Semantic Scholar API (Academic Graph API)
Business Profile
Core Value Proposition
Semantic Scholar API provides developers with programmatic access to the Semantic Scholar Academic Graph, including data about authors, papers, citations, venues, and embeddings (SPECTER2), plus recommendations and datasets to power scholarly discovery and integration.
Target Customer
Developers and product teams building scholarly search/discovery tools, research/reference apps, startups integrating academic data, and organizations needing access to up-to-date scholarly metadata
Key Differentiator
Open, continuously updated scholarly graph with rich metadata and embeddings, accessible via a straightforward REST API; strong customer validation for ease of use, maintenance, and speed; bulk data options and dedicated datasets (S2AG, S2ORC, SUPP.AI)
Implementation Timeline
Not explicitly quantified in the content; evidence suggests rapid adoption and easy integration (e.g., Connected Papers using the API since day one; open beta to a large user base). Some customer quotes emphasize speed and ease of use.
Pain Points
- 1Need for reliable, up-to-date scholarly data (authors, papers, citations, venues) integrated in applications
- 2Desire for rich metadata (PDF URLs, abstracts, summarization) not easily accessible from other providers
- 3Requirement for scalable access with reasonable rate limits to support developers and apps at scale
Key Features
- 1Academic Graph service: data about authors, papers, citations, venues, and embeddings (SPECTER2)
- 2Recommendations service: finds papers similar to a given paper
- 3Datasets service: downloadable datasets (S2AG, SUPP.AI, S2ORC)
- 4Public endpoints and API key-based access for higher rate limits
- 5API key management: API keys are issued via email and should be kept confidential
- 6Dataset access and bulk data availability for NLP and data analysis
Target Customer Industries
Decision Makers
- 1Co-founder and CTO
- 2Co-founder
- 3Founder
- 4Co-owner
Client Results
- 1Customer growth and scale: Connected Papers built on top of the API from day one and grew to millions of users
- 2Rapid data integration: Litmaps reports the API and bulk data are clear, straightforward to use, and allow quick data integration
- 3Enhanced scholarly references: Sourcely and Yomu note the API provides references with additional metadata (PDF URLs, abstracts, summarization) not easily accessible elsewhere
- 4Up-to-date references: Stateoftheart AI highlights the API’s ability to pull latest references from top AI conferences
Competitive Advantages
- 1Well-maintained, frequently updated, fast, and easy to use APIs
- 2Rich metadata (PDF URLs, abstracts, summarization) beyond what some competitors provide
- 3Open corpus with bulk data options and multiple datasets for NLP and research
Key Benefits
Case Studies & Success Stories
Litmaps integration case
Co-founder and CTO praises the API as clear, straightforward to use, fast, and easy to integrate, enabling rapid data integration for Litmaps
Connected Papers case study
Co-founder notes the APIs are well maintained, frequently updated, fast, and easy to use; supports growth to millions of users; emphasizes the public, free resource as a driver for innovation
Stateoftheart AI case study
Founder highlights pulling in the latest references to papers from top AI conferences as a simple task made possible by the API
Sourcely case study
Migration to Semantic Scholar API provides academic references for students; users appreciate ease of use, speed, reliability, and additional metadata; the Semantic Scholar team is described as helpful and responsive
Additional Product Information
Product Description
A REST API that provides access to the Semantic Scholar Academic Graph, including data about authors, papers, citations, venues, and SPECTER2 embeddings, plus recommendations and datasets. It also offers datasets (S2AG, SUPP.AI, S2ORC) and supports API key-based rate limits for higher usage.
Target Market
Developers, startups, and organizations building research tools, reference/paper discovery apps, and scholarly data integrations
Unique Value Proposition
Open, up-to-date scholarly data with rich metadata and embeddings, accessible via straightforward APIs and datasets, enabling rapid building and scaling of academic discovery experiences
Technical Requirements
{"REST API with endpoints for authors, papers, citations, venues, and embeddings","Authentication via API key for higher rate limits; unauthenticated endpoints are rate-limited","Unauthenticated rate limit: up to 1000 requests per second shared among all unauthenticated users","Authenticated rate limit: introductory 1 request per second (RPS) per API key","API key provided via email; keys should not be shared"}
Pricing Model
Not explicitly disclosed in the provided content; indicates many endpoints are publicly accessible without authentication and API keys provide higher rate limits
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