University of Manchester

aid: university-of-manchester
name: University of Manchester
description: 'The University of Manchester is a public research university in Manchester, England, a founding member of the
  Russell Group and, on the QS World University Rankings, a consistent global top-40 institution. Its programmable footprint
  is small, real, and almost entirely mis-stated by its own domain names. The University operates exactly three machine-readable
  surfaces of its own: a IIIF Presentation API and a IIIF Image API serving the John Rylands Library''s digitised manuscripts
  from the University''s own hosts and its own JANET address space, and a Shibboleth SAML 2.0 Identity Provider registered
  in the Jisc UK Access Management Federation under entityID https://shib.manchester.ac.uk/shibboleth. Everything else that
  looks like a Manchester API is a tenancy: pure.manchester.ac.uk and research.manchester.ac.uk both CNAME to uom-aws.elsevierpure.com
  and serve Elsevier''s Pure product API and OAI-PMH implementation; figshare.manchester.ac.uk CNAMEs to figshare.com. Those
  are Manchester''s records on a supplier''s platform, under a supplier''s contract, and they are recorded here as tenant
  relationships rather than credited as the University''s engineering. There is no central developer portal, no self-service
  API keys, no open data portal at data.manchester.ac.uk, and no public course, timetable or SIS API. Thirty-six OpenAPI documents
  previously held in this repository were Elsevier''s Pure 5.35.2-2 specification split by tag and re-titled; they have been
  quarantined, not counted.'
type: Index
deliveryModel:
  model: saas
  open_source: false
  commercial: true
  callable_host: true
  label: Hosted service · you call their endpoint
  confidence: high
  source:
  - openapi
  - pricing
  generated: '2026-08-28'
  method: derived
accessModel:
  pricing: free
  onboarding: none
  trial: false
  try_now: true
  public: true
  label: Free · No registration (institution-operated surfaces)
  confidence: high
  source:
  - authentication
  - probe
  generated: '2026-08-19'
  method: probed
  note: The two institution-operated IIIF APIs are anonymous, unauthenticated and free — verified by live retrieval on 2026-08-19
    with no credentials. There is no signup, no key and no plan. The previous accessModel said "self-serve signup", which
    was read off Elsevier Pure's api-key scheme; that is a tenant surface and its onboarding is not the institution's.
position: Consuming
access: 3rd-Party
image: https://kinlane-images.s3.amazonaws.com/shared/apis-json/icons/university-of-manchester.png
url: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/api-evangelist/university-of-manchester/refs/heads/main/apis.yml
tags:
- University
- Higher Education
- Education
- Research
- United Kingdom
- Russell Group
- Library
- Digital Collections
- IIIF
- Identity Federation
- Research Data
- Research Computing
created: '2026-06-03'
modified: '2026-08-19'
specificationVersion: '0.23'
apis:
- aid: university-of-manchester:shibboleth-saml-idp
  name: Shibboleth SAML Identity Provider (UK Access Management Federation)
  description: 'The University''s own Shibboleth Identity Provider, entityID https://shib.manchester.ac.uk/shibboleth, asserting
    the scope manchester.ac.uk. Its entity descriptor is published as signed, machine-readable SAML metadata through the Jisc
    UK Access Management Federation MDQ service and onward into eduGAIN — retrieved live on 2026-08-19 (200, 9647 bytes) and
    saved to this repo. Advertises SAML 2.0, SAML 1.1 and the native Shibboleth authn profile over HTTP-Redirect, HTTP-POST,
    HTTP-POST-SimpleSign and SOAP artifact resolution. Institution-operated by definition, and the single most under-catalogued
    programmable asset a university runs. Note that the IdP is not a public developer API: an application cannot obtain an
    assertion without being registered as a service provider in the federation.'
  humanURL: https://www.itservices.manchester.ac.uk/
  baseURL: http://mdq.ukfederation.org.uk/entities/https%3A%2F%2Fshib.manchester.ac.uk%2Fshibboleth
  tags:
  - Identity
  - SSO
  - SAML
  - Shibboleth
  - Federation
  - eduGAIN
  properties:
  - type: Authentication
    url: authentication/university-of-manchester-authentication.yml
  - type: IdentityFederation
    url: http://mdq.ukfederation.org.uk/entities/https%3A%2F%2Fshib.manchester.ac.uk%2Fshibboleth
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://www.itservices.manchester.ac.uk/
  x-operator: institution
  x-operator-evidence: Signed EntityDescriptor from the UK Access Management Federation names OrganizationName 'The University
    of Manchester' and shibmd:Scope 'manchester.ac.uk'; shib.manchester.ac.uk resolves to 130.88.36.102 in the University's
    own address space.
