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LexisNexis Web Services API: About

This guide is designed to help users learn if the Nexis Web Services API is the right tool for their project; learn how to gain access; and tips on how to get started.

Getting started

The LexisNexis Web Services API (WSAPI) is a subscription service that enables researchers to download and build text corpuses from the Nexis Uni subscribed collection for further analysis. The WSAPI is provided by the UC Berkeley Library. 

 

Tool limitations:

  • Searches will be scheduled to run over the weekend to minimize service disruption.

  • May not initiate more than 749 searches per hour nor retrieve more than 3000 documents at a time. 

  • UC Berkeley has 3 IDs that will be checked out for a period of two weeks with an annual download cap of:

    • 6,000,000 annual news documents

    • 1,200,000 annual company/financial documents

    • 600,000 annual dockets

 

Skills required to use the API:

Please contact consultants at the D-Lab if you would like assistance with any of the below requirements.

  • Knowledge of R or Python, JSON, and XML

  • Familiarity with API calls

 

Available content: 

  • Materials licensed by LexisNexis that the Library subscribes to, including newspapers, transcripts of video/audio news, company & financial information, and legal dockets. See a partial list. Note that these publications are NOT available: The New York Times (NDL does include NYT International), The New York Times Blogs, Wall Street Journal Abstracts, Information Base Abstracts, and Jane’s Defence Weekly. 

 

Access: 

Access to this resource is mediated by the Library Data Services Program. For tools that require less technical expertise, please see Proquest’s TDM Studio (content list) or Gale Digital Scholar Lab (content list). 

Because of the annual limits imposed at the institution level a user will need to confirm publication coverage and results through Nexis Uni prior to receiving an API ID. Please preview results and the scope of what your results might look like using keywords and limiters. Save your search string to and make note of how you refined your search. Your search will be evaluated for quality and if needed, you will be referred to your subject librarian to further improve your search prior to receiving an ID.

 

Please be prepare for answer the following questions in the request form: 

  1. Name

  2. Department, program, or unit

  3. Affiliation (undergraduate, graduate, post-doc, faculty, etc.)

  4. What level of expertise do you have using python or R to analyze data or text?

    1. Novice

    2. Beginner

    3. Intermediate

    4. Proficient

    5. expert

  5. Type of project (select all that apply)

    1. Book publication

    2. Article publication

    3. Dissertation

    4. Thesis

    5. Class project

    6. Other: __________

  6. Desired start date (mm/dd/yyyy)

  7. Please describe the source type, source names, and publication years you plan to mine (e.g. 2016-2020: Atlantic Online, Associated Press Online, Business Insider, etc.)

  8. Approximately how many texts (articles, reports, etc.) do you plan to extract with the API? 

  9. Please list your structured search and the facets used to refine your results. 

 

 

Sign up for an account via ​​https://ucblib.link/wsapi  (limited seats available)

If you have questions, please contact the Library Data Services Program at: librarydataservices@berkeley.edu