Elsevier API

Name: Elsevier API
Brand: Elsevier API
Availability: InStock

★ Only Publicly Available OpenAPI DocumentData EnrichmentData TransformationapiKey8 EndpointsREST

For Agents

Search Scopus and ScienceDirect and retrieve scholarly abstracts by DOI, Scopus ID, EID, PII, or PubMed ID for literature review and citation analysis.

Install Jentic One Beta

Connect the Elsevier API to your agent

Jentic One is a self-hosted execution layer for AI agents. It lets your agent call the Elsevier API, or any other public or private API you need. You set the rules, the agent never sees your credentials, and every call is logged.

Two steps, two machines. Install the instance in a safe environment, then register your agent from wherever it runs.

Step 1: Jentic One Host machine

# On the machine that will host your Jentic One instance:
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/jentic/jentic-one/main/tools/install.sh | sh

Step 2: Agent machine

# On the machine where your agent runs (keep this separate from the instance):
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/jentic/jentic-one/main/tools/install.sh | sh
jentic register       # connects your agent to your Jentic One instance

Jentic One is in public beta. The setup above keeps your agent separate from the instance, which is what you want before using real credentials: an agent running as the same OS user as Jentic One can read its stored keys directly. Just evaluating? A single local install is fine to start. See the secure deployment guide for the tiers.

Capabilities

What an agent can do with Elsevier API.

Search the Scopus database with field-specific queries (TITLE-ABS-KEY, AUTHOR, AFFIL) and pagination

Search ScienceDirect for full-text articles via the legacy GET or v2 PUT endpoint

Retrieve a Scopus abstract by Scopus ID for citation metadata and references

GET STARTED

Start building with Elsevier API

Explore with Jentic

View OpenAPI Document

Jentic publishes the only available OpenAPI specification for Elsevier API, keeping it validated and agent-ready. The Elsevier Developer API gives programmatic access to Scopus and ScienceDirect — the world's largest abstract-and-citation database and Elsevier's full-text platform — together with abstract retrieval by Scopus ID, DOI, EID, PII, or PubMed ID. Researchers, bibliometric tools, and AI literature copilots use it to search the scholarly record and pull article metadata at scale. Authentication is an X-ELS-APIKey header, optionally combined with an X-ELS-Insttoken header for institutional access.

Use Cases

Patterns agents use Elsevier API for, with concrete tasks.

★ Literature review automation

Research teams running systematic literature reviews can call GET /content/search/scopus with TITLE-ABS-KEY queries to enumerate relevant papers, then iterate the result list and call GET /content/abstract/scopus_id/{scopus_id} for each to retrieve abstracts and citation references. The two-step pattern produces a structured corpus suitable for screening, coding, and meta-analysis without manual database scraping.

Call GET /content/search/scopus with a TITLE-ABS-KEY query, then iterate the entries and call GET /content/abstract/scopus_id/{scopus_id} for each to compile a corpus

Bibliometrics and citation analysis

Bibliometric tools and research-evaluation platforms can use the Scopus search and abstract endpoints to compute h-indexes, citation networks, and topic co-occurrence at scale. The abstract response includes full citation references, supporting forward and backward citation traversal. Combined with author and affiliation filters this enables institution-level reporting.

Search Scopus by AU-ID for an author, then call GET /content/abstract/scopus_id/{scopus_id} for each paper to extract citation references and build a network graph

DOI-driven metadata enrichment

Reference managers, plagiarism checkers, and reading-list tools can call GET /content/abstract/doi/{doi} to enrich a user-supplied DOI with full Elsevier metadata — title, authors, affiliations, abstract, and references. This avoids the common problem of patchy metadata in public DOI resolvers, especially for older papers.

Given a list of DOIs, call GET /content/abstract/doi/{doi} for each and store the returned abstract, authors, and references in a reference manager

AI literature copilot via Jentic

An AI literature copilot can search Jentic for the Scopus search operation, execute it with a researcher's natural-language query, and pipe abstracts into a summarisation chain. Jentic stores the X-ELS-APIKey credential in the vault, so the agent runs against subscribed content without ever holding the raw key.

Search Jentic for 'search scopus for papers', execute GET /content/search/scopus, then iterate top entries calling GET /content/abstract/scopus_id/{scopus_id} and feed abstracts into a summary chain

Key Endpoints

8 endpoints — jentic publishes the only available openapi specification for elsevier api, keeping it validated and agent-ready.

