# /crossref/works/search

`POST /api/crossref/works/search`

Price: 1 credit

Search scholarly works with rich query fields and filters

## How to use it

Search Crossref scholarly works. Combine a free-text query with field-scoped queries (bibliographic, author, title, container-title, editor, publisher-name, affiliation) and filters (work type, ISSN, ISBN, ORCID, member, prefix, funder, award, subject category, publication/created/deposit/index date ranges, and presence flags for abstract, ORCID, funder, references, license, full text). Sort by relevance, score, publication/index/created/deposit date, or citation/reference counts. Each result is a full work with title, authors, journal, dates, counts, funders, licenses and links.

## Parameters

- `access-token` (string, required)

## Request body

- `timeout` (integer) — Max scrapping execution timeout (in seconds) (default: 300; min: 20; max: 1500)
- `query` (string, nullable) — Free-text search across all fields
- `bibliographic` (string, nullable) — Search bibliographic metadata (title, author, year, journal combined)
- `author` (string, nullable) — Search contributor (author/editor) names
- `work_title` (string, nullable) — Search work title
- `container_title` (string, nullable) — Search the containing publication title (journal or book)
- `editor` (string, nullable) — Search editor names
- `publisher_name` (string, nullable) — Search publisher name
- `affiliation` (string, nullable) — Search author affiliation
- `type` (string, nullable) — Filter by work type (one of: "book-section", "monograph", "report-component", "report", "peer-review", "book-track", "journal-article", "book-part", "other", "book", "journal-volume", "book-set", "reference-entry", "proceedings-article", "journal", "component", "book-chapter", "proceedings-series", "report-series", "proceedings", "database", "standard", "reference-book", "posted-content", "journal-issue", "dissertation", "grant", "dataset", "book-series", "edited-book")
- `issn` (string, nullable) — Filter by journal ISSN
- `isbn` (string, nullable) — Filter by ISBN
- `doi` (string, nullable) — Filter by exact DOI
- `orcid` (string, nullable) — Filter by author ORCID
- `member` (string, nullable) — Filter by Crossref member id
- `prefix` (string, nullable) — Filter by DOI prefix
- `funder` (string, nullable) — Filter by funder DOI
- `award_funder` (string, nullable) — Filter by award funder DOI
- `award_number` (string, nullable) — Filter by award/grant number
- `category_name` (string, nullable) — Filter by subject category name
- `from_pub_date` (string, nullable) — Earliest publication date (YYYY, YYYY-MM or YYYY-MM-DD)
- `until_pub_date` (string, nullable) — Latest publication date (YYYY, YYYY-MM or YYYY-MM-DD)
- `from_created_date` (string, nullable) — Earliest Crossref-record creation date
- `until_created_date` (string, nullable) — Latest Crossref-record creation date
- `from_online_pub_date` (string, nullable) — Earliest online publication date
- `until_online_pub_date` (string, nullable) — Latest online publication date
- `from_deposit_date` (string, nullable) — Earliest metadata deposit date
- `until_deposit_date` (string, nullable) — Latest metadata deposit date
- `from_index_date` (string, nullable) — Earliest Crossref index date
- `until_index_date` (string, nullable) — Latest Crossref index date
- `has_abstract` (boolean, nullable) — Only works that include an abstract
- `has_orcid` (boolean, nullable) — Only works with at least one author ORCID
- `has_funder` (boolean, nullable) — Only works with funder information
- `has_references` (boolean, nullable) — Only works with a deposited reference list
- `has_license` (boolean, nullable) — Only works with license information
- `has_full_text` (boolean, nullable) — Only works with full-text links
- `is_update` (boolean, nullable) — Only works that are updates (corrections, retractions)
- `sort` (string, nullable) — Sort field (one of: "relevance", "score", "published", "indexed", "created", "deposited", "is-referenced-by-count", "references-count")
- `order` (string, nullable) — Sort order (one of: "asc", "desc")
- `count` (integer, required) — Number of works to return (min: 1)

