SciELO API

Overview

SciELO (Scientific Electronic Library Online) is the primary open access platform for scholarly journals in Latin America, the Caribbean, Spain, Portugal, and South Africa. It indexes 1,800+ peer-reviewed journals and 900K+ articles, many not indexed elsewhere. All content is open access. The API provides article search, journal metadata, and bibliometric indicators. Free, no authentication required.

API Endpoints

ArticleMeta API

Search and retrieve articles:

# Search articles by keyword
curl "https://articlemeta.scielo.org/api/v1/article/?collection=scl&q=machine+learning"

# Get article by PID (SciELO identifier)
curl "https://articlemeta.scielo.org/api/v1/article/?code=S0100-204X2024000100001"

# Filter by collection (country)
curl "https://articlemeta.scielo.org/api/v1/article/?collection=esp&q=climate+change"

# Filter by journal ISSN
curl "https://articlemeta.scielo.org/api/v1/article/?issn=0100-204X&from_date=2024-01-01"

Collection Codes

Code	Country/Region
scl	Brazil
esp	Spain
mex	Mexico
col	Colombia
chl	Chile
arg	Argentina
cub	Cuba
ven	Venezuela
prt	Portugal
zaf	South Africa

Journal Metadata

# List journals in a collection
curl "https://articlemeta.scielo.org/api/v1/journal/?collection=scl"

# Get journal by ISSN
curl "https://articlemeta.scielo.org/api/v1/journal/?issn=0100-204X"

# Journal indicators
curl "https://analytics.scielo.org/api/v1/journal/?issn=0100-204X"

SciELO Search API

Full-text search with facets:

# Full-text search
curl "https://search.scielo.org/?q=biodiversity+conservation&format=json&count=20"

# Filter by subject area
curl "https://search.scielo.org/?q=neural+networks&filter[subject_area]=Computer+Science&format=json"

# Filter by year range
curl "https://search.scielo.org/?q=CRISPR&filter[year_cluster]=2023-2026&format=json"

# Filter by language
curl "https://search.scielo.org/?q=epidemiology&filter[la]=en&format=json"

Query Parameters

Parameter	Description	Example
q	Free-text query	q=tropical+ecology
collection	Country code	collection=scl
issn	Journal ISSN	issn=0100-204X
from_date	Articles from date	from_date=2024-01-01
until_date	Articles until date	until_date=2026-12-31
format	Response format	json, xml
count	Results per page	count=50
offset	Pagination offset	offset=20

Python Usage

import requests

ARTICLE_API = "https://articlemeta.scielo.org/api/v1"
SEARCH_API = "https://search.scielo.org"


def search_scielo(query: str, collection: str = None,
                  count: int = 20) -> list:
    """Search SciELO articles."""
    params = {"q": query, "format": "json", "count": count}
    if collection:
        params["collection"] = collection

    resp = requests.get(f"{SEARCH_API}/", params=params)
    resp.raise_for_status()
    data = resp.json()

    results = []
    for doc in data.get("docs", data.get("results", [])):
        results.append({
            "title": doc.get("title", {}).get("en", doc.get("title", "")),
            "authors": doc.get("authors", []),
            "journal": doc.get("journal_title", ""),
            "year": doc.get("publication_year", ""),
            "doi": doc.get("doi", ""),
            "pid": doc.get("pid", ""),
            "language": doc.get("la", []),
            "url": f"https://scielo.org/article/{doc.get('pid', '')}",
        })
    return results


def get_article(pid: str) -> dict:
    """Get full article metadata by SciELO PID."""
    resp = requests.get(
        f"{ARTICLE_API}/article/",
        params={"code": pid, "format": "json"},
    )
    resp.raise_for_status()
    return resp.json()


def list_journals(collection: str = "scl") -> list:
    """List journals in a SciELO collection."""
    resp = requests.get(
        f"{ARTICLE_API}/journal/",
        params={"collection": collection, "format": "json"},
    )
    resp.raise_for_status()
    return resp.json()


# Example: find Brazilian ecology research
papers = search_scielo("Amazon deforestation biodiversity", collection="scl")
for p in papers:
    print(f"[{p['year']}] {p['title']} — {p['journal']}")

# Example: find Spanish medical research
papers = search_scielo("diabetes treatment", collection="esp")
for p in papers:
    print(f"{p['title']} (DOI: {p['doi']})")

Subject Areas Covered

• Agricultural Sciences, Biological Sciences, Health Sciences
• Engineering, Exact Sciences, Earth Sciences
• Human Sciences, Social Sciences, Linguistics/Arts

Unique Value

• Regional focus: Primary index for Latin American and Iberian research
• Language diversity: Portuguese, Spanish, English content
• 100% open access: All indexed content freely available
• Underrepresented research: Many journals not in Scopus/WoS

References

• SciELO
• SciELO Analytics
• ArticleMeta API
• SciELO Developer Wiki