# /figshare/collections/search

`POST /api/figshare/collections/search`

Price: 20 credits

Search Figshare collections — the containers that group deposits belonging to one publication or project. Returns each collection's id, DOI, title and publication date.

## How to use it

A collection row is deliberately thin — pass its `id` to /figshare/collections for the authors, description, categories and item count. Search /figshare/articles/search instead when you want the deposits themselves; a collection groups them and holds no files. Figshare reports no result total and will not serve past 10000 matches for any one query, so narrow with `published_since` or `source_doi` 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 the collection title, description and keywords. Leave it out to browse everything the other filters allow (examples: "cancer", "herbicide"; minLength: 1)
- `doi` (string, nullable) — Return only the collection carrying this DOI, which for a publisher deposit is the accompanying publication's own DOI (examples: "10.1021/acs.jafc.6c06281"; minLength: 1)
- `source_doi` (string, nullable) — Return only collections accompanying the publication carrying this DOI (examples: "10.1021/acs.analchem.6c03877"; minLength: 1)
- `published_since` (string, nullable) — Keep only collections published on or after this date, as YYYY-MM-DD (examples: "2026-01-01"; minLength: 1)
- `modified_since` (string, nullable) — Keep only collections whose metadata changed on or after this date, as YYYY-MM-DD (examples: "2026-01-01"; minLength: 1)
- `group_id` (string, nullable) — Keep only collections owned by this Figshare group, as its numeric id (examples: "2505"; minLength: 1)
- `institution_id` (string, nullable) — Keep only collections owned by this institution's Figshare portal, as its numeric id (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: "FigshareCollection")
- `id` (string, required)
- `url` (string, required)
- `doi` (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)

## 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.