## Response

### 200 — Successful Response

- `@type` (string) (default: "CrossrefWork")
- `doi` (string, required)
- `subtitle` (string, nullable)
- `short_title` (string, nullable)
- `original_title` (string, nullable)
- `container_title` (array) (default: [])
- `short_container_title` (array) (default: [])
- `type` (string, nullable)
- `publisher` (string, nullable)
- `publisher_location` (string, nullable)
- `member_id` (string, nullable)
- `prefix` (string, nullable)
- `language` (string, nullable)
- `source` (string, nullable)
- `abstract` (string, nullable)
- `issn` (array) (default: [])
- `isbn` (array) (default: [])
- `volume` (string, nullable)
- `issue` (string, nullable)
- `page` (string, nullable)
- `article_number` (string, nullable)
- `issued_date` (string, nullable)
- `published_date` (string, nullable)
- `published_print_date` (string, nullable)
- `published_online_date` (string, nullable)
- `created_at` (string, nullable)
- `deposited_at` (string, nullable)
- `indexed_at` (string, nullable)
- `score` (number, nullable)
- `reference_count` (integer) (default: 0)
- `is_referenced_by_count` (integer) (default: 0)
- `subjects` (array) (default: [])
- `alternative_ids` (array) (default: [])
- `web_url` (string, nullable)
- `resource_url` (string, nullable)
- `event` (object, nullable)
  - `@type` (string) (default: "CrossrefEvent")
  - `name` (string, nullable)
  - `location` (string, nullable)
  - `acronym` (string, nullable)
  - `sponsors` (array) (default: [])
  - `start_date` (string, nullable)
  - `end_date` (string, nullable)
- `authors` (array) (default: [])
  - `@type` (string) (default: "CrossrefAuthor")
  - `given` (string, nullable)
  - `family` (string, nullable)
  - `name` (string, nullable)
  - `sequence` (string, nullable)
  - `orcid` (string, nullable)
  - `is_authenticated_orcid` (boolean) (default: false)
  - `affiliations` (array) (default: [])
    - `@type` (string) (default: "CrossrefAffiliation")
    - `name` (string, required)
- `funders` (array) (default: [])
  - `@type` (string) (default: "CrossrefFunder")
  - `name` (string, required)
  - `doi` (string, nullable)
  - `awards` (array) (default: [])
- `licenses` (array) (default: [])
  - `@type` (string) (default: "CrossrefLicense")
  - `url` (string, required)
  - `content_version` (string, nullable)
  - `start_date` (string, nullable)
  - `delay_in_days` (integer, nullable)
- `links` (array) (default: [])
  - `@type` (string) (default: "CrossrefLink")
  - `url` (string, required)
  - `content_type` (string, nullable)
  - `content_version` (string, nullable)
  - `intended_application` (string, nullable)
- `references` (array) (default: [])
  - `@type` (string) (default: "CrossrefReference")
  - `key` (string, nullable)
  - `doi` (string, nullable)
  - `article_title` (string, nullable)
  - `journal_title` (string, nullable)
  - `author` (string, nullable)
  - `year` (string, nullable)
  - `volume` (string, nullable)
  - `first_page` (string, nullable)
  - `issn` (string, nullable)
  - `isbn` (string, nullable)
  - `unstructured` (string, nullable)

## Errors

### 422 — Validation Error

The request body did not validate

What to do: Check the fields against this schema. A URN with the wrong prefix is the most common cause.

- `detail` (array)
  - `loc` (array, required)
  - `msg` (string, required)
  - `type` (string, required)
  - `input` (any)
  - `ctx` (object)

### 408

The request ran past its time limit

What to do: Raise `timeout` in the request body, up to the maximum this endpoint documents. Lowering `count` or turning off the `with_*` flags also helps, because less work finishes sooner.

### 412

The entity was not found, or a precondition failed

What to do: Retrying will not help: either the entity does not exist, or the input points at a different one.

### 429

Too many requests: a rate limit or a usage window is exhausted

What to do: When the response carries an X-Retry-After header, wait that many seconds and retry: the same number is in the body as `detail.retry_after`, and the limit clears once that window passes. The message in the body names the limit that was hit.

### 500

Something broke on our side

What to do: Retrying will not help. If it keeps happening, send us the X-Request-ID from the response headers.

### 529

Rate limit reached, or the endpoint is overloaded

What to do: Wait at least 30 seconds, then retry.

## Response envelope

Success: Array of objects (may be empty if no results)

Error: Error may coexist with partial results if it occurs mid-execution. Check X-Error header and status code.

Every response carries these headers:

- `X-Error` — Error message text (present only on error)
- `X-Request-ID` — Unique request identifier
- `X-Execution-Time` — Execution time in seconds
- `X-Result-Count` — How many records the body carries. 0 means an empty result, which is a normal answer and not by itself an error. A non-zero count can come back together with X-Error when the failure happened partway through — read this header and X-Error independently.
- `X-Total-Available-Results` — How many records exist for this query, when the endpoint can say. On a `dry_run` request this is the answer and the body is empty. It saturates: the endpoint's documented maximum means 'at least that many', any smaller number is exact.
- `X-Warning` — Present when the request body carried keys this endpoint does not document. They were ignored, so any filter you meant to apply through them did not apply. Check the spelling against this schema and retry.
- `X-Retry-After` — Seconds to wait before retrying. Present only on 429.