DataCite
DataCite is a leading global non-profit organization that provides DOI (Digital Object Identifier) registration and persistent identifier services for research outputs, enabling researchers to cite, discover, and access scholarly data. DataCite maintains a REST API for minting and managing DOIs, querying metadata records, and accessing the global research data graph. Membership-based access allows institutions to register DOIs through APIs and the Fabrica web interface, while public metadata retrieval is freely available to anyone. DataCite also offers a GraphQL API, a legacy Metadata Store (MDS) API, usage statistics via its Usage Reports API, and scholarly event tracking via the Event Data API.
Real signal across most facets with visible, nameable gaps — the contract exists but is thin, or the portal is good while governance and commercial terms are absent.
API Evangelist profiles DataCite the way a machine reads it — 24 machine-readable artifacts across 16 APIs, pulled from the provider's own public surface and indexed so a developer, an analyst, or an AI agent can evaluate it against every other provider on the network.
Every provider in the network is reduced to the same set of machine-readable artifacts — OpenAPI contracts, event specifications, GraphQL schemas, runnable collections, pricing and rate-limit signals, security posture, OAuth scopes, and the agent surfaces (MCP servers and skills) that let software drive the API on its own. We profile them because the interface is the part of a company you can actually inspect: it is a truer signal of what a provider does than any marketing page. From those artifacts we compute the Kin Score — DataCite scores 45.1/100 (developing), with a separate agent-readiness read of 48/100 (agent ready). The full breakdown is below, followed by every artifact we hold — each card links through to its machine-readable definition on apis.io.
Kin Score
This is the API Evangelist rating — a single, repeatable read computed from the artifacts on this page. Green fill is points earned; the red track is points possible, so every bar shows earned-versus-possible at a glance.
Kin Score
How this is scored →scored 2026-07-27 · rubric v0.5
How we profile DataCite
Each block below is one kind of artifact we hold for DataCite. For each we say what it is and why it earns a place in the profile, then list every one we've indexed — capped at two rows, scroll within the panel for the rest.
APIs 16
Each API is captured as its own OpenAPI definition — every operation, parameter, and response. This is the single most useful machine-readable description of what an API does, and it's what lets us score, lint, mock, and generate against it without asking the provider for anything.
Individual APIs this provider publishes, each with its own machine-readable definition.
DataCite GraphQL API
An alternative query interface for DOI metadata retrieval using the GraphQL query language. Currently supports queries only (no mutations or subscriptions). Publicly accessible ...
DataCite Event Data API
Tracks mentions, citations, and scholarly events related to registered DOIs. Enables discovery of how research outputs are referenced and linked across the scholarly web.
DataCite activities API
Activities
DataCite client-prefixes API
Client Prefixes
DataCite clients API
Clients
DataCite events API
Events
DataCite heartbeat API
Heartbeat
DataCite prefixes API
Prefixes
DataCite provider-prefixes API
Provider Prefixes
DataCite providers API
Providers
DataCite publishers API
The publishers API from DataCite — 2 operation(s) for publishers.
DataCite report_types API
The report_types API from DataCite — 1 operation(s) for report_types.
DataCite reports API
Reports
DataCite repositories API
The repositories API from DataCite — 2 operation(s) for repositories.
DataCite status API
The status API from DataCite — 1 operation(s) for status.
Scroll within the panel for all 16 ·
GraphQL 1
Where a provider ships GraphQL, the schema is the contract. We profile it alongside the REST surface so the whole interface is legible in one place.
GraphQL schemas published by this provider.
DataCite GraphQL API
The DataCite GraphQL API provides a flexible query interface for retrieving DOI metadata and the broader research knowledge graph. It exposes the full DataCite metadata model th...
GRAPHQLPricing Plans 1
Pricing is part of the interface. Machine-readable plans tell you what a tier costs and includes before you commit — one of the six things the Kin Score reads for commercial clarity.
Published pricing tiers and plan structures.
Rate Limits 1
Rate limits are the difference between a demo that works and a production integration that doesn't fall over. Publishing them is an operational-transparency signal — and a hard requirement for any agent that plans its own throughput.
Documented rate limits and quota policies.
Datacite Rate Limits
RATE LIMITSFinOps 1
Cost, billing, and metering signals let a buyer model the financial operations of an API before it's live. We profile them for the same reason we profile pricing: the money is part of the contract.
Cost, billing, and metering signals for API financial operations.
Datacite Finops
FINOPSSemantic Vocabularies 1
JSON-LD contexts give the data shared meaning across APIs. We profile them because semantics are what let a machine reconcile 'customer' here with 'customer' somewhere else.
JSON-LD contexts and semantic vocabularies used across these APIs.
Datacite Context
JSON-LDSecurity Posture 2
Authentication, domain security, vulnerability disclosure, and trust-center signals — the evidence that a provider takes security seriously enough to document it. We profile it because you can't govern what you can't see.
Authentication, domain security, vulnerability disclosure, and trust-center signals.
Agentic Access 1
An x-agentic-access contract marks which operations are safe for an agent to run on its own and which need a human in the loop. It is the difference between an API an agent can use and one it can use safely.
Recommended x-agentic-access execution contracts for AI agents.
Resources
Every other property we hold for DataCite — documentation, portals, status pages, policies, and corporate surface — grouped by the job it does, following the integrator's arc from getting started to running in production.
Documentation 1
Reference material describing how the API behaves
Agent Surfaces 1
MCP servers, agent skills, and machine-readable catalogs
Design & Contract 1
Pagination, idempotency, versioning, errors, and events
Build 1
SDKs, sample code, and the tooling you integrate with
Access & Security 2
Authentication, authorization, and security posture
Operate 2
Status, limits, changes, and where to get help
Commercial 3
Pricing, plans, and the legal terms of use
Company 3
The organization behind the API
Other 3
Properties that don't map to a standard resource type
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