  x-sso-endpoint: https://shib.manchester.ac.uk/shibboleth-idp/profile/SAML2/Redirect/SSO
  x-entity-id: https://shib.manchester.ac.uk/shibboleth
  x-probe:
    baseURL_status: 200
    note: baseURL is the federation MDQ location because that is the machine-readable artifact an agent can actually retrieve
      — 200, 9647 bytes of signed SAML metadata. The SSO endpoint itself returns 500 to a bare GET because it requires a SAMLRequest;
      that is protocol behaviour, not an outage, and it is recorded in x-sso-endpoint rather than as a pointer.
    sso_endpoint_bare_get_status: 500
    probed: '2026-08-19'
- aid: university-of-manchester:pure-cris-tenancy
  name: Elsevier Pure CRIS tenancy (REST + OAI-PMH)
  description: 'The University''s tenancy of Elsevier Pure, its Current Research Information System, reached at pure.manchester.ac.uk
    and surfaced publicly as Research Explorer at research.manchester.ac.uk. Both hostnames CNAME to uom-aws.elsevierpure.com.
    The OAI-PMH 2.0 endpoint is live and fully functional — Identify returns repositoryName ''Pure OAI Repository'' with adminEmail
    Pure@manchester.ac.uk and an earliest datestamp of 2016-03-17, ListMetadataFormats offers seven formats including oai_cerif_openaire
    and uketd_dc, and ListRecords returns real batches. The REST API is documented at /ws/api and gated by an api-key header.
    All of that is Manchester''s data and Manchester''s administration on Elsevier''s platform under Elsevier''s contract:
    the specification declares info.title ''Pure API'', info.contact.email pure-support@elsevier.com and info.version 5.35.2-2,
    with a relative servers[] entry naming no institution at all. Recorded here as a tenant relationship. The specification
    itself is not held under this slug.'
  humanURL: https://research.manchester.ac.uk/
  baseURL: https://pure.manchester.ac.uk/ws/oai
  tags:
  - Research
  - CRIS
  - Pure
  - OAI-PMH
  - Repository
  - Metadata
  - Open Access
  - Tenant
  properties:
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://pure.manchester.ac.uk/ws/api/
  - type: ResearchRepository
    url: https://research.manchester.ac.uk/
  - type: Conformance
    url: conformance/university-of-manchester-conformance.yml
  x-operator: tenant
  x-operator-evidence: 'DNS: pure.manchester.ac.uk CNAME uom-aws.elsevierpure.com; research.manchester.ac.uk CNAME uom-aws.elsevierpure.com.
    Spec self-declaration: title ''Pure API'', contact pure-support@elsevier.com, version 5.35.2-2, servers[0].url ''/ws/api''.'
  x-vendor: Elsevier (Pure)
- aid: university-of-manchester:figshare-tenancy
  name: Figshare research data repository tenancy
  description: 'The University''s institutional research data repository, presented at figshare.manchester.ac.uk, which CNAMEs
    to figshare.com. Manchester''s researchers deposit here and the deposits carry Manchester''s branding, but the platform,
    the REST API and the DOI minting are Figshare''s. Probed 2026-08-19: the tenant host returns an AWS WAF interstitial (HTTP
    202) rather than a page body — a bot challenge, which grades as live-and-blocked, not dead. Recorded as a tenant relationship;
    the generic api.figshare.com/v2 contract that previously appeared under this slug is a vendor surface and has been removed.
    One Figshare contract was at one point attributed to twenty-five separate universities in this catalog; this entry exists
    so the relationship survives the correction without the misattribution.'
  humanURL: https://www.openresearch.manchester.ac.uk/
  baseURL: https://figshare.manchester.ac.uk/
  tags:
  - Research Data
  - Repository
  - Figshare
  - Open Data
  - Tenant
  properties:
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://www.openresearch.manchester.ac.uk/
  x-operator: tenant
  x-operator-evidence: 'DNS: figshare.manchester.ac.uk CNAME figshare.com.'
  x-vendor: Figshare
- aid: university-of-manchester:university-of-manchester-image-api
  name: University of Manchester Image API
  description: IIIF Image API 2.0 level 1 endpoints.
  humanURL: https://www.digitalcollections.manchester.ac.uk/
  baseURL: https://www.digitalcollections.manchester.ac.uk/iiif
  tags:
  - Image
  tags_raw:
  - image
  properties:
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/university-of-manchester-image-api-openapi.yml
  - type: JSONSchema
    url: json-schema/university-of-manchester-iiif-manifest-schema.json
  - type: Examples
    url: examples/university-of-manchester-iiif-manifest-example.json
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://www.digitalcollections.manchester.ac.uk/about/
  - type: TermsOfService
    url: https://www.digitalcollections.manchester.ac.uk/terms/
  - type: JSONSchema
    url: json-schema/university-of-manchester-iiif-image-info-schema.json
  - type: Examples
    url: examples/university-of-manchester-iiif-image-info-example.json
- aid: university-of-manchester:university-of-manchester-presentation-api
  name: University of Manchester Presentation API
  description: IIIF Presentation API 2.1 manifests and collections.
