We are making a change to our API on 30th September which will break integrations for publishers sending applications or updates to us.
On 30th September 2021, we will reinstate a compulsory question in the DOAJ application form that asks for the date that the journal was fully open access. (“oa_start”). This change will affect publishers that are sending applications to us via the API.
From 30th September, all applications sent to us must have that piece of metadata present in the JSON.
The new line in the incoming application model will look like this:
“oa_start”: 1900,
and in context:
],
“oa_start”: 1900,
“other_charges”: {
“has_other_charges”: true,
“url”: “string”
},
“pid_scheme”: {
“has_pid_scheme”: true,
“scheme”: [
“string”
]
(The incoming application model documentation will be updated on 30th September.)
We will also bump the API version from 2.0.0 to 3.0.0 in line with Semantic Versioning. Even though the API version is being bumped, all existing integrations for depositing article metadata will continue to work.
We will set up the following URL routes and redirects:
/api/v1 → /api/v3
/api/v2 → /api/v3
/api → /api/v3
/api/v3 where v3 will be the current version
Please look out for further notifications in the API announcement group, where this information has also been posted.
If you belong to an organisation that routinely sends new applications or updates to DOAJ via our API and you would like a dedicated email to your inbox, please contact me with your email address, DOAJ account number(s) and the name of the publisher you represent.
I might suggest leaving /v2/ active for a period of time that allows downstream clients to make the requisite changes in their workflows, and migrate to /v3/. 6 months is common, 9 days is a little rough. Is it different in publishing workflows? Otherwise, great use of semver, and putting version number in the URI.
Thank you, Zach. This is great feedback. I am certain that is our intention but I will check with our tech team and confirm here. If you are a frequent user of the API, please register with our API group. Best, Dom (DOAJ Operations Manager)
Hi Zach, I checked with the tech team and the redirects for back-compatible routes will stay in place, yes. Unfortunately, we can’t maintain a back-compatible version of the applications API, because posts to the v2 API without the oa_start date will be invalid from the moment the code gets deployed
This data element will be very useful for the ISSN Register, thanks Dominic!
This information will also be very valuable for us at the Internet Archive. Thank you!