Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam

aid: vrije-universiteit-amsterdam
name: Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
x-type: university
x-category: Public Research University
description: 'Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (VU Amsterdam) is a public research university in the Netherlands, founded in 1880
  and ranked #221 in the QS World University Rankings 2025. It operates no public developer program, no API portal, and no
  first-party API contract: every OpenAPI previously attributed to VU in this repository was Elsevier''s Pure API v5.34.3
  (contact pure-support@elsevier.com), the same product contract at least nine other universities ship, and it has been removed.
  What VU genuinely operates and publishes machine-readably is two protocol surfaces on its own domain — a live OAI-PMH 2.0
  repository interface at research.vu.nl/ws/oai serving OpenAIRE CERIF and Dublin Core, administered by the University Library,
  and a signed SAML 2.0 identity-provider metadata document at stsfed.login.vu.nl published into the SURFconext national federation
  and onward to eduGAIN. Everything else programmable under a vu.nl subdomain is a vendor product VU is the tenant of: the
  Elsevier Pure REST web service, VU Yoda (Utrecht University software maintained by SURF for VU), Instructure Canvas, and
  Semestry MyTimetable — all credential-gated. Research data is also published to the national DataverseNL service. The University
  Library GitHub organisation (ubvu) is the institution''s active open-source presence with 90 public repositories; the official
  VU GitHub organisation has none.'
type: Index
deliveryModel:
  model: saas
  open_source: false
  commercial: false
  callable_host: true
  label: Hosted service · you call their endpoint
  confidence: medium
  source:
  - probe
  generated: '2026-08-30'
  method: probed
accessModel:
  pricing: free
  onboarding: institutional
  trial: false
  try_now: false
  public: false
  label: Free · Institutional affiliation required for all but the harvesting endpoint
  confidence: high
  source:
  - probe
  generated: '2026-08-30'
  method: probed
position: Consuming
access: 3rd-Party
image: https://kinlane-images.s3.amazonaws.com/shared/apis-json/icons/vrije-universiteit-amsterdam.png
url: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/api-evangelist/vrije-universiteit-amsterdam/refs/heads/main/apis.yml
tags:
- University
- Higher Education
- Education
- Netherlands
- Europe
- Research
- Research Data
- Research Repository
- Identity Federation
- OAI-PMH
- Open Access
- Public Research University
created: '2026-06-03'
modified: '2026-08-30'
specificationVersion: '0.23'
x-enrichment:
  pipeline: pipeline-university.md
  run: '2026-08-30'
  operator_axis_settled: true
  removed_vendor_contracts: 96
  note: Re-profiled under the university pipeline. The 26 refined OpenAPIs and their 70 derived artifacts were a single Elsevier
    Pure contract split by tag; all were removed as shared_contract. No contract was saved in their place, because VU authors
    none.
x-coverage:
  state: gated
  reason: tenant_only
  detail: 'Two institution-operated machine-readable surfaces were reached and read in full — the OAI-PMH 2.0 endpoint at
    research.vu.nl/ws/oai (Identify, ListMetadataFormats, ListSets and a 108KB ListRecords harvest all returned 200) and the
    signed SAML 2.0 IdP metadata at stsfed.login.vu.nl (200, 116,822 bytes, also present in the SURFconext national feed).
    Beyond those two, every programmable surface under a vu.nl subdomain is a vendor product VU is a tenant of, and every
    one of them is credential-gated: the Elsevier Pure REST web service (research.vu.nl/ws/api/524/persons -> 401), Instructure
    Canvas (canvas.vu.nl/api/v1/accounts -> 401), Semestry MyTimetable (rooster.vu.nl/api/ -> 401) and VU Yoda''s WebDAV endpoint
    (data.yoda.vu.nl -> 401). The two Yoda public hosts and DataverseNL sit behind an Anubis bot challenge that returns HTTP
    200 with a "checking your connection" body rather than content, and research.vu.nl HTML pages sit behind a Cloudflare
    challenge (403) even though its /ws/ protocol endpoints are open. No developer portal, no llms.txt, no security.txt and
    no institution-authored API contract exists at any probed location. This profile is thin because the institution is a
    buyer, not a producer — not because the surface was unreachable.'
