LexisNexis Academic URL API Specification

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You can create permanent links to search forms, sources, documents and even saved searches using the URL API specification.

Contents

Before You Start

User Authentication

See the article About Subscription Links for user authentication issues.

Shortcut: Lists of Links

Instead of building your own links, you may be able to simply copy the link you want from one of these sources.

Moving to the New Interface

Links to the old interface that was retired in August 2010 should continue to work. However it is best to update them to the preferred format for the new interface. Please see the Migration Guide article for directions on converting your links for the new interface.

Resources

URL API Specification

Download the URL API Specification. Click here for .pdf

Tools

A wizard type tool for creating the links described below is available in Beta release on our site for Subscriber Tools

Examples

For more examples and complete descriptions of these types of links, please download and read the URL API Specification provided above.

Document-Level Link

Run a search that retrieves a specific document.
Example: Link to an article in Chronicle of Higher Education
http://www.lexisnexis.com/hottopics/lnacademic/?verb=sr&csi=171267&sr=BYLINE(Lila+w/3+Guterman)+AND+HLEAD(Journal+Eases+AND+Policy)+AND+DATE+IS+June+28+2002

Source-Level Link

Also called "title-level links." Opens the Power Search form, with the specified source already selected and ready to search.
Example: Search within the New York Times
http://www.lexisnexis.com/hottopics/lnacademic/?verb=sr&csi=6742

Note: The LexisNexis A-Z Title list on the Subscriber Tools site includes links to all individual titles. You can create a link for any source (including group sources which are not included in the A-Z Title List). All you need is the CSI (Constant Source Identifier) to add after the "csi=" part of the URL. In the New York Times example above, the CSI is 6742.

You can use the Source Directory to get CSIs. See the article on Finding a Source CSI

Table of Contents Links

LexisNexis has created an advanced Table of Content (TOC) search form for legal materials that supports both browsing and searching. TOC view is available for 200+ sources, including the United States Code and all state codes.
Example: Link to TOC view of the United States Code
http://www.lexisnexis.com/hottopics/lnacademic/?verb=toc&csi=6362

Note: As with the Source-Level links, there is no need to construct your own TOC links. A list of all TOC links is available at Subscriber Tools

Search Form Link

Open a specific search form. See the complete list of direct links at Academic URLs for Search Forms
Example: Open the Federal and State Cases Search Form.
http://www.lexisnexis.com/hottopics/lnacademic/?verb=sf?&sfi=AC07STCseCmnSrch

Saved Searches

Run the specified search an open the results list in LexisNexis Academic
Example: Canned query for all stories in “Business” section of The New York Times in the past 15 days that LexisNexis has tagged with the Company index term for Google, Yahoo, Microsoft, or Apple.
http://www.lexisnexis.com/hottopics/lnacademic/?verb=sr&csi=6742&sr=SECTION(business)+AND+COMPANY(Google+OR+Yahoo+OR+Microsoft+OR+Apple)+AND+DATE>=%25CUR RDATE-14%25

Frequently Asked Questions

What’s an “API”? The acronym stands for “application programming interface.” It’s a mechanism that allows programmers to call functions within another application. In this case, you will be constructing a URL rather than writing a computer program. The application you will send instructions to is the LexisNexis Academic service itself, and you will be able to call the following three functions.

  • Document-level link – retrieves a specific document.
  • Source-level link – opens the Power Search form and populates the source selection options to facilitate user-initiated searching of a specific source.
  • Academic URLs for Search Forms– open any search form in LexisNexis Academic.

The URL API is also used to support third-party vendors who provide article linking and federated search software to academic libraries. The developers of these systems can use the API to link authorized user automatically to full text documents in the LexisNexis Academic service. In the case of link resolvers, the required document is identified from a citation in a source database and, once LexisNexis Academic is identified as an appropriate target database, the API is used to deliver the full text document. Federated search services can use the API in a similar way, to link from a citation in their results list to the full-text document in LexisNexis Academic.

Do I Have To Install Anything? No. The URL API Specification simply provides directions for constructing URLs. The API does all the work of interpreting these URLs within LexisNexis Academic.

When Will My Link Resolver Work with LexisNexis Academic? That depends on whether the company or in-house team that provides your link resolver has incorporated the LexisNexis A-Z Title List and the URL API into its service. LexisNexis is currently working with the following companies and organizations to support their link resolver systems. If your provider is not on this list, please direct them to this webpage to obtain the Specification and LexisNexis contact information.

  • CSA
  • Ex Libris/SFX
  • OCLC Openly Informatics
  • OhioLINK
  • Serials Solutions
  • TDNet
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