University College Dublin

aid: ucd
name: University College Dublin
description: 'University College Dublin is Ireland''s largest university, a public research institution in Belfield, Dublin.
  It operates no API programme: there is no developer portal, no API key issuance, no OAuth authorization server and no first-party
  OpenAPI anywhere on a ucd.ie host. What it does operate, verified live on 2026-08-30, is three real machine-readable surfaces
  — an OAI-PMH 2.0 harvesting endpoint for Research Repository UCD (17,167 records, fourteen metadata formats, plus an OpenAIRE
  CRIS base URL), a SAML 2.0 Shibboleth Identity Provider registered in Edugate/eduGAIN as https://sso.ucd.ie/idp/shibboleth
  with scope ucd.ie, and static Dublin Core collection data exports from the UCD Digital Library. Everything else is somebody
  else''s engineering under UCD''s name: the repository platform is DSpace-CRIS hosted by 4Science, library discovery is Serials
  Solutions, and the Dúchas API for the National Folklore Collection — the collection is UCD''s, the platform is DCU''s —
  was withdrawn by its operator and now returns HTTP 500 on every path. This profile was re-run under the university pipeline
  on 2026-08-30 and the previously catalogued Dúchas contracts were removed.'
type: Index
x-type: university
x-category: Public Research University
deliveryModel:
  model: self-hosted
  open_source: false
  commercial: false
  callable_host: true
  label: Institution-operated endpoints · no commercial API product
  confidence: high
  source:
  - probed
  generated: '2026-08-30'
  method: probed
accessModel:
  pricing: free
  onboarding: none
  trial: false
  try_now: true
  public: true
  label: Free and keyless where public; institutional affiliation where not
  confidence: high
  source:
  - probed
  generated: '2026-08-30'
  method: probed
position: Consuming
access: 3rd-Party
image: https://kinlane-images.s3.amazonaws.com/shared/apis-json/icons/ucd.png
url: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/api-evangelist/ucd/refs/heads/main/apis.yml
tags:
- University
- Higher Education
- Education
- Ireland
- Europe
- Public Research University
- Research Repository
- Open Access
- OAI-PMH
- Identity Federation
- Cultural Heritage
- Open Data
created: '2026-06-03'
modified: '2026-08-30'
specificationVersion: '0.23'
apis:
- aid: ucd:oai-pmh
  name: Research Repository UCD — OAI-PMH 2.0
  x-operator: institution
  x-operator-evidence: 'Served from researchrepository.ucd.ie, under UCD''s own registrable domain. The Identify response
    names repositoryName "Research Repository UCD", repositoryIdentifier researchrepository.ucd.ie and adminEmail research.repository@ucd.ie.
    The host CNAMEs to ucd7.4science.cloud / ucd-researchrepository.prod.4science.cloud, so the PLATFORM is hosted by 4Science
    — but the OAI repository identity, sets, content and administrative contact are UCD''s, and OAI-PMH is a public protocol
    rather than a vendor product contract, so this harvesting surface is treated as institution-operated. The vendor''s own
    REST contract on the same deployment is recorded separately below as x-operator: tenant.'
  description: 'Keyless, anonymous OAI-PMH 2.0 metadata harvesting for UCD''s open-access institutional repository. Verified
    live 2026-08-30: all six verbs return HTTP 200 with a well-formed envelope, ListIdentifiers reports completeListSize 17167,
    earliestDatestamp is 2007-08-22, granularity is YYYY-MM-DDThh:mm:ssZ, and fourteen metadata formats are advertised (oai_dc,
    qdc, dim, didl, mets, mods, ore, rdf, marc, marc21, etdms, uketd_dc, rian_dc, rms_oai — rian_dc for the Irish national
    aggregator RIAN, uketd_dc and etdms for theses). A second base URL, /server/oai/openairecris, serves the OpenAIRE Guidelines
    for CRIS Managers 1.1 CERIF profile. Protocol errors behave correctly: badVerb, cannotDisseminateFormat and idDoesNotExist
    are returned inside HTTP 200 envelopes. Records carry Handle identifiers under UCD''s prefix 10197 and, in the dim format,
    qualified ORCID fields. NOTE the base URL: the /oai/request path recorded in this file in June 2026 returns 405; the working
    path is /server/oai/request. The OpenAPI below is DERIVED by API Evangelist from live probes — UCD publishes none.'
