Most of JournalTOCs API calls are free and don't require any registration process.

Developers can use the API to embed JournalTOCs' search functionality within their web applications. Anyone with access to RSS Readers can also use the JournalTOCs API.

The API gives you access to our entire database of articles and journals aggregated from the publishers' TOC RSS feeds, as soon as they are published on the web.

API's results are returned in RSS 1.0 format, which then you can parse and use in your own web application, RSS reader or institutional web page.

API Base URL:
http://www.journaltocs.ac.uk/api

The API provides four calls:

1. Search for Journals

Call: http://www.journaltocs.ac.uk/api/journals

IMPORTANT: If you are using "journals" you must specify your username.
If you don't have a username with JournalTOCs, please first sign up at
http://www.journaltocs.ac.uk/index.php?action=register
before using the API call "journals"

This is an example of using the API to search for all the journals that contain any word starting with scient in their titles:
 
http://www.journaltocs.ac.uk/api/journals/scient*?user=macleod.roddy@gmail.com

In the example, the call is "journals", the query string is "scient*" and the username is macleod.roddy@gmail.com

This call offers two options:

• Retrieve the details of the journal identified by its ISSN. For example:
  * http://www.journaltocs.ac.uk/api/journals/1533-290X?user=macleod.roddy@gmail.com
  returns a full description of the journal identified with ISSN 1533-290X.
  By adding "?output=articles" to the call, this option can be used to fetch the latest TOC for the journal identified by its ISSN. For example:
  * http://www.journaltocs.ac.uk/api/journals/1533-290X?output=articles&user=macleod.roddy@gmail.com
  returns the latest TOC of the journal with ISSN 1533-290X.
• Retrieve all the journals whose titles match a query string. For example:
  * http://www.journaltocs.ac.uk/api/journals/library?user=macleod.roddy@gmail.com
  gives a list of journals whose title contains the word library.

2. Search for Articles

Call: http://www.journaltocs.ac.uk/api/articles

Use this call to search for articles, whose metadata includes keywords from your query string. For example:
* http://www.journaltocs.ac.uk/api/articles/corrosion+metal returns a list of the latest articles containing the words corrosion and metal.
* http://www.journaltocs.ac.uk/api/articles/"University of Warwick" returns a list of latest articles by authors at "University of Warwick" (please notice the double quotes around University of Warwick for phrase searching).
* http://www.journaltocs.ac.uk/api/articles/dorothy+bishop returns a list of latest articles published by authors with the name Dorothy Bishop.

3. Retrieve journals being followed by a particular user

Call: http://www.journaltocs.ac.uk/api/user

To use this call you need to provide the email address of a user registered with JournalTOCs. For example:
* http://www.journaltocs.ac.uk/api/user/macleod.roddy@gmail.com will return a list with the journals that user macleod.roddy@gmail.com is following at JournalTOCs.

4. Customise search results for your institution

Call: http://www.journaltocs.ac.uk/api/institution

To use of this call you need to register your institution with JournalTOCs (how to register). Use this call to search in the latest issues of journals for which your institution has subscriptions, and then link through to the full text using your institutional link resolvers.

Examples:

• http://www.journaltocs.ac.uk/api/institution/HeriotWatt/corrosion%20steels will return all the articles published in journals for which Heriot Watt University has subscriptions.
• http://www.journaltocs.ac.uk/api/institution/TechXtra/corrosion%20steels will return all the articles published in journals that are classified in the subject of TechXtra, in this case mainly technology and engineering.
The "journal" API calls can automatically replace the original links in the publisher's TOC RSS feeds with institutional link resolver, ezProxy or WAM links (depending on how you have setup JournalTOCs), so the user's RSS readers could understand the authentication required when fetching off campus. Thus, if you have registered your institution with JournalTOCs, your users will be able to receive TOC RSS feeds that include your own links for the articles. For example the call:
http://www.journaltocs.ac.uk/api/journals/1741-5276?output=articles&institutionID=durham
returns a TOC RSS with the links customised for Durham University.

API RSS feeds structure

The elements included in the RSS files that the API uses to return search results are shown in this diagram: