specification: API Commons Rate Limits
specificationVersion: '0.1'
schema: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/api-evangelist/interface-research/main/schema/api-commons.yml#/$defs/RateLimits
provider: University of Southern California
providerId: usc
created: '2026-06-03'
modified: '2026-06-03'
reconciled: false
generated: '2026-06-03'
method: derived
source: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/api-evangelist/usc/refs/heads/main/apis.yml
tags:
- Education
- Higher Education
- University
- Rate Limiting
description: >-
  University of Southern California publishes no rate-limit documentation of any kind, for any
  surface. Corrected 2026-08-30: the previous text here cited OAI-PMH, IIIF and library
  harvesting endpoints as the throttled surfaces, and USC operates none of them - every OAI-PMH
  path probed on digitallibrary.usc.edu, repository.usc.edu and the Ex Libris Alma gateway for
  institution code 01USC_INST failed. Clients of the two keyless USC surfaces that do exist
  (shibboleth.usc.edu metadata, facebase.org ERMrest) should still back off politely and honor
  Retry-After; no published limit governs either.
notes: Confirm per-service limits with each API's documentation; harvest responsibly.
sources:
- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/api-evangelist/usc/refs/heads/main/apis.yml
responseCodes:
  throttled: 429
limits:
- name: Default
  scope: client
  metric: requests-per-minute
  limit: none published
  notes: >-
    No rate limit is published or advertised on any USC-operated surface, and no 429 or
    RateLimit-* header was observed on any probe. Absence of a documented limit is not a
    guarantee of an unlimited service.
policies:
- name: Backoff Strategy
  description: Exponential backoff with jitter; honor Retry-After; harvest during off-peak hours.
maintainers:
- FN: Kin Lane
  email: kin@apievangelist.com