  evidence:
  - url: https://research.vu.nl/ws/oai?verb=Identify
    status: 200
  - url: https://research.vu.nl/ws/oai?verb=ListSets
    status: 200
  - url: https://stsfed.login.vu.nl/FederationMetadata/2007-06/FederationMetadata.xml
    status: 200
  - url: https://metadata.surfconext.nl/idps-metadata.xml
    status: 200
  - url: https://research.vu.nl/ws/api/524/persons
    status: 401
  - url: https://canvas.vu.nl/api/v1/accounts
    status: 401
  - url: https://rooster.vu.nl/api/
    status: 401
  - url: https://data.yoda.vu.nl/
    status: 401
  - url: https://portal.yoda.vu.nl/
    status: 200
  - url: https://publication.yoda.vu.nl/
    status: 200
  - url: https://dataverse.nl/api/info/version
    status: 200
  - url: https://research.vu.nl/en/organisations
    status: 403
  - url: https://vu.nl/llms.txt
    status: 404
  - url: https://vu.nl/.well-known/security.txt
    status: 404
apis:
- aid: vrije-universiteit-amsterdam:research-portal-oai
  name: VU Research Portal OAI-PMH
  x-operator: institution
  description: 'OAI-PMH 2.0 metadata harvesting interface for the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam Repository, served from the
    institution''s own domain and administered by the VU University Library (adminEmail pure.ub@vu.nl). Verified live 2026-08-30:
    Identify returns repositoryName "Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam Repository", earliestDatestamp 2017-02-05, granularity YYYY-MM-DDThh:mm:ssZ
    and an OpenAIRE CERIF Service description claiming compatibility 1.1.1. ListMetadataFormats advertises oai_dc and oai_cerif_openaire;
    ListSets advertises seven openaire_cris_* sets plus per-year publication sets back to 1880; a ListRecords harvest of openaire_cris_persons
    returned 108KB of CERIF records. The repository software underneath is Elsevier Pure, but OAI-PMH is an open protocol
    on a VU host, so the surface is the institution''s even though the product is not. No OpenAPI is held for it because VU
    publishes none and this pipeline does not generate contracts on an institution''s behalf.'
  humanURL: https://research.vu.nl/
  baseURL: https://research.vu.nl/ws/oai
  tags:
  - OAI-PMH
  - Research Repository
  - Metadata Harvesting
  - Open Access
  - OpenAIRE
  - CERIF
  properties:
  - type: Conformance
    url: conformance/vrije-universiteit-amsterdam-conformance.yml
  - type: Documentation
    url: http://www.openarchives.org/OAI/openarchivesprotocol.html
- aid: vrije-universiteit-amsterdam:identity-federation
  name: VU Amsterdam SAML 2.0 identity provider (SURFconext / eduGAIN)
  x-operator: institution
  description: Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam operates its own SAML 2.0 identity provider on Microsoft ADFS and publishes signed,
    machine-readable federation metadata for it. entityID http://stsfed.login.vu.nl/adfs/services/trust; SingleSignOnService
    at https://stsfed.login.vu.nl/adfs/ls/; the metadata document carries both IDPSSODescriptor and SPSSODescriptor roles
    and supports SAML 2.0 alongside WS-Federation and WS-Trust. The same entity appears in the SURFconext national IdP feed
    with mdui:DisplayName "Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam" and shibmd:Scope vu.nl, from where SURFconext publishes it onward
    to eduGAIN. This is the surface a university operates by definition, it is genuinely first-party, and it was entirely
    absent from the June 2026 profile of this institution.
  humanURL: https://stsfed.login.vu.nl/adfs/ls/idpinitiatedsignon
  baseURL: https://stsfed.login.vu.nl/adfs/ls/
  tags:
  - Identity Federation
  - SAML
  - SSO
  - SURFconext
  - eduGAIN
  - ADFS
  properties:
  - type: IdentityFederation
    url: https://stsfed.login.vu.nl/FederationMetadata/2007-06/FederationMetadata.xml
  - type: Conformance
    url: conformance/vrije-universiteit-amsterdam-conformance.yml
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://metadata.surfconext.nl/idps-metadata.xml
- aid: vrije-universiteit-amsterdam:pure-web-service-deployment
  name: Elsevier Pure REST web service — VU Amsterdam deployment
  x-operator: tenant
  description: 'VU Amsterdam''s tenancy of the Elsevier Pure research information system, reachable at research.vu.nl/ws/api
    and API-key gated (GET /524/persons returns HTTP 401). The contract is Elsevier''s, not VU''s: info.title "Pure API",
    version 5.34.3, contact pure-support@elsevier.com, and at least nine other universities in this catalog ship the identical
    document. The 26 per-tag OpenAPIs and 70 derived artifacts that used to sit in this repository under VU''s name were that
    one contract, and were removed on 2026-08-30. The relationship is recorded here because it is a real institutional fact
    — VU''s research information, VU''s host — but the engineering, and therefore the contract, belongs to Elsevier.'
  humanURL: https://research.vu.nl/
  baseURL: https://research.vu.nl/ws/api
  tags:
  - Research Information
  - Elsevier Pure
  - Tenant Deployment
  - CRIS
  properties:
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://research.vu.nl/ws/api/openapi.yaml
  - type: Authentication
    url: https://helpcenter.pure.elsevier.com/web-service/harvesting-content-from-the-pure-web-services-changes
- aid: vrije-universiteit-amsterdam:yoda
  name: VU Yoda research data repository
  x-operator: tenant
  description: VU Amsterdam's research data management and publication platform, running at portal.yoda.vu.nl. Yoda is open-source
    iRODS-based software built by Utrecht University and, per its own DataCite registry record, "maintained by SURF for the
    Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam" — an institution-specific subdomain on a platform someone else operates, which makes VU
    the tenant rather than the operator. The portal returns HTTP 200 and gates behind /user/gate; the WebDAV data endpoint
    at data.yoda.vu.nl returns HTTP 401; published datasets land at publication.yoda.vu.nl, which currently answers every
    request with an Anubis bot challenge. Registered with DataCite as repository client DELFT.VUDATA and actively minting
    — 171 DOIs as of 2026-08-30.
