Queen's University Belfast

aid: queens-university-belfast
name: Queen's University Belfast
description: 'Queen''s University Belfast is a public research-intensive university in Belfast, Northern Ireland, founded
  in 1845 and a member of the Russell Group. Its programmable footprint is almost entirely a buyer''s footprint rather than
  a builder''s: there is no central developer portal, no api.qub.ac.uk, no institutional open-data portal, and no institution-authored
  OpenAPI. The research surface people mistake for QUB engineering is an Elsevier Pure tenancy — pure.qub.ac.uk and pureadmin.qub.ac.uk
  both CNAME into eu.prod.elsevierpure.com, and the OpenAPI served there is titled "Pure API" with contact pure-support@elsevier.com,
  so the data is QUB''s and the contract is Elsevier''s. The same pattern holds for the VLE (Canvas at canvas.qub.ac.uk, CNAME
  qub-vanity.instructure.com) and library discovery (Ex Libris Primo at qub.primo.exlibrisgroup.com). What QUB genuinely operates
  and publishes in machine-readable form is its identity federation: a production Shibboleth SAML 2.0 Identity Provider (entityID
  https://qub.ac.uk/shibboleth) registered in the UK Access Management Federation, which also hosts federated identity for
  the Healthcare Library of Northern Ireland and AFBI. Alongside that sit a live OAI-PMH 2.0 harvesting endpoint for the Research
  Portal, a registered DataCite repository client (BL.QUB, 2015), a school-level Crossref membership, and the NI-HPC / Kelvin2
  national high-performance computing service, whose site runs on QUB''s own web platform. This profile deliberately records
  those tenancies as relationships rather than as QUB''s own contracts.'
type: Index
x-type: university
x-category: Public Research University
accessModel:
  pricing: free
  onboarding: unknown
  trial: false
  try_now: false
  public: false
  label: Free
  confidence: low
  source:
  - plans
  - security
  generated: '2026-09-02'
  method: derived
position: Consuming
access: 3rd-Party
image: https://kinlane-images.s3.amazonaws.com/shared/apis-json/icons/queens-university-belfast.png
url: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/api-evangelist/queens-university-belfast/refs/heads/main/apis.yml
tags:
- University
- Higher Education
- Education
- Research
- United Kingdom
- Northern Ireland
- Russell Group
- Identity Federation
- Research Repository
- Open Access
- OAI-PMH
- Shibboleth
- SAML
- Research Computing
created: '2026-06-03'
modified: '2026-08-30'
specificationVersion: '0.23'
x-operator-summary:
  generated: '2026-08-30'
  method: probed
  note: Operator attribution settled before any contract was kept. The 37 refined OpenAPIs and the one _original spec previously
    held here were all Elsevier Pure's contract (info.title 'Pure API' / 'Pure activity * API', info.contact pure-support@elsevier.com)
    and were removed, along with the 90 artifacts derived from them. The host-based audit read pureadmin.qub.ac.uk and pure.qub.ac.uk
    as institution-owned because they sit under qub.ac.uk; DNS says otherwise — both CNAME to eu.prod.elsevierpure.com via
    qub-pva.elsevierpure.com. That is a tenant, not an institution surface.
  institution: 2
  tenant: 3
  vendor_contracts_removed: 38
  derived_artifacts_removed: 89
apis:
- aid: queens-university-belfast:identity-federation-idp
  name: Queen's University Belfast Shibboleth Identity Provider (UK Access Management Federation)
  description: Queen's University Belfast operates a production Shibboleth SAML 2.0 Identity Provider registered in the UK
    Access Management Federation and, through it, eduGAIN. The signed SAML entity descriptor is machine-readable and individually
    resolvable through the federation's MDQ service; it declares the qub.ac.uk attribute scope and SAML2 SSO, SLO, artifact-resolution
    and attribute-query endpoints on qub-shib.qub.ac.uk. QUB additionally registers IdPs for the Healthcare Library of Northern
    Ireland (honni.qub.ac.uk) and the Agri-Food and Biosciences Institute (afbi.qub.ac.uk), so it is operating federated identity
    for organisations beyond itself. This is the one machine-readable surface in this profile that Queen's both runs and publishes.
