/osf/registrations/search

POST /api/osf/registrations/search

Price: 20 credits

Search public OSF registrations by title, description, tag, subject, category and creation or modification date. Returns each registration's GUID, title, description, the form it was registered on, the date it was frozen, its embargo and withdrawal state and its declarations about available data, materials, code and papers.

How to use it

Use this to find preregistrations and registered reports on a topic, then take a GUID to /osf/registrations for the answers the researchers actually gave. Rows carry no authors and no form answers. `registration_supplement` names the template, which is the practical way to tell a preregistration from a registered report or an open-ended archive — but OSF will not filter on it, so narrow another way and read it off the rows. There is no filter on the registration date either: `created_since` and `modified_since` are about the underlying project, so a registration frozen today from a project made in 2019 will not match a recent `created_since`. An embargoed registration appears here with its title while its content stays closed until `embargo_end_date`, and a withdrawn one appears with `is_withdrawn` true. `tag` and `subject` must match a whole term.

Parameters

• access-token string required

Request body

• timeout integer — Max scrapping execution timeout (in seconds) (default: 300; min: 20; max: 1500)
• title_contains string nullable — Keep only registrations whose title contains this text (examples: "memory"; minLength: 1)
• description string nullable — Keep only registrations whose description contains this text (examples: "randomised"; minLength: 1)
• tag string nullable — Keep only registrations carrying this tag, matched exactly (examples: "covid"; minLength: 1)
• subject string nullable — Keep only registrations filed under this subject taxonomy term (examples: "Psychology"; minLength: 1)
• category string nullable — Keep only registrations of this category (one of: "project", "analysis", "communication", "data", "hypothesis", "instrumentation", "methods and measures", "procedure", "software", "other")
• created_since string nullable — Keep only registrations whose underlying project was created on or after this date, as YYYY-MM-DD (examples: "2026-01-01"; minLength: 1)
• modified_since string nullable — Keep only registrations changed on or after this date, as YYYY-MM-DD (examples: "2026-01-01"; minLength: 1)
• sort string — Field the results are ordered by (default: "date_modified"; one of: "date_created", "date_modified", "title")
• sort_direction string — Ordering direction (default: "desc"; one of: "desc", "asc")
• count integer required — Max number of results (examples: 100; min: 1; max: 300)

Response

• @type string (default: "OsfRegistration")
• id string required
• url string required
• description string nullable
• category string nullable
• registration_supplement string nullable
• created_at string nullable
• modified_at string nullable
• registered_at string nullable
• withdrawn_at string nullable
• embargo_end_date string nullable
• reviews_state string nullable
• revision_state string nullable
• article_doi string nullable
• archive_url string nullable
• withdrawal_justification string nullable
• tags array (default: [])
• subjects array (default: [])
  • @type string (default: "OsfSubject")
  • id string required
  • text string required
  • path array (default: [])
• license_record object nullable
  • @type string (default: "OsfLicenseRecord")
  • year string nullable
  • copyright_holders array (default: [])
• is_public boolean nullable
• is_embargoed boolean nullable
• is_withdrawn boolean nullable
• is_archiving boolean nullable
• is_fork boolean nullable
• is_collection boolean nullable
• is_preprint boolean nullable
• is_wiki_enabled boolean nullable
• has_project boolean nullable
• has_data boolean nullable
• has_materials boolean nullable
• has_analytic_code boolean nullable
• has_papers boolean nullable
• has_supplements boolean nullable
• is_pending_registration_approval boolean nullable
• is_pending_embargo_approval boolean nullable
• is_pending_embargo_termination_approval boolean nullable
• is_pending_withdrawal boolean nullable
• are_access_requests_enabled boolean nullable

Errors

• 422 — The request body did not validate Check the fields against this schema. A URN with the wrong prefix is the most common cause.
• 408 — The request ran past its time limit 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 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 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 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 Wait at least 30 seconds, then retry.

Response 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.