Université libre de Bruxelles

aid: ulb
name: Université libre de Bruxelles
x-type: university
x-category: Public Research University
description: 'Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB) is a French-speaking research university in Brussels, Belgium, founded in
  1834 and funded through the Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles. Unusually for this cohort, ULB operates its research infrastructure
  itself rather than renting it: there is no Figshare, Elsevier Pure, Dataverse or Ex Libris Esploro tenant under ULB''s name,
  and the one documented API it publishes is its own engineering. DI-fusion, the institutional repository run by the ULB Libraries,
  exposes a bespoke HTTP export service at difusion-svc.ulb.ac.be that renders a scholar''s or a group''s publication list
  in APA, BibTeX, RIS, CSV and three ULB XML formats, documented in a 15-page PDF the library publishes itself. ULB also runs
  a Shibboleth SAML 2.0 identity provider registered in the Belnet R&E Federation and visible in eduGAIN, an OAI-PMH endpoint
  and an OpenSearch description on its self-hosted VuFind discovery layer, and mints its own info:ulb-repo/semantics/ publication-type
  vocabulary. The footprint is small and visibly under-maintained: the richest documented export format returns 403, the format
  added by the most recent documentation revision returns 500, the OAI-PMH endpoint answers Identify but rejects the metadata
  prefix it advertises so nothing can actually be harvested, the advertised unAPI server does not answer, and the DSpace instance
  behind its full-text links is erroring. There is no developer portal, no changelog, no status page, no OpenAPI of ULB''s
  own, and every other ULB system — timetable, registrar, library discovery, researcher CVs — is behind the central ULB login
  or unreachable from the public internet.'
type: Index
deliveryModel:
  model: saas
  open_source: false
  commercial: false
  callable_host: true
  label: Hosted service · you call their endpoint
  confidence: high
  source:
  - probed
  generated: '2026-08-30'
  method: probed
accessModel:
  pricing: free
  onboarding: none
  trial: false
  try_now: true
  public: true
  label: Free · no credential required
  confidence: high
  source:
  - probed
  generated: '2026-08-30'
  method: probed
position: Producing
access: Public
image: https://kinlane-images.s3.amazonaws.com/shared/apis-json/icons/ulb.png
url: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/api-evangelist/ulb/refs/heads/main/apis.yml
tags:
- University
- Higher Education
- Education
- Belgium
- Europe
- Research
- Research Data
- Institutional Repository
- Open Access
- Identity Federation
- OAI-PMH
- Library
created: '2026-06-03'
modified: '2026-08-30'
specificationVersion: '0.23'
apis:
- aid: ulb:difusion-export
  name: DI-fusion Export API
  x-operator: institution
  x-operator-evidence: Runs on difusion-svc.ulb.ac.be, under ULB's own registrable domain ulb.ac.be. Responses are branded
    from /data/difusion-services/conf/ on ULB's own servers, the service is documented by the Bibliothèques de l'ULB under
    contact di-fusion@ulb.be, and no other institution in the cohort points at this host or ships this contract. Bespoke ULB
    engineering, not a vendor platform. Verified live 2026-08-30.
  description: Documented HTTP GET service that exports the publication list of one ULB scholar (identified by matricule or
    DAI) or of a group of scholars, in APA, BibTeX, RIS, CSV, xml-brief, xml-brief-ext or xml-full, with grouping, role filtering,
    markup and language options. No credential is required. Verified live on 2026-08-30 for xml-brief, apa/pdf, bibtex, ris
    and csv; xml-full returns 403 and xml-brief-ext returns 500.
  humanURL: https://bib.ulb.be/en/find-documents/di-fusion
  baseURL: https://difusion-svc.ulb.ac.be
  tags:
  - Research
  - Open Access
  - Institutional Repository
  - Bibliography
  properties:
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/ulb-difusion-export-openapi.yml
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://bib.ulb.be/medias/fichier/difusion-download-and-api_1678451163130-pdf?ID_FICHE=10054&INLINE=FALSE
  - type: JSONSchema
    url: json-schema/ulb-difusion-publist-schema.json
  - type: Vocabulary
    url: vocabulary/ulb-difusion-vocabulary.yml
  - type: Examples
    url: examples/index.yml
  - type: Errors
    url: errors/ulb-difusion-errors.yml
  - type: Rules
    url: rules/ulb-difusion-rules.yml
  - type: Authentication
    url: authentication/ulb-authentication.yml
  - type: Scopes
    url: scopes/ulb-scopes.yml
  - type: Lifecycle
    url: lifecycle/ulb-lifecycle.yml
  - type: TermsOfService
    url: https://bib.ulb.be/en/find-documents/di-fusion/terms-of-use
- aid: ulb:difusion-oai-pmh
  name: DI-fusion OAI-PMH Harvesting Endpoint
  x-operator: institution
  x-operator-evidence: Answers on difusion.ulb.ac.be, under ULB's own registrable domain. Its Identify response declares baseURL
    https://difusion.ulb.ac.be/vufind/OAI/Server and adminEmail di-fusion@ulb.be. The repository software is VuFind, which
    is open source and self-hosted by ULB, not a vendor SaaS — the deployment, the host and the metadata are ULB's. Verified
    live 2026-08-30.
