Which endpoints are available in the Altmetric Explorer API?

 

The Altmetric Explorer API has five endpoints you can query for Altmetric data:

 

The Research Outputs endpoint gives you the list of all research outputs (scholarly articles, datasets, and other types) matching your query. For example, a researcher can use this endpoint to collect data regarding a set of outputs for a research project. 

 

The Attention Summary endpoint gives you access to the aggregated attention data for research outputs matching your query. For example, a journal editor can use this endpoint to collect aggregated attention over time for their publications. 

 

The Demographics endpoint gives you access to aggregated location data from X/Twitter ("tweet"), Facebook ("fbwall"), news ("msm"), and policy ("policy") mentions. You can choose which one you want to see using the "filter[filter]" query parameter. If you don't specify a source, you'll see X/Twitter demographics by default. For example, a university department can use the Altmetric Explorer API to obtain the Demographics data for the attention associated with their research outputs, and then subsequently use the data to build custom maps. Within the API X data is still named as Twitter but this will be updated in the near future

 

The Mentions endpoint gives you access to all of the individual mentions of the research outputs in your search. For example, a librarian can use the Altmetric Explorer API to display the most recent policy mentions for their institution’s research outputs. 

 

The Journals endpoint gives you aggregate information about the journals and collections that the research outputs belong to. For example, a journal editor can use this field to do horizon scanning and see where their journals are receiving the most attention in comparison to their competitors. 

 

For more information, there is extra documentation within the Explorer. You can find this via your Settings page.

 

Do I need an API key? How do I change it?

 

Each Altmetric Explorer account with Altmetric Explorer API access has its own API key and API secret. The API key and secret are unique to a user’s account. 

 

If your API secret key becomes compromised, and you wish to revoke access for an application, the API key and secret can be reset in Account Settings, which you can find on the bottom left-hand navigation panel of the Explorer. Please note that this step is irreversible. This means that if you have an API implementation relying on the key and secret key, it will stop working.

 

What rate limits are in place for the Altmetric Explorer API?

 

The Explorer API does not have a rate limit in place, but we do ask that you keep your queries at two per second or below. Whilst we don’t foresee performance problems with the API at the moment, we may get in touch with you if we notice an issue with your integration to ensure you’re accessing the data in the most optimal way.

 

Before using our API data, please read our usage restrictions here.