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Piped querying

Please note: the piped query format has been deprecated. It is still available for use but may be retired in the future and is no longer in development.

Content in Crossref is stored according to genre since variations exist in the structure of references to these different kinds of content. Consequently, piped queries come in two types: a 10 field query used to search journal or conference proceeding DOIs and a 12 field query used to search conference proceedings or book/reference DOI names.

Since conference proceedings often have metadata identical to journal articles but may have metadata similar to books both types of piped queries search against this genre.

A piped query must include either a starting page number, the author's last name, or both. If a query contains neither field, the Crossref system will reject it.

Piped queries are written one per line. If more than one query is to be submitted in a single request they should be separated by a new line character (*n or %0A). The recommended maximum query batch size is 30 queries for synchronous, or interactive queries. For queries that are uploaded for asynchronous processing the maximum is limited by file size which should be kept under 1 Megabyte.

A piped query may also  be used to perform a 'reverse lookup', aka DOI namequery, which retrieves metadata for a known DOI name.

Field descriptions:

  • ISBN, ISBN/ISSN: Journal, book or conference proceedings ISBN or ISSN
  • TITLE: journal title or abbreviation
  • SER_TITLE: The serial title.
  • VOL_TITLE: The book title.
  • FIRST AUTHOR, AUTHOR/EDITOR: First Author surname.
  • VOLUME: Book/Conference proceedings volume
  • EDITION_NUMBER: Edition number for the book or conference proceeding (e.g. 3)
  • PAGE: First page.
  • YEAR: Year book or conference proceedings was published.
  • COMPONENT_NUMBER: Chapter, section or part inside the book/conf. proceeding (e.g. Section 3)
  • DOI: The DOI, left blank in the query
  • RESOURCE_TYPE: The resource type (full_text, abstract_only or bibliographic_record)
  • KEY: submitted buy the user to track queries (e.g. echoed back in the corresponding query result)

10 field query

The fields appear in this order:

ISSN|TITLE/ABBREV|FIRST AUTHOR|VOLUME|ISSUE|START PAGE|YEAR|RESOURCE TYPE|KEY|DOI

Examples:

  1. A query using an abbreviated journaltitle

    Query: |Biol J Linn Soc|Hardy|64|2|239|1998||MyKey1|

    Results: 00244066,10958312|Biological Journal of the Linnean Society|HARDY|64|2|239|1998|full_text|MyKey1|10.1006/bijl.1998.022
  2. This query contains an ISSN instead of a title or abbreviated title:

    00244066||Hardy|64||239|1998||MyKey2|
     
  3. Here, only the title, author, starting page, and year are passed.

    |Biol J Linn Soc|Hardy|||239|1998||MyKey1|
  4. Here a several piped queries together:

    |Trends Ecol Evol|Murcia|10||58|1995||k1|
    |Urban Ecosyst|Jokimäki|3||21|1999||k2|
    |Science|Maniatis|278||818|1997||k3|
    |Annu Rev Immunol|Baeuerle|12||141|1994||k4|
    |Proc Natl Acad Sci USA|Miagkov|95||13859|1998||k5|
    |Lancet|Bonn|351||1710|1998||k6|
    |N Engl J Med|Barnes|336||1066|1997||k7|

    Results:

    01695347|Trends in Ecology & Evolution|Murcia|10|2|58|1995|full_text|k1|10.1016/S0169-5347(00)88977-6
    10838155,15731642|Urban Ecosystems|Jokim?ki|3|1|21|1999|full_text|k2|10.1023/A:1009505418327
    00368075,10959203|Science|Maniatis|278|5339|818|1997|full_text|k3|10.1126/science.278.5339.818
    |Annu Rev Immunol|Baeuerle|12||141|1994||k4|
    00278424,10916490|Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences|Miagkov|95|23|13859|1998|full_text|k5|10.1073/pnas.95.23.13859
    01406736,1474547X|The Lancet|BONN|351|9117|1710|1998|full_text|k6|10.1016/S0140-6736(05)77753-9
    00284793,15334406|New England Journal of Medicine|Barnes|336|15|1066|1997|full_text|k7|10.1056/NEJM199704103361506

    The query with Key k4 did not match any DOI. In query 'k5' the results contain two ISSNs, the first is for the print journal while the second is for the online edition. Notice the problem with the author name in 'k2'. Here the special character in the query (small a with diaeresis) was not handled properly by the browser , whose default character set was UTF-8.  XML queries and result formats are better suited to handle special characters. 

12 field query

The fields appear in this order:

ISBN/ISSN|SER_TITLE|VOL_TITLE|AUTHOR/EDITOR|VOLUME|EDITION_NUMBER|PAGE|YEAR|COMPONENT_NUMBER|RESOURCE_TYPE|KEY|DOI

Examples:

  1. Several book queries shown together

    Query:

    |IEEE Press Series on Digital & Mobile Communication|Theory of Code Division Multiple Access Communication|Zigangirov|||137|2004|||| ||Physical Chemistry of Macromolecules|Sun|||267|2004|||| |Contributions to Nephrology|Nutritional and Acid-Base Aspects of Amino Acid Metabolism|Lardner|121||117|1997|||| |Methods in Enzymology|Carotenoids Part B Metabolism Genetics and Biosynthesis|LAKSHMAN|214||256|1993||||

    Results:

    0471457124,0471 0471457124,047165549X|IEEE Press Series on Digital & Mobile Communication|Theory of Code Division Multiple Access Communication|Zigangirov|||137|2004||full_text|k1|10.1002/047165549X.ch4 
    0471281387,0471623571||Physical Chemistry of Macromolecules|Sun|||267|2004||full_text|k2|10.1002/0471623571.ch12
    3805564902|Contributions to Nephrology|Nutritional and Acid-Base Aspects of Amino Acid Metabolism|Lardner|121||117|1997||full_text|k3|10.1159/000059861
    00766879,0121821153|Methods in Enzymology|Carotenoids Part B Metabolism Genetics and Biosynthesis|LAKSHMAN|214||256|1993||full_text|k4|10.1016/0076-6879(93)14070-Y 

Author / article title piped query

The Crossref system supports a query mode where only article title and/or first author surname are required. These queries can be performed using the piped or XML formats.

Example: HTTP request with piped author/title query

The query type must be set to ‘a’ (for article/author), otherwise the request will be considered a malformed metadata query.

http://doi.crossref.org/servlet/query?usr=%3cusername%3e&pwd=%3cpassword%3e&type=a&format=unixref&qdata=Offline+Approaches|Gustafsson||key|

Example: piped bulk (asynchronous) query

These queries may also be submitted in bulk (asynchronous) using our batch upload feature. The uploaded file should be formatted with a header containing the email address to which the results will be sent followed by one query per line as shown here.:

H:email=youremail@publisher.org 
Concluding remarks|Somiari||key1| 
Off-line Approaches|Gustafsson||key2| 
Monoclonal antibodies to feline sarcoma|Veronese||key3|

 

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