  humanURL: https://www.ukfederation.org.uk/
  baseURL: http://mdq.ukfederation.org.uk/entities/https%3A%2F%2Fqub.ac.uk%2Fshibboleth
  x-operator: institution
  x-operator-evidence: entityID https://qub.ac.uk/shibboleth; OrganizationDisplayName "Queen's University Belfast"; shibmd:Scope
    qub.ac.uk; SSO endpoints on qub-shib.qub.ac.uk. Probed 2026-08-30, MDQ 200 and present in the aggregate federation metadata.
  x-entity-id: https://qub.ac.uk/shibboleth
  tags:
  - Identity Federation
  - Shibboleth
  - SAML
  - Single Sign-On
  - eduGAIN
  properties:
  - type: x-conformance
    url: conformance/queens-university-belfast-conformance.yml
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://www.ukfederation.org.uk/
  - type: HumanURL
    url: https://www.ukfederation.org.uk/
- aid: queens-university-belfast:research-portal-oai
  name: Queen's University Belfast Research Portal — OAI-PMH harvesting endpoint
  description: Live OAI-PMH 2.0 metadata harvesting endpoint for the QUB Research Portal. Identify returns repositoryName
    "QUB Research Portal" with adminEmail puresupport@qub.ac.uk and an earliest datestamp of 2016-04-05. Six metadata formats
    are offered (oai_dc, qdc, mods, uketd_dc, xmetadiss, nl_didl) across persons and publications sets, including per-year
    publication sets from 1970 forward. The metadata described is Queen's; the repository software and the host are Elsevier
    Pure's, so this is recorded as a tenant deployment of an open protocol rather than as a QUB-authored interface.
  humanURL: https://pure.qub.ac.uk/
  baseURL: https://pureadmin.qub.ac.uk/ws/oai
  x-operator: tenant
  x-operator-evidence: pureadmin.qub.ac.uk CNAMEs to qub-pva.elsevierpure.com -> eu.prod.elsevierpure.com. Institution-specific
    vanity hostname on Elsevier's Pure platform. Identify probed 2026-08-30, HTTP 200.
  x-vendor: Elsevier Pure
  tags:
  - Research
  - Open Access
  - OAI-PMH
  - Repository
  - Metadata
  - Pure
  properties:
  - type: x-conformance
    url: conformance/queens-university-belfast-conformance.yml
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://www.openarchives.org/OAI/openarchivesprotocol.html
  - type: HumanURL
    url: https://pure.qub.ac.uk/
- aid: queens-university-belfast:pure-web-service-api
  name: Queen's University Belfast Pure API deployment (Elsevier Pure tenancy)
  description: 'The QUB tenancy of the Elsevier Pure Web Service API. The deployment is real and callable at https://pureadmin.qub.ac.uk/ws/api
    — an unauthenticated request returns HTTP 401 "Full authentication is required to access this resource" — and the tenancy
    currently runs Pure 5.36.2-1. The contract, however, is Elsevier''s: the OpenAPI the host serves is titled "Pure API"
    with contact pure-support@elsevier.com. No copy of that spec is kept in this repository; the relationship is recorded
    here and the contract belongs against Elsevier Pure''s own profile.'
  humanURL: https://pureadmin.qub.ac.uk/ws/api/documentation/index.html
  baseURL: https://pureadmin.qub.ac.uk/ws/api
  x-operator: tenant
  x-operator-evidence: info.title "Pure API", info.contact pure-support@elsevier.com, version 5.36.2-1 as served live at https://pureadmin.qub.ac.uk/ws/api/openapi.json
    (200). Host CNAMEs to qub-pva.elsevierpure.com. Anonymous call to /ws/api/research-outputs returns 401. Probed 2026-08-30.
  x-vendor: Elsevier Pure
  x-spec-not-saved: Deliberately not saved. Keeping it would credit Queen's with Elsevier's engineering — the exact misattribution
    this pipeline exists to prevent.
