California Institute of Technology

aid: caltech
name: California Institute of Technology
description: 'The California Institute of Technology (Caltech) is a private research university in Pasadena, California, ranked
  #10 in the QS World University Rankings 2025. Caltech''s public, machine-readable footprint is concentrated in its research-data
  and astronomy infrastructure rather than a single central developer portal. CaltechDATA, the institutional research data
  repository, runs on InvenioRDM and exposes a public REST API and an OAI-PMH interface, with an accompanying open-source
  Python client. Caltech-operated IPAC runs the NASA/IPAC Infrared Science Archive (IRSA), which publishes Virtual Observatory
  (IVOA) standard APIs including TAP, Simple Cone Search, and Simple Image Access. There is no single unified institution-wide
  API developer portal; the official GitHub "caltech" org is an unofficial community group, while caltechlibrary and Caltech-IPAC
  host the bulk of the open-source code.'
type: Index
position: Consumer
access: 3rd-Party
image: https://kinlane-images.s3.amazonaws.com/shared/apis-json/apis-json-logo.jpg
url: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/api-evangelist/caltech/refs/heads/main/apis.yml
tags:
- Education
- Higher Education
- University
- Research Data
- Astronomy
- Open Data
- United States
created: '2026-06-03'
modified: '2026-06-03'
specificationVersion: '0.19'
apis:
- aid: caltech:caltechdata-rest
  name: CaltechDATA REST API
  description: Public REST API for CaltechDATA, the Caltech institutional research data repository built on InvenioRDM. Supports
    querying and retrieving records, metadata (DataCite 4 JSON), files, and DOIs. Verified live returning JSON record hits.
  humanURL: https://caltechlibrary.github.io/caltechdata_api/
  baseURL: https://data.caltech.edu/api/records
  tags:
  - Research Data
  - Repository
  - InvenioRDM
  - DataCite
  - Open Data
  properties:
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://caltechlibrary.github.io/caltechdata_api/
  - type: GitHub
    url: https://github.com/caltechlibrary/caltechdata_api
- aid: caltech:caltechdata-oai
  name: CaltechDATA OAI-PMH
  description: OAI-PMH metadata harvesting endpoint for CaltechDATA, enabling programmatic harvesting of repository metadata
    records. Verified live via the Identify verb.
  humanURL: https://data.caltech.edu/
  baseURL: https://data.caltech.edu/oai2d
  tags:
  - Research Data
  - OAI-PMH
  - Metadata
  - Harvesting
  - Open Data
  properties:
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://data.caltech.edu/
- aid: caltech:irsa-vo
  name: IRSA Virtual Observatory APIs (IPAC)
  description: Caltech/IPAC NASA Infrared Science Archive (IRSA) exposes IVOA-standard Virtual Observatory APIs, including
    Table Access Protocol (TAP), Simple Cone Search (SCS), and Simple Image Access (SIA v2), for programmatic access to NASA
    infrared and submillimeter mission catalogs and images. TAP sync endpoint verified live.
  humanURL: https://irsa.ipac.caltech.edu/voapi.html
  baseURL: https://irsa.ipac.caltech.edu/TAP
  tags:
  - Astronomy
  - Virtual Observatory
  - TAP
  - NASA
  - Open Data
  - IPAC
  properties:
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://irsa.ipac.caltech.edu/voapi.html
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://irsa.ipac.caltech.edu/docs/program_interface/api_catalogs.html
  - type: GitHub
    url: https://github.com/Caltech-IPAC
common:
- type: Website
  url: https://www.caltech.edu/
- type: GitHub
  url: https://github.com/caltechlibrary
- type: LinkedIn
  url: https://www.linkedin.com/school/california-institute-of-technology/
- type: Plans
  url: plans/caltech-plans-pricing.yml
- type: RateLimits
  url: rate-limits/caltech-rate-limits.yml
- type: FinOps
  url: finops/caltech-finops.yml
- type: Review
  url: review.yml
maintainers:
- FN: Kin Lane
  email: kin@apievangelist.com