name: Crossref REST API Capabilities
description: >-
  Workflow capabilities exposed by the Crossref REST API for searching,
  filtering, and retrieving scholarly metadata about works, journals,
  members, funders, types, licenses, prefixes, and DOI registration
  agency.
url: https://www.crossref.org/documentation/retrieve-metadata/rest-api/
version: '1.0'
modified: '2026-04-28'
api: Crossref REST API
baseURL: https://api.crossref.org
capabilities:
  - name: Works Discovery
    description: >-
      Search the Crossref corpus of scholarly works using free-form queries,
      field-specific queries (author, title, container-title, etc.),
      filters, and faceted counts. Retrieve individual work records by
      DOI for citation and metadata workflows.
    operations:
      - getWorks
      - getWorkByDoi
      - getMemberWorks
      - getJournalWorks
      - getFunderWorks
      - getPrefixWorks
      - getTypeWorks
    inputs:
      - query expression
      - filter expression
      - DOI
    outputs:
      - paginated work records with metadata
  - name: Member and Publisher Lookup
    description: >-
      Look up Crossref member organizations to understand who registered a
      DOI and which prefixes a publisher controls.
    operations:
      - getMembers
      - getMember
      - getPrefix
    inputs:
      - member ID
      - DOI prefix
    outputs:
      - member metadata
      - prefix-to-member mapping
  - name: Journal and Title Browsing
    description: >-
      Browse and look up journals registered with Crossref via ISSN to
      enrich citations and discover container titles.
    operations:
      - getJournals
      - getJournalByIssn
    inputs:
      - ISSN
    outputs:
      - journal record with publisher and ISSN list
  - name: Funder Resolution
    description: >-
      Resolve funder identifiers to entries in the Open Funder Registry
      and retrieve their associated works.
    operations:
      - getFunders
      - getFunder
      - getFunderWorks
    inputs:
      - funder DOI
    outputs:
      - funder record with name, alt-names, and country
  - name: Reference Type Enumeration
    description: >-
      Retrieve the controlled list of work types used across Crossref
      metadata, such as journal-article, book-chapter, dataset, and
      preprint.
    operations:
      - getTypes
      - getType
      - getTypeWorks
    inputs:
      - type ID
    outputs:
      - work type definition
  - name: License and Compliance Inspection
    description: >-
      Inspect license metadata associated with Crossref-registered content
      for open-access discovery, text-mining permissions, and compliance.
    operations:
      - getLicenses
    inputs:
      - filter expression
    outputs:
      - aggregated license URIs and counts
  - name: DOI Registration Agency Discovery
    description: >-
      Determine which DOI registration agency (Crossref, DataCite, mEDRA,
      etc.) registered a given DOI to route follow-up queries.
    operations:
      - getWorkAgency
    inputs:
      - DOI
    outputs:
      - registration agency name
useCases:
  - name: Reference Linking
    description: Resolve DOIs in a manuscript bibliography to canonical Crossref work records and citation metadata.
    capabilities:
      - Works Discovery
      - DOI Registration Agency Discovery
  - name: Funder Reporting
    description: Generate reports of works funded by a specific agency by resolving funder DOI and pulling associated works.
    capabilities:
      - Funder Resolution
      - Works Discovery
  - name: Open-Access Detection
    description: Filter works by license URL to identify open-access content for repositories or discovery layers.
    capabilities:
      - License and Compliance Inspection
      - Works Discovery
  - name: Publisher Analytics
    description: Aggregate works by Crossref member to surface publication trends and registration statistics.
    capabilities:
      - Member and Publisher Lookup
      - Works Discovery
  - name: Journal Discovery
    description: Look up a journal by ISSN to enrich citations with publisher metadata.
    capabilities:
      - Journal and Title Browsing