API stands for Application Programming Interface. Essentially, it’s a standardized method that enables online software/services to communicate with each other by way of exchanging data. APIs are used in many different ways such as adding new data on a website through another (e.g. automatically tweet a new blog post), retrieve data from publicly open data repositories, or update contents that resides in another website.
In research and academia, however, data retrieval is the most common usage of API. Generally, you will need some knowledge on programming (e.g. R or Python) to use API.
This research guide lists some of the well-known and often-used APIs in research and academia. Simply use the tabs on the left to browse the list.
If you have any feedback, questions, or know of other APIs that you think should be included in this list, email us at library@smu.edu.sg.