  humanURL: https://libguides.ucd.ie/RRU/usage
  baseURL: https://researchrepository.ucd.ie/server/oai/request
  tags:
  - OAI-PMH
  - Repository
  - Open Access
  - Metadata
  - Research
  - ORCID
  properties:
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/ucd-oai-pmh-openapi.yml
  - type: Conformance
    url: conformance/ucd-conformance.yml
  - type: Errors
    url: errors/ucd-errors.yml
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://libguides.ucd.ie/RRU/usage
  - type: Website
    url: https://researchrepository.ucd.ie/
  - type: x-oai-pmh-identify
    url: https://researchrepository.ucd.ie/server/oai/request?verb=Identify
  - type: x-oai-pmh-openaire-cris
    url: https://researchrepository.ucd.ie/server/oai/openairecris?verb=Identify
- aid: ucd:identity-federation
  name: University College Dublin Identity Provider (Shibboleth / Edugate / eduGAIN)
  x-operator: institution
  x-operator-evidence: 'entityID https://sso.ucd.ie/idp/shibboleth, on UCD''s own domain, registered in eduGAIN (entity 684529)
    by registration authority http://www.heanet.ie — Edugate, the Irish national federation — with shibmd scope ucd.ie and
    display names "University College Dublin" / "An Coláiste Ollscoile, Baile Átha Cliath". SIRTFI asserted. First seen in
    eduGAIN 2017-04-13. DNS disclosure: sso.ucd.ie CNAMEs to dockcl02-prod-lb.heanet.ie, so the IdP is hosted on HEAnet infrastructure
    — Ireland''s national education and research network, which also operates the Edugate federation. HEAnet is a sector body
    serving UCD, not a commercial SaaS platform with a contract of its own, and the entityID, scope, attribute release and
    federation registration are UCD''s, so this is recorded as institution-operated with the hosting stated rather than hidden.'
  description: 'UCD''s SAML 2.0 Shibboleth Identity Provider, and the institution''s only authentication surface it runs itself.
    It is machine-readable by definition — a federated IdP publishes SAML metadata — and is the kind of institutional surface
    that is almost never catalogued. IMPORTANT probing finding: the entityID URL https://sso.ucd.ie/idp/shibboleth returns
    HTTP 200 with Content-Type application/xml, but the body is the STOCK Shibboleth example metadata that ships with the
    software (entityID "https://idp.exanple.com/idp", Scope "example.com", localhost endpoints). A status-code-only check
    would credit that as UCD''s metadata; it is not. The authoritative machine-readable record is the Edugate/eduGAIN aggregate,
    which is where the pointer below goes. No API credential is obtainable here — access is by institutional affiliation,
    not registration.'
  humanURL: https://technical.edugain.org/entities
  baseURL: https://sso.ucd.ie/idp/shibboleth
  tags:
  - Identity Federation
  - SAML
  - Shibboleth
  - eduGAIN
  - Edugate
  - Single Sign-On
  properties:
  - type: IdentityFederation
    url: https://technical.edugain.org/entities
  - type: Authentication
    url: authentication/ucd-authentication.yml
  - type: Conformance
    url: conformance/ucd-conformance.yml
  - type: x-saml-entity-id
    url: https://sso.ucd.ie/idp/shibboleth
- aid: ucd:digital-library-data
  name: UCD Digital Library collection data exports
  x-operator: institution
  x-operator-evidence: digital.ucd.ie resolves to 193.1.173.9 — a HEAnet/UCD address, no vendor CNAME. The site identifies
    itself as UCD Library's own service, contactable at digital.library@ucd.ie.
  description: 'Static, keyless Dublin Core metadata exports for UCD Library''s digital cultural-heritage collections — metadata
    as CSV and JSON, plus facets, subjects and a TimelineJS export, all linked from a published Data page. Files rather than
    an API, and small: the metadata export was 2.2KB on 2026-08-30. This is what remains after a platform decommissioning.
