# /figshare/articles/search

`POST /api/figshare/articles/search`

Price: 20 credits

Search Figshare research outputs by full text, DOI, publication DOI, item type, publication or modification date, group and institution. Returns each record's id, DOI, title, item type, the dates it was created, published and last modified, its thumbnail, and the DOI and title of the publication it supplements.

## How to use it

Use this to find Figshare records and then pass each `id` to /figshare/articles for the authors, description, licence and files — a search row carries none of those. `query` is the only text matching there is; a misspelt or unsupported filter is ignored by Figshare rather than rejected, so this endpoint sends only the filters listed above. Passing `doi` is the way to resolve a publisher DOI to a Figshare record. Figshare reports no result total and will not serve past 10000 matches for any one query, so narrow with `published_since` or `item_type` rather than expecting to reach the end of a broad query.

## Parameters

- `access-token` (string, required)

## Request body

- `timeout` (integer) — Max scrapping execution timeout (in seconds) (default: 300; min: 20; max: 1500)
- `query` (string, nullable) — Full-text query matched against title, description, authors and keywords. Leave it out to browse everything the other filters allow (examples: "cancer genomics", "sea level rise"; minLength: 1)
- `doi` (string, nullable) — Return only the record carrying this DOI, whether Figshare minted it or a publisher did (examples: "10.6084/m9.figshare.32974826", "10.1186/1471-2288-13-46"; minLength: 1)
- `source_doi` (string, nullable) — Return only records deposited as supplementary material of the publication carrying this DOI (examples: "10.3389/fonc.2026.1908708"; minLength: 1)
- `item_type` (string, nullable) — Keep only records of this kind (one of: "figure", "media", "dataset", "poster", "journal_contribution", "presentation", "thesis", "software", "online_resource", "preprint", "book", "conference_contribution")
- `published_since` (string, nullable) — Keep only records published on or after this date, as YYYY-MM-DD (examples: "2026-01-01"; minLength: 1)
- `modified_since` (string, nullable) — Keep only records whose metadata changed on or after this date, as YYYY-MM-DD (examples: "2026-01-01"; minLength: 1)
- `group_id` (string, nullable) — Keep only records deposited into this Figshare group, as its numeric id. A record returned by this endpoint carries the id of its own group (examples: "61179"; minLength: 1)
- `institution_id` (string, nullable) — Keep only records deposited into this institution's Figshare portal, as its numeric id. Figshare publishes no route that lists the ids (examples: "63"; minLength: 1)
- `sort` (string) — Field the results are ordered by (default: "published_date"; one of: "published_date", "modified_date", "created_date", "views", "downloads", "shares", "cites")
- `sort_direction` (string) — Ordering direction (default: "desc"; one of: "desc", "asc")
- `count` (integer, required) — Max number of results (examples: 100; min: 1; max: 10000)

## Response

### 200 — Successful Response

- `@type` (string) (default: "FigshareArticle")
- `id` (string, required)
- `url` (string, required)
- `doi` (string, nullable)
- `handle` (string, nullable)
- `item_type` (string, nullable)
- `item_type_id` (string, nullable)
- `created_at` (string, nullable)
- `modified_at` (string, nullable)
- `published_at` (string, nullable)
- `timeline` (object, nullable)
  - `@type` (string) (default: "FigshareTimeline")
  - `posted_at` (string, nullable)
  - `submitted_at` (string, nullable)
  - `revised_at` (string, nullable)
  - `first_online_date` (string, nullable)
  - `publisher_publication_date` (string, nullable)
  - `publisher_acceptance_date` (string, nullable)
- `thumbnail` (string, nullable)
- `group_id` (string, nullable)
- `project_id` (string, nullable)
- `source_doi` (string, nullable)
- `source_title` (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.