# Life of Research

> A free, open-access repository for research papers, preprints, datasets, theses,
> posters, presentations and research software. Anyone may deposit; everything is
> free to read, with no fees, paywall or institutional login. Currently 111 public records.

All record metadata is public and available as JSON without authentication, for any use.

## Core

- [Browse all records](https://lifeofresearch.com/browse): every public record, newest first
- [Archive by date](https://lifeofresearch.com/archive): complete listing organised by year and month
- [FAQ](https://lifeofresearch.com/faq): what it costs, who may deposit, licensing and citation
- [About](https://lifeofresearch.com/about): what the repository is and who it serves
- [Policies](https://lifeofresearch.com/policies): content, licensing, takedown and privacy policies

## Machine interfaces

- [JSON API](https://lifeofresearch.com/api/records): paginated metadata, supports ?q= search
- [OAI-PMH](https://lifeofresearch.com/oai2?verb=Identify): standard academic harvesting endpoint
- [Atom feed](https://lifeofresearch.com/feed.xml): the 50 most recent records
- [Sitemap](https://lifeofresearch.com/sitemap.xml): every indexable URL

## Citations and reference managers

- [Citation export](https://lifeofresearch.com/export): up to 500 records per request as RIS, BibTeX, CSL-JSON, EndNote or a plain-text bibliography; accepts the /browse filters q, type, year, sort and month=YYYY-MM, e.g. /export?format=csljson&q=graph
- [unAPI server](https://lifeofresearch.com/unapi): formats ris, bibtex, csljson, endnote; ids are oai:lifeofresearch.com:{record id}
- [Per-record citation files](https://lifeofresearch.com/browse): every record URL accepts /cite.bib, /cite.ris, /cite.json (CSL-JSON), /cite.enw and /cite.txt?style=apa|mla|chicago|harvard|ieee|vancouver

## Search and subjects

- [Search](https://lifeofresearch.com/search?q={query}): full-text search; supports "exact phrase", -exclude, OR, author:"Name", title:word, source:"Journal", year:2020-2024, since:2020, type:dataset, doi:10.x/y
- [Search API](https://lifeofresearch.com/api/search?q={query}): the same search as JSON: ranked results, plain-text snippets, facets; CORS enabled, no key needed
- [Autocomplete API](https://lifeofresearch.com/api/suggest?q={prefix}): query completions, subjects, authors and titles
- [Subjects A–Z](https://lifeofresearch.com/subjects): every research subject with its records

## Citations

- [Most cited records](https://lifeofresearch.com/most-cited): records ranked by citations counted in OpenAlex
- [Citation data for one record](https://lifeofresearch.com/api/records/{id}/citations): JSON: citation count, citations per year, citing works, internal citations and the reference list
- [Citation counts in bulk](https://lifeofresearch.com/api/scholar/citations?ids=1,2,3): JSON map of record id to citation count

## Guides for researchers

- [How to deposit your research on Life of Research, step by step](https://lifeofresearch.com/guides/deposit-step-by-step): Every field of the deposit form explained, from abstract to file order, and what happens after you press Publish.
- [Choosing an open license for your paper, data or code](https://lifeofresearch.com/guides/choosing-an-open-license): CC BY for papers, CC0 for data, a software license for code: what each allows and when to choose something else.
- [What is a DOI, and do you need one?](https://lifeofresearch.com/guides/what-is-a-doi): How DOIs work, who issues them, when a permanent URL is enough, and how to get a DOI without paying.
- [ORCID explained: what an ORCID iD is and why researchers need one](https://lifeofresearch.com/guides/orcid): A free identifier that keeps your work attached to you, whatever your name or employer. How to get one and use it.
- [How to get your research indexed in Google Scholar](https://lifeofresearch.com/guides/google-scholar-indexing): The technical rules Google Scholar applies, the usual reasons a paper never appears, and a checklist before you deposit.
- [How to cite a dataset, software and a preprint, with worked examples](https://lifeofresearch.com/guides/cite-datasets-software-preprints): Copyable APA and BibTeX patterns for data, code and preprints, with the version and identifier details people forget.
- [Open access explained: green, gold and diamond](https://lifeofresearch.com/guides/open-access-explained): Green, gold, diamond, hybrid and bronze compared: who pays, which version is free, and what you may share.
- [Preprints vs journal articles: differences, benefits and risks](https://lifeofresearch.com/guides/preprints-vs-journal-articles): Speed versus certification: what a preprint is, what peer review adds, and how to use both for the same work.

## Reference

- [Glossary](https://lifeofresearch.com/glossary): 44 research-publishing terms (DOI, ORCID, green and gold open access, preprints, licenses), one anchor per term
- [Repository statistics](https://lifeofresearch.com/stats): live counts of records by type and year, deposits per month, downloads, views, DOI coverage and top subjects
- [Statistics as JSON](https://lifeofresearch.com/stats.json): the same figures, machine-readable

## For developers and AI agents

- [Developer documentation](https://lifeofresearch.com/developers): JSON API, OAI-PMH, MCP server, feeds and rate limits, with curl and Python examples
- [MCP server](https://lifeofresearch.com/mcp): Model Context Protocol endpoint (Streamable HTTP, protocol 2026-07-28 and earlier); read-only tools search_records, get_record, get_citation, list_recent, list_subjects
- [OpenAPI description](https://lifeofresearch.com/api/openapi.json): OpenAPI 3.1 document for the public HTTP endpoints