr. These additional results are displayed as facets and suggestions.

Are there any example using the PLOS Search API?

Sure are!  We have a number of examples here:

• Default Search
• Author Search
• Title Search
• Subject Search
• Abstract Search

And there are more examples using the PLOS Search API.

Recommended Usage of the PLOS Search API

• Content Attribution:  Developers are welcome to make use of the data returned from the PLOS Search API and we ask that you indicate that the data originate from PLOS. If you wish to brand your work to PLOS, you will need to ask us to evaluate the usefulness and technical capability of your application prior to receiving a PLOS logo which you may then display on the application.  Please see the API display policy for more information.
• PLOS Search API rate limit: Please limit your API requests to 7200 requests a day, 300 per hour, 10 per minute and allow 5 seconds for your search to return results. If you exceed this threshold, we will lock out your IP address. If you’re a high-volume user of the PLOS Search API and need more API requests a day, please contact us at api@plos.org to discuss your options. We currently limit API users to no more than five concurrent connections from a single IP address.
• PLOS Search API requests: Please do not send requests that return more than 100 rows. That’s a lot of data for our network to push all at once and it may take some time to return the result set. If you are getting back a result set that bigger than 100+ rows, then you likely need to change your query to return a smaller result set or set a limit on the records returned and page through the results.

How do I request a PLOS API key?

Just browse on over to registration and fill out the form. Your PLOS API key will be emailed to you.

How do I use the PLOS API key?

Any request made to the PLOS API must include the argument api_key=[your PLOS API key]. That’s it!

I have questions about using the PLOS Search API. Where can I get answers?

If you have any questions or comments about the Article-Level Metrics application, head over to the PLOS API Community page for information on the PLOS API developers group.