Can i lookup DOI using just the title and year of a journal article

Metadata Retrieval Interfaces for People
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1

I have
Title:Temporal variability in nutrient transport in a first-order agricultural basin in southern Ontario
Year:2004
Author:Macrae, Merrin L.

can I use the API to look this up

2

Hello @merrittr,

Many thanks for your post.

You can use our search tool https://0-search-crossref-org.libus.csd.mu.edu/ to lookup titles and DOIs in our system. This is built upon our REST API so it would be searching against that. You can also search using the API using queries like query.bibliographic or if you were just searching on a title you would use query.title.

You could use query URLs like:

https://0-api-crossref-org.libus.csd.mu.edu/works?query.title=Temporal%20variability%20in%20nutrient%20transport%20in%20a%20first-order%20agricultural%20basin%20in%20southern%20Ontario

I also tried:
https://0-api-crossref-org.libus.csd.mu.edu/works?query.title=Temporal%20variability%20in%20nutrient%20transport%20in%20a%20first-order%20agricultural%20basin%20in%20southern%20Ontario&query.bibliographic=2004,Macrae,%20Merrin%20L.&select=title&rows=1000

I don’t see any matching results coming up, do you know if a DOI has been registered for this piece of work?

Thank you,
Paul

1 Like
3

Agreed @pdavis . I don’t think a DOI has been registered with us that matches this metadata. Getting similar results from our Simple Text Query form when searching for:

Macrae, Merrin L, Temporal variability in nutrient transport in a first-order agricultural basin in southern Ontario, 2004.

Screenshot 2023-01-09 at 11.18.11 AM
Screenshot 2023-01-09 at 11.18.11 AM3468×1410 354 KB

-Isaac

4

Oh I see , when it returned 100s of entries I thought I just wasnt being specific enough? Wouldnt it be better to return 0 records if there is no matching?

How do I know if there is nom DOI registerd?

6

Hi @merrittr ,

Thanks for following up.

Oh I see , when it returned 100s of entries I thought I just wasnt being specific enough? Wouldnt it be better to return 0 records if there is no matching?

Not exactly, since that’s not the only use case for the REST API. We’re returning the results with the most relevance in the REST API. From there, we allow metadata users to determine if that relevance matches their expectations. Sometimes it does. Sometimes it does not.

If you are looking for a definitive match, the Simple Text Query form is designed for that type of querying: Simple Text Query form. You can see from my screenshot above that no DOI was returned for: Macrae, Merrin L, Temporal variability in nutrient transport in a first-order agricultural basin in southern Ontario, 2004, which means that for the metadata entered into the form, we do not have a matching record registered with us.

If you’re looking to match a reference list to a definitive DOI, I suggest using the Simple Text Query form.

-Isaac

7

is there an API cal I can use I am trying to automate this

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Hi @merrittr ,

The Simple Text Query form is not meant to be an API. You could use our REST API to do this and just analyze the top result you receive back, like this: https://0-api-crossref-org.libus.csd.mu.edu/works?query.title=Temporal%20variability%20in%20nutrient%20transport%20in%20a%20first-order%20agricultural%20basin%20in%20southern%20Ontario&query.bibliographic=2004,Macrae,%20Merrin%20L.&select=title,DOI&rows=1

-Isaac

9

@ifarley that is exactly what I need :slight_smile: thanks!

1 Like