McMaster University Publications API

openapi: 3.2.0
info:
  title: McMaster Experts Publications API
  version: '2026-09-01'
  summary: Public read-only JSON API behind McMaster University's researcher and expertise discovery gateway.
  description: McMaster Experts is McMaster University's researcher and expertise discovery gateway, operated by the university itself at experts.mcmaster.ca.
  contact:
    name: McMaster Experts
    url: https://experts.mcmaster.ca/about
  x-operator: institution
  x-operator-evidence: Host experts.mcmaster.ca is under McMaster University's own registrable domain mcmaster.ca. The application is bespoke (Next.js build, McMaster-specific `macid` field, McMaster group taxonomy) and matches no vendor research-information product.
  x-provenance:
    generated: '2026-09-01'
    method: probed
    source: https://experts.mcmaster.ca/api/search?q=nursing
servers:
- url: https://experts.mcmaster.ca
  description: Production. Observed live 2026-09-01.
security: []
tags:
- name: Publications
  description: Scholarly works attributed to McMaster researchers.
paths:
  /api/publications:
    get:
      operationId: listPublications
      tags:
      - Publications
      summary: List scholarly works
      description: Returns a batch of scholarly works attributed to McMaster researchers. Observed 96 records per response against an `itemCount` of 273828 on 2026-09-01. The `aggregations` key is present on every response and was `null` in every response observed; the parameter that populates it was not discovered. `group` was probed and is NOT honoured — it is dropped from the echoed `params` and `itemCount` is unchanged.
      parameters:
      - name: q
        in: query
        description: Free-text filter. Observed narrowing `itemCount` to 11399 for `cancer`.
        schema:
          type: string
      - name: sort
        in: query
        description: Sort order. `newest` and `oldest` were accepted and echoed.
        schema:
          type: string
          enum:
          - newest
          - oldest
          default: newest
      responses:
        '200':
          description: A batch of scholarly works.
          content:
            application/json:
              schema:
                $ref: '#/components/schemas/PublicationsResponse'
        '503':
          description: Edge throttling under rapid sequential requests.
components:
  schemas:
    Publication:
      type: object
      properties:
        id:
          type: string
        titleHTML:
          type: string
          description: Title with highlighting markup.
        parentName:
          type:
          - string
          - 'null'
          description: Containing venue as recorded on the record.
        type:
          type: string
          examples:
          - Journal article
        authors:
          type: array
          description: Author list in abbreviated "Surname I" form.
          items:
            type: string
        date:
          type: string
          format: date
        journal:
          type:
          - string
          - 'null'
        journalKey:
          type:
          - string
          - 'null'
        citationCount:
          type:
          - integer
          - 'null'
        url:
          type:
          - string
          - 'null'
          format: uri
          description: Resolver URL
          typically the DOI resolver.: null
        doi:
          type:
          - string
          - 'null'
          description: DOI of the work. Where the DOI prefix is 10.15173 the record was minted under McMaster University Library's own Crossref membership (member 5872).
        labelKeys:
          type: array
          items:
            type: string
        labels:
          type: array
          description: Field-of-research classification labels.
          items:
            type: string
        score:
          type:
          - number
          - 'null'
        sortValues:
          type: array
          items:
            type:
            - string
            - integer
    PublicationsResponse:
      type: object
      required:
      - batchItems
      - itemCount
      - params
      - aggregations
      properties:
        batchItems:
          type: array
          items:
            $ref: '#/components/schemas/Publication'
        itemCount:
          type: integer
          example: 273828
        params:
          type: object
          properties:
            q:
              type: string
            sort:
              type: string
        aggregations:
          type:
          - object
          - 'null'
          description: Present on every response; observed null in every response probed.
x-method: generated