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://jentic.com/install.sh?src=apis&api=%2Fapis%2Fapi.elsevier.com%2Felsevier" | sh

Step 2: Agent machine

# On the machine where your agent runs (keep this separate from the instance):
curl -fsSL "https://jentic.com/install.sh?src=apis&api=%2Fapis%2Fapi.elsevier.com%2Felsevier" | 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

Retrieve a Scopus abstract by DOI when only the DOI is known

Retrieve a Scopus abstract by EID, PII, or PubMed ID to bridge identifier systems

GET STARTED

Start building with Elsevier API

Explore with Jentic One

View OpenAPI Document

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

GET

/content/abstract/pii/{pii}

Retrieve abstract by PII

GET

/content/abstract/pubmed_id/{pubmed_id}

Retrieve abstract by PubMed ID

Why Jentic?

What agents get from Jentic-routed access to this vendor.

Setup

Wiring Elsevier by hand means setting up its API key auth and coding your own calls across the Scopus search, ScienceDirect search, and abstract retrieval endpoints. Through Jentic you install once, import the Elsevier API from the API Directory, store the key once, and your agent calls it.

Permission scoping

Elsevier puts the document identifier in the URL path (/content/abstract/doi/{doi}, /content/abstract/scopus_id/{scopus_id}), and these are read-only lookups, so a rule can pin your agent to abstract retrieval and search only. You choose the operations it may call, so any beyond those you name are not included.

Credential isolation

Your Elsevier API key is stored once, encrypted, by your own Jentic One instance and injected at execution time. It never enters the agent's prompt, logs, or context.

Intent-based discovery

Agents search Jentic by intent such as 'search Scopus for a topic' or 'retrieve an abstract by DOI', and Jentic returns the matching Elsevier operation with its input schema so the agent calls the right endpoint without browsing the reference docs.

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 with Jentic One, the self-hosted execution layer.

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 your Jentic One instance 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.

Can I limit what my agent is allowed to do with the Elsevier API?

Yes. Because you run Jentic One yourself, you decide which Elsevier operations your agent may call, and any operation you do not name is unavailable to it. Every Elsevier endpoint here is a read-only lookup that puts the document identifier in the URL path, such as GET /content/abstract/doi/{doi} and GET /content/abstract/scopus_id/{scopus_id}, so you can pin the agent to Scopus and ScienceDirect search and abstract retrieval only. You also control which stored credential the agent uses, keeping it scoped to the searches and lookups you allow.

Elsevier API

Name: Elsevier API
Brand: Elsevier API
Availability: InStock

Agent-ready OpenAPI document · curated by JenticData EnrichmentData TransformationapiKey8 EndpointsREST

Know of an official OpenAPI document? Contribute it →

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.

Use for: I want to search Scopus for papers on retrieval-augmented generation, Retrieve a Scopus abstract by DOI, Find articles on ScienceDirect about CRISPR base editing, Get an abstract by PubMed ID

Not supported: Does not handle full-text downloading of paywalled PDFs, manuscript submission, or peer-review workflows - use for searching Scopus and ScienceDirect and retrieving abstracts only.

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.

Jentic One on Github View OpenAPI Document