PLOS website screenshot

PLOS

These examples use the search API to search the PLOS corpus of scientific articles. These examples are not intended to be a full explanation on the use of Solr. A full Solr query language explanation can be found here and a tutorial here. The construction of PLOS search queries deviates from the standard Solr query URL by using search instead of select when making request to the end point. The primary endpoint is http://api.plos.org/search and supports parameters such as q, fl, wt, start, and rows for querying the PLOS Solr index.

PLOS publishes 1 API on the APIs.io network. Tagged areas include Scientific Articles, Research, Search, Solr, and Open Access.

PLOS’s developer surface includes documentation, engineering blog, and 4 more developer resources.

🌐 Visit website 📡 Source on GitHub
21.7/100 emerging ▬ flat Agent 3/100 human only Full breakdown ↓
scored 2026-07-28 · rubric v0.6
AccessFreemium
1 APIs
Scientific ArticlesResearchSearchSolrOpen Access

Kin Score

Kin Score Kin Score How this is scored →
scored 2026-07-28 · rubric v0.6
Composite quality — 21.7/100 · emerging
Contract Quality 0.0 / 25
Developer Ergonomics 2.2 / 20
Commercial Clarity 7.9 / 20
Operational Transparency 4.8 / 13
Governance 0.0 / 12
Discoverability 6.9 / 10
Agent readiness — 3/100 · human only
Machine-Readable Contract 0 / 18
Agentic Access Contract 0 / 10
MCP Server 0 / 12
Machine-Readable Auth 0 / 10
Idempotency 0 / 9
Stable Error Semantics 0 / 8
Request/Response Examples 0 / 7
Rate-Limit Signaling 7 / 7
Typed Event Surface 0 / 6
Agent Skills 0 / 5
Well-Known Catalog 0 / 4
Consent & Bot Identity 0 / 3
A2A Agent Card 0 / 8
Dry-Run / Simulate Mode 0 / 4
Improve this rating by publishing the missing artifacts — every area above can be raised, and the full rubric is at apis.io/rating/. This rating is computed from github.com/api-evangelist/plos: open an issue to ask a question, or submit a pull request to add artifacts. Want it done for you? Prioritized profiling — $2,500 →

APIs 1

Individual APIs this provider publishes, each with its own machine-readable definition.

PLOS Search API

These examples use the search API to search the PLOS corpus of scientific articles. These examples are not intended to be a full explanation on the use of Solr. A full Solr quer...

Pricing Plans 1

Published pricing tiers and plan structures.

Plos Plans Pricing

3 plans

PLANS

Rate Limits 1

Documented rate limits and quota policies.

Plos Rate Limits

5 limits

RATE LIMITS

FinOps 1

Cost, billing, and metering signals for API financial operations.

Plos Finops

FINOPS

Security Posture 1

Authentication, domain security, vulnerability disclosure, and trust-center signals.

Plos Domain Security

TLSv1.3 · HSTS · DMARC

SECURITY

Resources

Documentation 1

Reference material describing how the API behaves

Documentation
Documentation

Build 1

SDKs, sample code, and the tooling you integrate with

GitHubOrganization
GitHubOrganization

Access & Security 1

Authentication, authorization, and security posture

DomainSecurity
DomainSecurity

Company 3

The organization behind the API

LinkedIn
LinkedIn
 Website
Website
 Blog
Blog

Source (apis.yml)

apis.yml Raw ↑ 
aid: plos
name: PLOS
description: These examples use the search API to search the PLOS corpus of scientific articles. These examples are not intended
  to be a full explanation on the use of Solr. A full Solr query language explanation can be found here and a tutorial here.
  The construction of PLOS search queries deviates from the standard Solr query URL by using search instead of select when
  making request to the end point. The primary endpoint is http://api.plos.org/search and supports parameters such as q, fl,
  wt, start, and rows for querying the PLOS Solr index.
type: Index
accessModel:
  pricing: freemium
  onboarding: unknown
  trial: false
  try_now: false
  public: false
  label: Freemium
  confidence: medium
  source:
  - plans
  generated: '2026-07-22'
  method: derived
position: Consumer
access: 3rd-Party
image: https://kinlane-images.s3.amazonaws.com/shared/apis-json/icons/plos.png
tags:
- Scientific Articles
- Research
- Search
- Solr
- Open Access
created: '2025-02-06'
modified: '2026-04-28'
url: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/api-evangelist/plos/refs/heads/main/apis.yml
specificationVersion: '0.19'
apis:
- aid: plos:plos
  name: PLOS Search API
  description: These examples use the search API to search the PLOS corpus of scientific articles. These examples are not
    intended to be a full explanation on the use of Solr. A full Solr query language explanation can be found here and a tutorial
    here. The construction of PLOS search queries deviates from the standard Solr query URL by using search instead of select
    when making request to the end point.
  humanURL: https://api.plos.org/solr/examples/
  baseURL: http://api.plos.org/search
  tags:
  - Scientific Articles
  - Search
  - Solr
  properties:
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://api.plos.org/solr/examples/
  - type: SearchFields
    url: https://api.plos.org/solr/search-fields/
common:
- type: DomainSecurity
  url: security/plos-domain-security.yml
- type: GitHubOrganization
  url: https://github.com/PLOS
- type: LinkedIn
  url: https://www.linkedin.com/company/public-library-of-science
- type: Website
  url: https://plos.org
- type: Documentation
  url: https://api.plos.org/solr/examples/
- type: Integrations
  url: https://plos.org/libraries/partners/
- url: https://theplosblog.plos.org/feed/
  type: Blog
integrations:
- name: PLOS
maintainers:
- FN: Kin Lane
  email: kin@apievangelist.com