  humanURL: https://www.digitalcollections.manchester.ac.uk/
  baseURL: https://www.digitalcollections.manchester.ac.uk/iiif
  tags:
  - Presentation
  tags_raw:
  - presentation
  properties:
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/university-of-manchester-presentation-api-openapi.yml
  - type: JSONSchema
    url: json-schema/university-of-manchester-iiif-manifest-schema.json
  - type: Examples
    url: examples/university-of-manchester-iiif-manifest-example.json
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://www.digitalcollections.manchester.ac.uk/about/
  - type: TermsOfService
    url: https://www.digitalcollections.manchester.ac.uk/terms/
  - type: JSONSchema
    url: json-schema/university-of-manchester-iiif-image-info-schema.json
  - type: Examples
    url: examples/university-of-manchester-iiif-image-info-example.json
common:
- type: CapabilityMap
  url: capabilities/university-of-manchester-capability-edges.yml
  name: University of Manchester Business Capability Map
- type: Website
  url: https://www.manchester.ac.uk/
- type: Blog
  url: https://www.manchester.ac.uk/rss
- type: Support
  url: https://www.manchester.ac.uk/connect/contact-us/
- type: TermsOfService
  url: https://www.manchester.ac.uk/disclaimer/
- type: PrivacyPolicy
  url: https://www.manchester.ac.uk/about/privacy-information/data-protection/
- type: Copyright
  url: https://www.manchester.ac.uk/copyright/
- type: LinkedIn
  url: https://www.linkedin.com/school/the-university-of-manchester/
- type: GitHub
  url: https://github.com/University-of-Manchester
- type: GitHubOrganization
  url: https://github.com/UoMResearchIT
- type: IdentityFederation
  url: http://mdq.ukfederation.org.uk/entities/https%3A%2F%2Fshib.manchester.ac.uk%2Fshibboleth
- type: LibraryCatalog
  url: https://www.library.manchester.ac.uk/
- type: DigitalCollections
  url: https://www.digitalcollections.manchester.ac.uk/
- type: ResearchRepository
  url: https://research.manchester.ac.uk/
- type: CourseCatalog
  url: https://www.manchester.ac.uk/study/undergraduate/courses/
- type: ResearchComputing
  url: https://research-it.manchester.ac.uk/
- type: AIPolicy
  url: https://www.staffnet.manchester.ac.uk/ai-hub/ai-guidelines-and-policies/
- type: AITooling
  url: https://www.staffnet.manchester.ac.uk/ai-hub/tools-and-resources/
- type: Authentication
  url: authentication/university-of-manchester-authentication.yml
- type: Conformance
  url: conformance/university-of-manchester-conformance.yml
- type: Errors
  url: errors/university-of-manchester-errors.yml
- type: Lifecycle
  url: lifecycle/university-of-manchester-lifecycle.yml
- type: Rules
  url: rules/university-of-manchester-rules.yml
- type: Vocabulary
  url: vocabulary/university-of-manchester-vocabulary.yml
- type: JSONLD
  url: json-ld/university-of-manchester-context.jsonld
- type: AgenticAccess
  url: agentic-access/university-of-manchester-agentic-access.yml
- type: DomainSecurity
  url: security/university-of-manchester-domain-security.yml
- type: Plans
  url: plans/university-of-manchester-plans-pricing.yml
- type: RateLimits
  url: rate-limits/university-of-manchester-rate-limits.yml
- type: FinOps
  url: finops/university-of-manchester-finops.yml
- type: Review
  url: review.yml
maintainers:
- FN: Kin Lane
  email: kin@apievangelist.com
x-type: university
x-coverage:
  state: covered
  reason: institution_operated_contract
  detail: 'Three institution-operated surfaces found and verified by live probe on 2026-08-19: the IIIF Presentation API and
    IIIF Image API at Manchester Digital Collections (both on the University''s own hosts inside its own JANET address space,
    both returning genuine 404s on negative probes against real path shapes), and the Shibboleth SAML 2.0 Identity Provider
    whose signed entity descriptor was retrieved from the UK Access Management Federation MDQ service. Two contracts were
    written from those probes and saved. Two further surfaces, spanning three hostnames, are real but tenant-operated and
    are recorded as relationships without holding the supplier''s specification: the Elsevier Pure tenancy (pure.manchester.ac.uk
    and research.manchester.ac.uk, both CNAME uom-aws.elsevierpure.com) and the Figshare tenancy (figshare.manchester.ac.uk
    CNAME figshare.com). The profile is thin because the institution is thin, not because the probe was: no open data portal
    exists (data.manchester.ac.uk and opendata.manchester.ac.uk do not resolve), no api.manchester.ac.uk or developer.manchester.ac.uk
    exists, and no public course, timetable or SIS API was found. Thirty-six OpenAPI documents previously scored under this
    slug were Elsevier''s Pure 5.35.2-2 specification split by tag; they are quarantined in _vendor-quarantine/ with the evidence.'