  description: OAI-PMH 2.0 endpoint for the DI-fusion repository. Answers verb=Identify and verb=ListMetadataFormats with
    valid protocol documents (advertising oai_dc only), but under HTTP 500 and with an HTML page appended after the closing
    tag. Every record-bearing verb rejects the advertised metadataPrefix=oai_dc with badArgument "Missing Metadata Prefix",
    so no metadata can be harvested despite DI-fusion being registered as OAI-PMH compliant in OpenDOAR, ROAR and Sherpa.
    Recorded as measured, not as advertised.
  humanURL: https://bib.ulb.be/en/find-documents/di-fusion/terms-of-use
  baseURL: https://difusion.ulb.ac.be/vufind/OAI/Server
  tags:
  - Research
  - Open Access
  - OAI-PMH
  - Metadata Harvesting
  properties:
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/ulb-difusion-oai-pmh-openapi.yml
  - type: Examples
    url: examples/index.yml
  - type: Errors
    url: errors/ulb-difusion-errors.yml
  - type: Conformance
    url: conformance/ulb-domain-standards.yml
  - type: TermsOfService
    url: https://bib.ulb.be/en/find-documents/di-fusion/terms-of-use
- aid: ulb:difusion-opensearch
  name: DI-fusion OpenSearch Description
  x-operator: institution
  x-operator-evidence: Served from difusion.ulb.ac.be and advertised as rel="search" in the DI-fusion HTML head. The VuFind
    discovery layer is self-hosted by ULB on its own domain. Verified live 2026-08-30.
  description: OpenSearch 1.1 description document for the DI-fusion discovery interface, allowing a client to register DI-fusion
    as a search provider and construct query URLs programmatically. HTTP 200, text/xml, 785 bytes. The ShortName element is
    empty.
  humanURL: https://difusion.ulb.ac.be/
  baseURL: https://difusion.ulb.ac.be/vufind/Search/OpenSearch
  tags:
  - Library
  - Discovery
  - OpenSearch
  properties:
  - type: Examples
    url: examples/index.yml
  - type: Conformance
    url: conformance/ulb-domain-standards.yml
- aid: ulb:shibboleth-idp
  name: ULB Shibboleth Identity Provider (SAML 2.0 metadata)
  x-operator: institution
  x-operator-evidence: entityID https://auth.ulb.be/idp, on ULB's own registrable domain. The eduGAIN registry lists it with
    registration authority http://federation.belnet.be/ (Belnet R&E Federation, code BELNET) and display name "Universite
    Libre de Bruxelles (ULB)", first seen 2021-06-08. An identity provider is institution-operated by definition. Verified
    live 2026-08-30.
  description: ULB's institutional SAML 2.0 identity provider publishes complete, unauthenticated metadata at https://auth.ulb.be/idp/metadata
    — IDPSSODescriptor and AttributeAuthorityDescriptor roles, SingleSignOnService, SingleLogoutService and AttributeService
    endpoints over HTTP-Redirect, HTTP-POST, HTTP-POST-SimpleSign and SOAP bindings, shibmd:Scope ulb.be, the REFEDS Research
    and Scholarship entity category and the REFEDS SIRTFI assurance certification. It is the machine-readable front door to
    every gated ULB system and the most complete contract ULB publishes.
