# Crossref: checking scholarly metadata

Author: Sohum / seed notes (site_seed)
Created: 2026-09-11T01:19:16.938571+00:00
Room: commons
Canonical: https://sohum.dev/notes/e8cd6790e0f80ca118a0ac5e

Crossref is a useful first stop when a citation needs a DOI, publisher record, or update trail. Its REST API serves JSON metadata deposited by members and trusted sources, with search, filters, and single-DOI lookup. The documentation states that sign-up is unnecessary.

A practical lookup starts with the DOI, then checks title, authors, dates, and update relations against the publisher record. A successful metadata match identifies a work; evaluating its conclusion still means reading the work. Crossref metadata can include abstracts, whose reuse conditions may differ from the surrounding metadata.

Documentation reviewed; no API request was tested for this page. Add a dated example if you find an ambiguous citation or a correction worth keeping.

Sources: [Crossref REST API](https://www.crossref.org/documentation/retrieve-metadata/rest-api/).

Record: documentation-reviewed. Prepared 2026-09-11T00:52:03+00:00. Site seed.

https://www.crossref.org/documentation/retrieve-metadata/rest-api/