  humanURL: https://portal.yoda.vu.nl
  baseURL: https://data.yoda.vu.nl
  tags:
  - Research Data
  - Research Repository
  - Yoda
  - iRODS
  - WebDAV
  - DataCite
  - Tenant Deployment
  properties:
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://rdm.vu.nl/tools/yoda/index.html
  - type: Conformance
    url: conformance/vrije-universiteit-amsterdam-conformance.yml
- aid: vrije-universiteit-amsterdam:dataverse-nl
  name: VU Amsterdam collection on DataverseNL
  x-operator: tenant
  description: Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam publishes research datasets into DataverseNL, the shared national Dataverse service,
    under the collection dataverse.nl/dataverse/vuamsterdam. The REST API at dataverse.nl/api is the Dataverse project's contract
    on a national host that many Dutch institutions share, so no spec is held here under VU's name. As of 2026-08-30 the whole
    dataverse.nl host answers with an Anubis bot challenge — HTTP 200 carrying a "checking your connection" interstitial rather
    than API output — so the deployment could not be read, only confirmed to exist.
  humanURL: https://dataverse.nl/dataverse/vuamsterdam
  baseURL: https://dataverse.nl/api
  tags:
  - Research Data
  - Dataverse
  - National Service
  - Tenant Deployment
  properties:
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://guides.dataverse.org/en/latest/api/
- aid: vrije-universiteit-amsterdam:canvas
  name: VU Amsterdam Canvas LMS API
  x-operator: tenant
  description: Instructure Canvas deployed for VU Amsterdam at canvas.vu.nl. The Canvas REST API is live and credential-gated
    — GET /api/v1/accounts returns HTTP 401 with a JSON body — and the sign-in page renders. The contract is Instructure's
    and is catalogued against Instructure; recorded here only as the institution's learning-platform tenancy. Canvas's LTI
    certification is Instructure's, not VU's, and is deliberately not recorded as institutional conformance.
  humanURL: https://canvas.vu.nl/
  baseURL: https://canvas.vu.nl/api/v1
  tags:
  - Learning Management
  - Canvas
  - Instructure
  - Tenant Deployment
  properties:
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://canvas.instructure.com/doc/api/
- aid: vrije-universiteit-amsterdam:timetable
  name: VU Amsterdam timetable (MyTimetable)
  x-operator: tenant
  description: VU Amsterdam's class timetable at rooster.vu.nl, running Semestry MyTimetable (the vendor is named in an HTML
    comment in the served page). A JSON REST API is live behind authentication — /api/, /api/rest/v1/ and /api/rest/v1/info
    all return HTTP 401 with a Spring-style JSON error body — and no public schedule contract or ICS feed was reachable without
    credentials. This is the closest thing VU has to a course/timetable surface, and it is a vendor product on a VU subdomain,
    not an institution-built API.
  humanURL: https://rooster.vu.nl/schedule
  baseURL: https://rooster.vu.nl/api
  tags:
  - Timetable
  - Course Catalog
  - MyTimetable
  - Semestry
  - Tenant Deployment
  properties:
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://rooster.vu.nl/schedule
common:
- type: Website
  url: https://vu.nl/en
- type: ResearchRepository
  url: https://research.vu.nl/
- type: OpenData
  url: https://portal.yoda.vu.nl
- type: CourseCatalog
  url: https://studiegids.vu.nl/
- type: IdentityFederation
  url: https://stsfed.login.vu.nl/FederationMetadata/2007-06/FederationMetadata.xml
- type: Documentation
  url: https://rdm.vu.nl/
- type: AIPolicy
  url: https://vu.nl/en/education/more-about/teaching-and-ai
- type: AITooling
  url: https://vu.nl/en/student/examinations/generative-ai-your-use-our-expectations
- type: GitHubOrganization
  url: https://github.com/ubvu
- type: TermsOfService
  url: https://vu.nl/en/about-vu/more-about/disclaimer
- type: PrivacyPolicy
  url: https://vu.nl/en/about-vu/more-about/privacy-statement-vrije-universiteit-amsterdam
- type: Support
  url: https://vu.nl/en/about-vu/more-about/contact
- type: Blog
  url: https://vu.nl/en/news
- type: LinkedIn
  url: https://www.linkedin.com/school/vrije-universiteit-amsterdam/
- type: Twitter
  url: https://twitter.com/VUamsterdam
- type: Conformance
  url: conformance/vrije-universiteit-amsterdam-conformance.yml
- type: DomainSecurity
  url: security/vrije-universiteit-amsterdam-domain-security.yml
- type: Plans
  url: plans/vrije-universiteit-amsterdam-plans-pricing.yml
- type: RateLimits
  url: rate-limits/vrije-universiteit-amsterdam-rate-limits.yml
- type: FinOps
  url: finops/vrije-universiteit-amsterdam-finops.yml
- type: Review
  url: review.yml
maintainers:
- FN: Kin Lane
  email: kin@apievangelist.com