    The IIIF Image API 2.0, IIIF Presentation API 2.0, Geospatial Data API and unAPI endpoint catalogued here in June 2026
    NO LONGER EXIST — digital.ucd.ie /help/, /api, /iiif and /view/ all return 404, and the site now states it is a "temporary
    access website" pending procurement of a new digital library access and preservation platform in 2026, built in the meantime
    on CollectionBuilder-CSV. Those two entries have been replaced by this one.'
  humanURL: https://digital.ucd.ie/data.html
  baseURL: https://digital.ucd.ie
  tags:
  - Open Data
  - Digital Library
  - Cultural Heritage
  - Dublin Core
  - Static Data
  properties:
  - type: OpenData
    url: https://digital.ucd.ie/data.html
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://digital.ucd.ie/about
  - type: x-data-metadata-json
    url: https://digital.ucd.ie/assets/data/metadata.json
  - type: x-data-metadata-csv
    url: https://digital.ucd.ie/assets/data/metadata.csv
- aid: ucd:dspace-rest
  name: Research Repository UCD — DSpace-CRIS REST API (4Science)
  x-operator: tenant
  x-operator-evidence: researchrepository.ucd.ie CNAMEs to ucd7.4science.cloud -> ucd-researchrepository.prod.4science.cloud.
    The REST root reports dspaceVersion "DSpace 7.6.1" and crisVersion "cris-2023.02.05". The interface, its ~90 HAL link
    relations and its error vocabulary are upstream DSpace-CRIS's, shipped identically to every 4Science customer.
  description: 'A live DSpace-CRIS 7.6.1 HAL REST API on UCD''s branded repository host, advertising roughly ninety link relations
    including items, collections, communities, discover, authn, oidc, orcidqueues, orcidhistories, versions and usagereports.
    The DATA is UCD''s; the CONTRACT is DSpace''s and 4Science''s. No specification for it is saved in this repository, and
    none should be — it would credit UCD with a vendor''s engineering and would be the same document every other 4Science
    institution ships. Recorded here because the tenant relationship is a real institutional fact. PROBING NOTE: the repository''s
    human-facing Angular UI is behind a bot challenge — every HTML path, including the site root and item handle pages, returns
    HTTP 405 with a "Human Verification" body to scripted clients. That is bot-blocked, not dead; the /server/api and /server/oai
    paths answer normally.'
  humanURL: https://researchrepository.ucd.ie/
  baseURL: https://researchrepository.ucd.ie/server/api
  tags:
  - Repository
  - DSpace
  - Tenant
  - Research
  - Ireland
  properties:
  - type: ResearchRepository
    url: https://researchrepository.ucd.ie/
  - type: x-rest-root
    url: https://researchrepository.ucd.ie/server/api
- aid: ucd:duchas
  name: Dúchas API — National Folklore Collection (operated by DCU)
  x-operator: tenant
  x-operator-evidence: Host www.duchas.ie is not under ucd.ie. The API documentation at docs.gaois.ie is published by the
    Gaois research group, Fiontar & Scoil na Gaeilge, Dublin City University, and directs API feedback to gaois@dcu.ie; the
    spec previously held here carried info.contact "Gaois / Dúchas" <eolas@duchas.ie> and servers https://www.duchas.ie/api/v0.5.
    UCD's role is custodian of the collection — the documentation directs data-dump requests to the NFC at bealoideas@ucd.ie.
  description: 'The National Folklore Collection (Cnuasach Bhéaloideas Éireann) is held at UCD; the Dúchas digitisation platform
    and its API are built and operated by DCU''s Gaois research group. THE API IS WITHDRAWN. Verified 2026-08-30: https://www.duchas.ie/api/v0.5/api,
    /api/v0.6/api, /api and /api/v0.5/cbes all return HTTP 500 IIS error pages, and the v0.6 documentation states in its own
    words that this "is a prerelease version of the Dúchas API that is no longer available", with a v1.0 release pending and
    data dumps available on request in the interim. The June 2026 profile read that 500 as "live but gated" and saved six
    per-tag OpenAPIs plus twelve collections and their derived schemas, structures, examples, rules, vocabulary, JSON-LD and
    agentic-access files under UCD''s slug — thirty-four files describing another university''s contract for an endpoint that
    does not answer. All of them were removed on 2026-08-30. The relationship is kept; the contract is not.'
