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OAI-PMH service

  • api
  • developer
Last updated: 17-09-2026

About OAI-PMH

OAI-PMH stands for Open Archives Initiative - Protocol for Metadata Harvesting. It is a protocol for collecting and synchronising the metadata of a repository to display it in another platform.

Reference: openarchives.org/pmh/

Harvesting is not the only way SONAR content travels: records are also indexed by Google Scholar, without anything to configure.

Service access

Type of request URL
Start page sonar.ch/oai2d?
List of metadata formats sonar.ch/oai2d?verb=ListMetadataFormats
List of sets sonar.ch/oai2d?verb=ListSets
List of records sonar.ch/oai2d?verb=ListRecords&metadataPrefix=oai_dc

Sets

A set is a subdivision of the repository that a harvester can request on its own, rather than taking everything. The list of sets is served by the interface itself.

Sets are configured by RERO+, each one defined by a search pattern: per organisation, so that a third party can harvest a single institution's output, but also per document type, per collection, or on any other criterion. Ask RERO+ to add the one you need.

Metadata format

The format oai_dc is implemented, according to the OpenAIRE Guidelines for Literature Repositories v3.

Specificity of this format: the field dc:identifier contains the record permalink and also, if applicable, the direct link to the file.

Example

<dc:identifier>https://sonar.ch/global/documents/304993</dc:identifier>
<dc:identifier>https://sonar.ch/documents/304993/files/B._Leutenegger.pdf</dc:identifier>

REST API endpoints