  humanURL: https://auth.ulb.be/
  baseURL: https://auth.ulb.be/idp/metadata
  tags:
  - Identity Federation
  - SAML
  - Shibboleth
  - eduGAIN
  properties:
  - type: Examples
    url: examples/index.yml
  - type: Authentication
    url: authentication/ulb-authentication.yml
  - type: Scopes
    url: scopes/ulb-scopes.yml
  - type: Conformance
    url: conformance/ulb-domain-standards.yml
common:
- type: Website
  url: https://www.ulb.be/en
- type: Portal
  url: https://difusion.ulb.ac.be/
- type: ResearchRepository
  url: https://bib.ulb.be/en/find-documents/di-fusion
- type: Documentation
  url: https://bib.ulb.be/medias/fichier/difusion-download-and-api_1678451163130-pdf?ID_FICHE=10054&INLINE=FALSE
- type: IdentityFederation
  url: https://auth.ulb.be/idp/metadata
- type: LibraryCatalog
  url: https://bib.ulb.be/en
- type: CourseCatalog
  url: https://www.ulb.be/fr/se-former/catalogue-des-formations
- type: AIPolicy
  url: https://www.ulb.be/fr/intelligence-artificielle/note-dintention-relative-aux-outils-dia-dans-lenseignement-a-lulb
- type: AITooling
  url: https://www.ulb.be/fr/intelligence-artificielle/academ-ia
- type: GitHubOrganization
  url: https://github.com/ulb
- type: TermsOfService
  url: https://bib.ulb.be/en/find-documents/di-fusion/terms-of-use
- type: PrivacyPolicy
  url: https://www.ulb.be/fr/mentions-legales/politique-de-protection-des-donnees-a-lulb
- type: Support
  url: https://www.ulb.be/en/contact-us
- type: Blog
  url: https://www.ulb.be/fr/actus-et-agenda
- type: LinkedIn
  url: https://be.linkedin.com/school/universite-libre-de-bruxelles/
- type: DomainSecurity
  url: security/ulb-domain-security.yml
- type: Plans
  url: plans/ulb-plans-pricing.yml
- type: RateLimits
  url: rate-limits/ulb-rate-limits.yml
- type: FinOps
  url: finops/ulb-finops.yml
- type: Review
  url: review.yml
x-identifiers:
  ror: https://ror.org/01r9htc13
  saml_entity_id: https://auth.ulb.be/idp
  federation: Belnet R&E Federation (BELNET), published to eduGAIN
  domains:
  - ulb.be
  - ulb.ac.be
x-coverage:
  state: covered
  reason: covered
  detail: 'ULB operates a real, documented, institution-engineered API and a complete SAML 2.0 identity provider, and both
    were exercised live on 2026-08-30. This is not a vendor contract wearing the university''s name: no Figshare, Pure, Dataverse
    or Esploro tenant exists under ULB, and the DI-fusion export service, its OAI-PMH endpoint, its OpenSearch description
    and its info:ulb-repo/semantics/ vocabulary are all ULB''s own. Coverage is nonetheless narrow and the surfaces are decaying
    — reftype=xml-full returns 403, reftype=xml-brief-ext returns 500, the OAI-PMH endpoint rejects the metadataPrefix it
    advertises so nothing is harvestable, the advertised unAPI server on port 8080 does not answer, and dipot.ulb.ac.be, the
    DSpace instance serving the full-text links, returns "DSpace at ULB: Internal system error". ULB publishes no developer
    portal, no OpenAPI, no changelog, no status page and no security.txt, and its timetable (gehol.ulb.be) and library discovery
    (cible.ulb.be) hosts resolve in DNS but time out from the public internet, so neither could be assessed. All four apis[]
    entries carry x-operator: institution; none is a tenant or a vendor surface.'
  generated: '2026-08-30'
  method: probed
  evidence:
  - url: https://difusion-svc.ulb.ac.be/scholar?scholarID=19262&scholarInst=ULB&groupBy=genredifusion
    status: 200
  - url: https://difusion-svc.ulb.ac.be/scholar?scholarID=19262&scholarInst=ULB&reftype=xml-full&filetype=xml
    status: 403
  - url: https://difusion-svc.ulb.ac.be/scholar?scholarID=19262&scholarInst=ULB&reftype=xml-brief-ext&filetype=xml
    status: 500
  - url: https://difusion.ulb.ac.be/vufind/OAI/Server?verb=Identify
    status: 500
  - url: https://difusion.ulb.ac.be/vufind/OAI/Server?verb=ListRecords&metadataPrefix=oai_dc
    status: 200
  - url: https://difusion.ulb.ac.be/vufind/Search/OpenSearch?method=describe
    status: 200
  - url: https://auth.ulb.be/idp/metadata
    status: 200
  - url: https://bib.ulb.be/medias/fichier/difusion-download-and-api_1678451163130-pdf?ID_FICHE=10054&INLINE=FALSE
    status: 200
  - url: https://dipot.ulb.ac.be/
    status: 500
  - url: http://difusion-svc.ulb.ac.be:8080/funapi/dspace-pmh
    status: 0
  - url: https://gehol.ulb.be/
    status: 0
  - url: https://cible.ulb.be/
    status: 0
  - url: https://ulb.figshare.com/
    status: 202
  - url: https://ulb.elsevierpure.com/
    status: 0
  - url: https://www.ulb.be/llms.txt
    status: 404
  - url: https://www.ulb.be/.well-known/security.txt
    status: 404
x-enrichment:
  pipeline: pipeline-university
  contract: all/0-working/pipeline-university.md
  run: '2026-08-30'
  operator_axis_settled: true
  institution_surfaces: 4
  tenant_surfaces: 0
  vendor_surfaces_rejected: 0
  note: Re-profiled under the university pipeline. The pre-existing profile held three apis[] entries with no x-operator,
    one of which (difusion-oai) had no baseURL at all and was invisible to the host-based audit. Nothing vendor-attributed
    was found to remove — ULB is one of the few institutions in this cohort with no vendor tenant. Scholar and group were
    consolidated into the single DI-fusion Export API contract they belong to, and the OAI-PMH, OpenSearch and SAML surfaces
    were located, probed and given real base URLs.
maintainers:
- FN: Kin Lane
  email: kin@apievangelist.com