  humanURL: https://www.duchas.ie/en
  tags:
  - Cultural Heritage
  - Folklore
  - Tenant
  - Withdrawn
  - Ireland
  properties:
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://docs.gaois.ie/en/data/duchas/v0.6/api
  - type: Website
    url: https://www.duchas.ie/en
  - type: x-operator-organization
    url: https://www.dcu.ie/fiontar-scoil-na-gaeilge
- aid: ucd:library-discovery
  name: UCD Library discovery (Serials Solutions / Clarivate)
  x-operator: tenant
  x-operator-evidence: UCD Library's journal and e-resource discovery links resolve to https://jq6am9xs3s.search.serialssolutions.com/?L=JQ6AM9XS3S
    — a customer-keyed subdomain of a vendor domain, not a ucd.ie host. Verified 200 on 2026-08-30.
  description: UCD Library's discovery layer runs on Serials Solutions (Clarivate/ProQuest) under a customer key, not on a
    UCD host. It exposes a search interface for people, not a documented public API, and no specification is held here. Listed
    so the library-discovery surface class is accounted for rather than silently missing.
  humanURL: https://www.ucd.ie/library/
  baseURL: https://jq6am9xs3s.search.serialssolutions.com/
  tags:
  - Library
  - Discovery
  - Tenant
  - Vendor Platform
  properties:
  - type: LibraryCatalog
    url: https://jq6am9xs3s.search.serialssolutions.com/?L=JQ6AM9XS3S
  - type: Website
    url: https://www.ucd.ie/library/
common:
- type: Website
  url: https://www.ucd.ie/
- type: GitHubOrganization
  url: https://github.com/University-College-Dublin
- type: LinkedIn
  url: https://www.linkedin.com/school/university-college-dublin/
- type: ResearchRepository
  url: https://researchrepository.ucd.ie/
- type: IdentityFederation
  url: https://technical.edugain.org/entities
- type: OpenData
  url: https://digital.ucd.ie/data.html
- type: CourseCatalog
  url: https://hub.ucd.ie/usis/!W_HU_MENU.P_PUBLISH?p_tag=COURSECATALOGUE
- type: LibraryCatalog
  url: https://www.ucd.ie/library/
- type: ResearchComputing
  url: https://www.ucd.ie/itservices/ourservices/researchit/researchcomputing/
- type: AIPolicy
  url: https://www.ucd.ie/registrar/ucdstrategicpoliciesandinitatives/ai-at-ucd/
- type: AITooling
  url: https://www.ucd.ie/itservices/ourservices/communicationcollaboration/officeproductivity/aiservices/
- type: Documentation
  url: https://libguides.ucd.ie/RRU/usage
- type: Support
  url: https://www.ucd.ie/itservices/ourservices/researchit/
- type: Blog
  url: https://www.ucd.ie/newsandopinion/
- type: Research
  url: https://www.ucd.ie/research/
- type: PrivacyPolicy
  url: https://www.ucd.ie/privacy/
- type: TermsOfService
  url: https://www.ucd.ie/legal/
- type: DataProtection
  url: https://www.ucd.ie/gdpr/
- type: FreedomOfInformation
  url: https://www.ucd.ie/foi/
- type: Conformance
  url: conformance/ucd-conformance.yml
- type: Authentication
  url: authentication/ucd-authentication.yml
- type: Errors
  url: errors/ucd-errors.yml
- type: Vocabulary
  url: vocabulary/ucd-vocabulary.yml
- type: DomainSecurity
  url: security/ucd-domain-security.yml
- type: Plans
  url: plans/ucd-plans-pricing.yml
- type: RateLimits
  url: rate-limits/ucd-rate-limits.yml
- type: FinOps
  url: finops/ucd-finops.yml
- type: Review
  url: review.yml
maintainers:
- FN: Kin Lane
  email: kin@apievangelist.com
x-coverage:
  state: none
  reason: no_public_api
  detail: 'University College Dublin operates no public API programme — no developer portal, no API key issuance, no OAuth
    authorization server, no first-party OpenAPI, no llms.txt and no security.txt on any ucd.ie host — and this profile now
    says so. Three institution-operated machine-readable surfaces do exist and are catalogued: the OAI-PMH 2.0 harvesting
    endpoint of Research Repository UCD (17,167 records, fourteen metadata formats, OpenAIRE CRIS profile), the SAML 2.0 Shibboleth
    IdP registered in Edugate/eduGAIN, and the UCD Digital Library''s static Dublin Core data exports. None is a hosted API
    product, and the single OpenAPI in this repository is DERIVED by API Evangelist from live probes of the OAI-PMH endpoint,
    not published by UCD. What was catalogued here on 2026-06-03 was a different institution''s contract: six per-tag OpenAPIs
    of the Dúchas API, whose info.contact is "Gaois / Dúchas" <eolas@duchas.ie> and whose operator is the Gaois research group
    at Dublin City University, all registered under UCD''s slug with a fabricated baseURL of https://researchrepository.ucd.ie/oai/request
    — a path that returns 405 and does not serve those endpoints. Six times the apparent footprint, on a host that does not
    run the software, for an API its own documentation says "is no longer available" and which returns HTTP 500 on every path.