  tags:
  - Research Information
  - CRIS
  - Pure
  - Research Repository
  properties:
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://pureadmin.qub.ac.uk/ws/api/documentation/index.html
  - type: HumanURL
    url: https://pure.qub.ac.uk/
- aid: queens-university-belfast:canvas-lms
  name: Queen's University Belfast Canvas LMS deployment (Instructure tenancy)
  description: 'The Queen''s Canvas virtual learning environment, reachable at canvas.qub.ac.uk. The Canvas REST API responds
    on the QUB hostname (an unauthenticated GET /api/v1/courses returns 401 "user authorisation required"), and the tenancy
    publishes a live LTI 1.3 platform JWKS and an OpenID Connect discovery document — real, machine-readable LTI conformance
    at a QUB address. The platform is Instructure''s: canvas.qub.ac.uk CNAMEs to qub-vanity.instructure.com, and web sign-in
    federates to Microsoft Entra SAML. Recorded as a tenancy; no Canvas contract is kept here.'
  humanURL: https://canvas.qub.ac.uk/
  baseURL: https://canvas.qub.ac.uk/api/v1
  x-operator: tenant
  x-operator-evidence: canvas.qub.ac.uk CNAMEs to qub-vanity.instructure.com. /api/v1/courses returns 401; /api/lti/security/jwks
    and /.well-known/openid-configuration return 200. Probed 2026-08-30.
  x-vendor: Instructure Canvas
  tags:
  - Learning Management
  - LMS
  - LTI
  - Canvas
  - Teaching
  properties:
  - type: x-conformance
    url: conformance/queens-university-belfast-conformance.yml
  - type: HumanURL
    url: https://canvas.qub.ac.uk/
- aid: queens-university-belfast:datacite-repository-client
  name: Queen's University Belfast Research Portal — DataCite repository client
  description: 'Queen''s University Belfast is a DataCite consortium organization (provider jxtg) and has operated a registered
    DataCite repository client, BL.QUB, since 2015, through which the Research Portal mints DOIs for datasets and theses.
    The registration itself is machine-readable through the DataCite REST API, which is what makes it worth recording: it
    is a verifiable persistent-identifier commitment rather than a claim on a web page.'
  humanURL: https://pure.qub.ac.uk/
  baseURL: https://api.datacite.org/clients/bl.qub
  x-operator: institution
  x-operator-evidence: DataCite client BL.QUB, name "Queen's University Belfast Research Portal", clientType repository, registered
    2015, url https://pure.qub.ac.uk/. api.datacite.org/clients/bl.qub returned 200 on 2026-08-30. The DOI registration is
    the institution's; the repository it points at is the Pure tenancy above.
  tags:
  - DataCite
  - DOI
  - Persistent Identifiers
  - Research Data
  - Open Access
  properties:
  - type: x-conformance
    url: conformance/queens-university-belfast-conformance.yml
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://api.datacite.org/clients/bl.qub
  - type: HumanURL
    url: https://pure.qub.ac.uk/
common:
- type: Website
  url: https://www.qub.ac.uk/
- type: Documentation
  url: https://www.qub.ac.uk/directorates/InformationServices/TheLibrary/ResearchSupport/OpenResearch/
- type: ResearchRepository
  url: https://pure.qub.ac.uk/
- type: IdentityFederation
  url: http://mdq.ukfederation.org.uk/entities/https%3A%2F%2Fqub.ac.uk%2Fshibboleth
- type: LibraryCatalog
  url: https://qub.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/discovery/search?vid=44QSUB_INST:QUB
- type: CourseCatalog
  url: https://www.qub.ac.uk/courses/
- type: ResearchComputing
  url: https://www.ni-hpc.ac.uk/
- type: AIPolicy
  url: https://blogs.qub.ac.uk/digitallearning/ai/ai-in-research/qub-guidance-on-responsible-use-of-ai-in-research/
- type: AITooling
  url: https://libguides.qub.ac.uk/AILibrary
- type: PrivacyPolicy
  url: https://www.qub.ac.uk/about/website/privacy-and-cookies/
