How to do a batch query using REST API

Metadata Retrieval Interfaces for Machines
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Right now I am using the query_bibliographic field to extract metadata from unstructured references. However, this process takes about 10s per reference which is too slow for the feature I have in mind. Is there a way to deposit all the unstructured references at once, using a single API interaction (single GET request)?

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Hi @Matej ,

Thanks for your message and welcome to the community forum!

We do have a tool - the Simple Text Query form - that might be a better alternative for you than using the REST API.

If you just want to match references to DOIs, follow these instructions.

  1. Go to the Simple Text Query form and enter a reference or list of references into the search box.
  2. Optional:
  • select List all possible DOIs per reference to return multiple results
  • select Include PubMed IDs in results to include PubMed IDs
  1. Click Submit

If you’ve previously added references to an item, and want to add more references using Simple Text Query, you need to include both the existing and the new references in your deposit.

  1. Start at Simple Text Query
  2. Enter your references into the form. Don’t check List all possible DOIs per reference. Click submit
  3. Select the Deposit button and complete the fields
  • your email address - this is used to send you a submission log after your reference deposit has been processed
  • the parent DOI is the DOI of the content item for which you are adding references. It must already be registered with Crossref
  • your Crossref account credentials
  1. Click Deposit again.

You can learn more about using the Simple Text Query form here: Adding references to your metadata record - Crossref

Please let me know if you have any additional questions.

Kind regards,
Isaac

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Hi @ifarley ,

First of all, thank you for such a quick reply.

I have ran into the Simple Text Query form and something like that would be perfect - if it could be accessed programmatically.

Perhaps I should have been more specific in my question so here we go:
What I’m trying to do is extend the features of a website called Benty-Fields. Essentially, the website uses arXiv to display papers, recommends new interesting papers, and gather researchers into Journal Clubs. What we would like to do is parse the references for each paper and display them on the website. This is easy to do for papers that contain arXiv IDs or DOIs, however for papers that contain neither we decided to use Crossref. And it works! However, the current script is too slow. At the current rate, there is no way we can parse ~2000 daily papers that arXiv releases every day. The speed bottleneck is the Crossref API queries, since for every reference it takes about 10s to return a match. If there is any way I could query all the references we can’t match for a single paper at once I think that might just be enough of a speed boost.

Kind regards,
Matej