Dimensions Analytics API : Catalogue

The Dimensions Analytics API gives you programmatic access to the full Dimensions dataset — publications, grants, patents, clinical trials, policy documents, datasets, researchers, and organizations — using the Dimensions Search Language (DSL), a query language purpose-built for this data. A single query can search, filter, aggregate, and sort across highly specific criteria, making it possible to run complex analyses and one-off investigations that would be impractical through the standard Dimensions interface.

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Key Features

Dimensions Search Language (DSL): An intuitive, purpose-built query language supporting full-text search, field-level filtering, faceting, and aggregations across all data sources in a single request.
Comprehensive Data Coverage: Query publications, grants, patents, clinical trials, policy documents, datasets, source titles, researchers, and organizations.
Expert Identification: Identify researchers with expertise in a given topic by combining concept extraction with author-level analysis.
Built-in Text Functions: Classify and interpret text at scale with functions like classify, extract_concepts, extract_affiliations, and extract_grants.
Flexible Access Options: Query directly via HTTP (curl, PowerShell, Postman), use the open-source dimcli Python client, or connect via community R libraries.
Dimensions Analytics MCP: Connect AI assistants to the API via natural language, without writing DSL queries by hand.
Spreadsheet Add-ins: Pull Dimensions data straight into Google Sheets or Excel.

Use Cases

Competitive Intelligence: Track competitor research output, funding, and performance metrics.
Emerging Research & Trend Tracking: Spot rising publication volumes, funding shifts, and new research directions early.
Innovation Landscape Mapping: Visualize how research outputs connect to and drive innovation in a field.
Partnership & Collaboration Mapping: Identify institutional connections and collaboration networks.
Key Opinion Leader (KOL) Identification: Pinpoint influential researchers for outreach or strategic alliances.
Recruitment & Talent Sourcing: Find and connect with leading researchers in a given area.
Performance Benchmarking: Compare organizational output against peers and industry standards.
Funding & Citation Analysis: Trace how funding flows relate to citation impact.

Setup

ℹ️

This API is hosted outside the Developer Portal. Please follow the steps below to get access.

Get your API key — Once your organization has a Dimensions subscription, generate a key from the My Account section of your Dimensions instance.
Start querying — See the API Access docs for authentication and query examples in Python, curl, PowerShell, and Postman.

Limitations

The Dimensions Analytics API is built on the Dimensions Search Language, which defines the scope of available data and query structures. Access requires an institutional subscription (free access is available for eligible scientometric research projects). Requests are rate-limited to 30 per IP address per minute. The API is intended for interactive analytical work — not for bulk data extraction or to power dashboards or other derivative products — per the Reasonable Use policy.