    Those six specifications, their twelve collections, and every schema, structure, example, ruleset, vocabulary, JSON-LD
    context and agentic-access file derived from them — 34 files — were removed on 2026-08-30. Two further June entries described
    the UCD Digital Library''s IIIF Image, IIIF Presentation, Geospatial and unAPI endpoints; those were decommissioned with
    the old platform and now 404, and were replaced by the static data-export entry. The remaining machinery under UCD''s
    name belongs to someone else and is labelled as such: the repository platform is DSpace-CRIS 7.6.1 hosted by 4Science
    (researchrepository.ucd.ie CNAMEs to ucd7.4science.cloud), and library discovery is Serials Solutions under a customer
    key.'
  evidence:
  - url: https://researchrepository.ucd.ie/server/oai/request?verb=Identify
    status: 200
  - url: https://researchrepository.ucd.ie/oai/request?verb=Identify
    status: 405
  - url: https://researchrepository.ucd.ie/server/api
    status: 200
  - url: https://sso.ucd.ie/idp/shibboleth
    status: 200
  - url: https://technical.edugain.org/api.php?action=list_entities&format=json
    status: 200
  - url: https://digital.ucd.ie/data.html
    status: 200
  - url: https://digital.ucd.ie/help/
    status: 404
  - url: https://digital.ucd.ie/api
    status: 404
  - url: https://www.duchas.ie/api/v0.5/api
    status: 500
  - url: https://www.duchas.ie/api/v0.6/api
    status: 500
  - url: https://docs.gaois.ie/en/data/duchas/v0.6/api
    status: 200
  - url: https://api.ucd.ie/
    status: 0
  - url: https://data.ucd.ie/
    status: 0
  - url: https://www.ucd.ie/llms.txt
    status: 404
  - url: https://www.ucd.ie/.well-known/security.txt
    status: 404
  - url: https://researchrepository.ucd.ie/
    status: 405
    note: Bot challenge, not a dead host. The DSpace Angular UI answers scripted clients with a "Human Verification" body
      on every HTML path; the API and OAI-PMH paths on the same host return 200.
  - url: https://digital.ucd.ie/assets/data/
    status: 403
    note: Directory listing denied; the individual export files return 200.
  - url: https://www.linkedin.com/school/university-college-dublin/
    status: 999
    note: LinkedIn's standard scripted-client block. Live in a browser.
  checked: '2026-08-30'
x-enrichment:
  pipeline: pipeline-university.md
  run: '2026-08-30'
  previous_run: '2026-06-03'
  operator_axis_applied: true
  institution_surfaces: 3
  tenant_surfaces: 3
  contracts_saved: 1
  files_removed: 34
  apis_entries_before: 9
  apis_entries_after: 6
  dead_pointers_removed: 9
  note: 'A correct re-profile of a misattributed institution LOWERS its score, and this one should fall. Contract volume went
    from six specifications to one, and that one is DERIVED by API Evangelist from live probes rather than published by UCD.
    The corrections are: six Dúchas OpenAPIs (DCU/Gaois-operated, withdrawn) and 28 files derived from them removed; two Digital
    Library entries describing 404 endpoints replaced; the OAI-PMH baseURL corrected from /oai/request (405) to /server/oai/request
    (200); the DeveloperPortal pointer to https://digital.ucd.ie/help/ removed as dead (404, and it was repeated on eight
    apis[] entries); a 4Science hosting CNAME disclosed on the repository; and a genuinely new institution-operated surface
    added — the Edugate/eduGAIN SAML Identity Provider, with the caveat that its entityID URL serves stock Shibboleth example
    metadata rather than UCD''s own.'