  assessed: '2026-08-19'
  method: pipeline-university + live probe
  institution_surfaces: 3
  tenant_surfaces: 2
  vendor_surfaces_removed: 1
  contracts_saved: 2
  contracts_quarantined: 36
  evidence:
  - url: https://www.digitalcollections.manchester.ac.uk/iiif/MS-LATIN-00006
    status: 200
  - url: https://www.digitalcollections.manchester.ac.uk/iiif/collection/latin
    status: 200
  - url: https://www.digitalcollections.manchester.ac.uk/iiif/NOT-A-REAL-ID-12345
    status: 404
  - url: https://image.digitalcollections.manchester.ac.uk/iiif/MS-LATIN-00006-000-00001.jp2/info.json
    status: 200
  - url: https://image.digitalcollections.manchester.ac.uk/iiif/MS-LATIN-00006-000-00001.jp2/0,0,500,500/200,/90/gray.jpg
    status: 200
  - url: https://image.digitalcollections.manchester.ac.uk/iiif/NOT-REAL.jp2/info.json
    status: 404
  - url: http://mdq.ukfederation.org.uk/entities/https%3A%2F%2Fshib.manchester.ac.uk%2Fshibboleth
    status: 200
  - url: https://pure.manchester.ac.uk/ws/oai?verb=Identify
    status: 200
  - url: https://pure.manchester.ac.uk/ws/oai?verb=ListMetadataFormats
    status: 200
  - url: https://pure.manchester.ac.uk/ws/api/
    status: 200
  - url: https://research.manchester.ac.uk/
    status: 200
  - url: https://figshare.manchester.ac.uk/
    status: 202
    note: AWS WAF bot challenge; live and blocked, not dead.
  - url: https://www.staffnet.manchester.ac.uk/ai-hub/ai-guidelines-and-policies/
    status: 200
  - url: https://www.staffnet.manchester.ac.uk/ai-hub/tools-and-resources/
    status: 200
  - url: https://research-it.manchester.ac.uk/
    status: 200
  - url: https://www.manchester.ac.uk/study/undergraduate/courses/
    status: 200
  - url: https://www.linkedin.com/school/the-university-of-manchester/
    status: 999
    note: LinkedIn bot challenge; live and blocked, not dead.
  - url: https://shib.manchester.ac.uk/
    status: 500
    note: DEAD as a pointer; removed from common[]. The IdP SSO profile endpoints are functional and the federation metadata
      is the correct machine-readable pointer.
  - url: https://data.manchester.ac.uk/
    status: 0
    note: Does not resolve. No open data portal.
  - url: https://api.manchester.ac.uk/
    status: 0
    note: Does not resolve. No central API host.
  - url: https://developer.manchester.ac.uk/
    status: 0
    note: Does not resolve. No developer portal.
  - url: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/eScienceLab/rocrate-microservice-api/main/cratey-api.json
    status: 200
    note: Real OpenAPI 3.0.3 in a University of Manchester eScience Lab repo, but servers[0].url is https://api.server.test/v1
      — a placeholder. Rejected, not saved.
  tenant_hosts: 3
  audit_script_caveat: 'audit-university-contracts.py classifies every *.manchester.ac.uk host as institution-operated because
    its verdict is host-name based. That heuristic cannot see a vanity CNAME: it reports pure.manchester.ac.uk and figshare.manchester.ac.uk
    as institution when DNS shows them pointing at uom-aws.elsevierpure.com and figshare.com. The x-operator values in this
    file are set from DNS plus the specification''s own self-declaration, not from the script, and they should be treated
    as the authority where the two disagree. The same blind spot will under-count tenants across the rest of the cohort wherever
    an institution fronts a vendor platform with its own hostname.'
x-category: Public Research University
x-attribution-correction:
  date: '2026-08-19'
  summary: 36 OpenAPI documents, 70 collections and every derived schema, example, structure, vocabulary, ruleset, JSON-LD
    context and authentication artifact under this slug were generated from Elsevier's Pure product specification and scored
    as the University's own. They have been moved to _vendor-quarantine/ and are no longer referenced. The Figshare entry
    has been re-pointed from the generic vendor host api.figshare.com/v2 to Manchester's actual tenancy at figshare.manchester.ac.uk.
    Expect this repository's Kin Score to fall; the previous score was measuring Elsevier's engineering.
  quarantine: _vendor-quarantine/README.md