METHOD

PATH

DESCRIPTION

GET

/content/search/scopus

Search the Scopus database

PUT

/content/search/sciencedirect

Search ScienceDirect (v2 PUT)

GET

/content/abstract/doi/{doi}

Retrieve abstract by DOI

GET

/content/abstract/scopus_id/{scopus_id}

Retrieve abstract by Scopus ID

GET

/content/abstract/eid/{eid}

Retrieve abstract by EID

GET

/content/abstract/pii/{pii}

Retrieve abstract by PII

GET

/content/abstract/pubmed_id/{pubmed_id}

Retrieve abstract by PubMed ID

GET

/content/search/scopus

Search the Scopus database

PUT

/content/search/sciencedirect

Search ScienceDirect (v2 PUT)

GET

/content/abstract/doi/{doi}

Retrieve abstract by DOI

GET

/content/abstract/scopus_id/{scopus_id}

Retrieve abstract by Scopus ID

GET

/content/abstract/eid/{eid}

Retrieve abstract by EID

Why Jentic?

Three things that make agents converge on Jentic-routed access.

Credential isolation

The X-ELS-APIKey and optional X-ELS-Insttoken are stored encrypted in the Jentic vault. They are attached to outgoing requests at execution time so the agent never holds either credential in prompts or logs.

Intent-based discovery

Agents search Jentic by intent — for example 'search scopus for papers' — and Jentic returns the matching Elsevier operation with its query and pagination input schema.

Time to first call

Direct integration: 1-2 days for header-based auth, query syntax, and quota handling. Through Jentic: under 30 minutes — search the intent, load the schema, execute.

Related APIs

Alternatives and complements available in the Jentic catalogue.

Alternative

Crossref

Crossref is an open DOI metadata API; Elsevier provides deeper Scopus abstracts and ScienceDirect full text

Choose Crossref for free DOI metadata; choose Elsevier when citation references, abstracts, or ScienceDirect full text are required

Alternative

OpenAlex

OpenAlex is an open scholarly graph; Elsevier offers proprietary Scopus indexing and richer affiliation metadata

Choose OpenAlex when openness and free access matter; choose Elsevier when Scopus-graded indexing or institutional full text is required

Complementary

Mendeley

Mendeley manages personal libraries; Elsevier provides the upstream search and abstract retrieval that fills those libraries

Pair the Elsevier search/abstract endpoints with Mendeley to add discovered references directly to a researcher's library

Complementary

Crossref

Use Crossref to resolve a DOI when no API key is available, then enrich via Elsevier when needed

Useful as a free fallback DOI lookup before falling back to Elsevier for paywalled detail

FAQs

Specific to using Elsevier API through Jentic.

Why is there no official OpenAPI spec for Elsevier API?

Elsevier does not publish an OpenAPI specification. Jentic generates and maintains this spec so that AI agents and developers can call Elsevier API via structured tooling. It is validated against the live API and kept up to date. Get started at https://app.jentic.com/sign-up.

What authentication does the Elsevier API use?

An API key passed in the `X-ELS-APIKey` header. Institutional users add `X-ELS-Insttoken` to unlock subscribed full-text content from ScienceDirect. Through Jentic, both headers are stored encrypted in the MAXsystem vault and injected at execution time so the agent never sees the raw key or institutional token.

Can I retrieve a Scopus abstract by DOI through Jentic?

Yes. Install with `pip install jentic`, search Jentic for `retrieve a scopus abstract by doi`, load the schema for GET /content/abstract/doi/{doi}, populate the DOI, and execute. The response includes title, authors, abstract text, and citation references.

What is the difference between the legacy GET and v2 PUT ScienceDirect search endpoints?

GET /content/search/sciencedirect is the legacy keyword search retained for backwards compatibility. PUT /content/search/sciencedirect is the v2 endpoint that accepts a richer JSON query body — required for boolean operators, advanced filters, and faceted searches.

What are the rate limits for the Elsevier API?

Elsevier enforces per-key weekly quotas that vary by API product (Scopus Search, Abstract Retrieval, ScienceDirect Search) and by your subscription tier. Typical quotas are in the tens of thousands of calls per week. Check the Elsevier Developer Portal for the limit on your key. Responses include `X-RateLimit-Remaining` headers so agents can back off before hitting 429.

Can I retrieve an abstract by PubMed ID?

Yes. GET /content/abstract/pubmed_id/{pubmed_id} resolves a PubMed identifier to the matching Scopus abstract record, which is useful when integrating with biomedical pipelines that key on PubMed IDs but need Scopus citation data.