- type: Accessibility
  url: https://www.qub.ac.uk/about/website/accessibility-statement/
- type: Support
  url: https://www.qub.ac.uk/contact/ask-a-question/
- type: LinkedIn
  url: https://www.linkedin.com/school/queens-university-belfast/
- type: Conformance
  url: conformance/queens-university-belfast-conformance.yml
- type: DomainSecurity
  url: security/queens-university-belfast-domain-security.yml
- type: Plans
  url: plans/queens-university-belfast-plans-pricing.yml
- type: RateLimits
  url: rate-limits/queens-university-belfast-rate-limits.yml
- type: FinOps
  url: finops/queens-university-belfast-finops.yml
- type: Review
  url: review.yml
x-identifiers:
  ror: https://ror.org/00hswnk62
  datacite_provider: jxtg
  datacite_client: BL.QUB
  crossref_member: 31309 (School of Law, Queen's University Belfast, prefix 10.53386)
  saml_entity_id: https://qub.ac.uk/shibboleth
  generated: '2026-08-30'
  method: probed
x-coverage:
  state: covered
  reason: tenant_only
  detail: 'Queen''s University Belfast publishes no institution-authored API contract. Every callable interface found is a
    vendor platform running under a QUB hostname: Elsevier Pure (pure/pureadmin.qub.ac.uk -> eu.prod.elsevierpure.com), Instructure
    Canvas (canvas.qub.ac.uk -> qub-vanity.instructure.com), Ex Libris Primo (qub.primo.exlibrisgroup.com), Springshare LibGuides
    (libguides.qub.ac.uk). No api.qub.ac.uk, developer.qub.ac.uk, data.qub.ac.uk or opendata.qub.ac.uk host resolves at all.
    There is no llms.txt and no /.well-known/security.txt. The genuinely institution-operated machine-readable surfaces are
    the Shibboleth/SAML identity federation entry, the DataCite repository registration, and the school-level Crossref membership
    — all three are recorded above with live evidence. Note the name-collision trap this profile avoided: ''Queen''s University
    Open Data API'' (qmulus.io) belongs to Queen''s University at Kingston, Ontario, not to Queen''s University Belfast, and
    is not credited here.'
  evidence:
  - url: https://pureadmin.qub.ac.uk/ws/oai?verb=Identify
    status: 200
  - url: https://pureadmin.qub.ac.uk/ws/api/openapi.json
    status: 200
  - url: https://pureadmin.qub.ac.uk/ws/api/research-outputs?size=1
    status: 401
  - url: http://mdq.ukfederation.org.uk/entities/https%3A%2F%2Fqub.ac.uk%2Fshibboleth
    status: 200
  - url: https://api.datacite.org/clients/bl.qub
    status: 200
  - url: https://api.crossref.org/members/31309
    status: 200
  - url: https://canvas.qub.ac.uk/api/v1/courses
    status: 401
  - url: https://canvas.qub.ac.uk/api/lti/security/jwks
    status: 200
  - url: https://canvas.qub.ac.uk/api/scim/v2/Users
    status: 404
  - url: https://qub.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/discovery/search?vid=44QSUB_INST:QUB
    status: 200
  - url: https://www.ni-hpc.ac.uk/
    status: 200
  - url: https://api.qub.ac.uk/
    status: 0
  - url: https://developer.qub.ac.uk/
    status: 0
  - url: https://data.qub.ac.uk/
    status: 0
  - url: https://opendata.qub.ac.uk/
    status: 0
  - url: https://www.qub.ac.uk/llms.txt
    status: 404
  - url: https://www.qub.ac.uk/.well-known/security.txt
    status: 404
  generated: '2026-08-30'
  method: probed
x-enrichment:
  pipeline: pipeline-university.md
  run: '2026-08-30'
  operator_axis_settled: true
  notes: Re-profiled under the university pipeline. 38 Elsevier Pure OpenAPI documents and 89 artifacts derived from them
    were removed with git rm; four tenant relationships and one genuinely institution-operated federation surface were recorded
    in their place. Expect the composite score to fall — the previous score was earned on a vendor contract.
maintainers:
- FN: Kin Lane
  email: kin@apievangelist.com