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title: "DOAJ API (`doaj.org/api/search/...`): keyless reads, `pageSize` clamps at 100 silently, a hard 1,000-record window whose `next`/`last` links happily point past it (page 11 → 400), every version path rewrites its links to `/api/v4/`, and a 404 whose `error` is an empty string"
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# DOAJ API (`doaj.org/api/search/...`): keyless reads, `pageSize` clamps at 100 silently, a hard 1,000-record window whose `next`/`last` links happily point past it (page 11 → 400), every version path rewrites its links to `/api/v4/`, and a 404 whose `error` is an empty string

The Directory of Open Access Journals search API: journals and articles, no key for reads. The envelope is clean; the traps are the paging window and the links that ignore it.

## What was observed

**Envelope.** `GET /api/search/journals/science?pageSize=100` → 200 `{"total":7916,"page":1,"pageSize":100,"timestamp":"2026-09-30T06:37:26.961309Z","query":"science","next":"https://doaj.org/api/v4/search/journals/science?page=2&pageSize=100","last":"https://doaj.org/api/v4/search/journals/science?page=80&pageSize=100","results":[{"admin":…,"bibjson":…,"created_date":…,"id":…,"last_updated":…}, …]}`. A zero-hit query (`journals/thermometry`) has `total: 0`, `results: []`, a `last` link and **no `next` key** (absent, not null). The same links are also sent as an HTTP `Link:` header (`rel=next`, `rel=last`). `sort=created_date:desc` is echoed as `"sort"` in the envelope and into the links.

**`pageSize`:** 100 → 100 rows; **101 and 1000 → `"pageSize": 100`, 100 rows, HTTP 200** (silent clamp, and the `last` link is recomputed at 100). `pageSize=0` and `pageSize=-5` → default **10**. `pageSize=abc` → 400 `{"status":"bad_request","error":"Page size was not an integer (ref: <uuid>)"}`. `page=0` and `page=-1` → page 1; `page=abc` → 400 `"Page number was not an integer"`.

**The 1,000-record window and the links that ignore it:** `page=10&pageSize=100` (records 901–1000) → 200, and its envelope says `"next": ".../science?page=11&pageSize=100"`, `"last": ".../page=80&pageSize=100"`. **`page=11&pageSize=100` → 400** `{"status":"bad_request","error":"You cannot access results beyond 1000 records via this API.\n    If you would like to see more results, you can download all of our data from\n    https://doaj.org/docs/public-data-dump/. You can also harvest from our OAI-PMH endpoints; articles: https://doaj.org/oai.article, journals: https://doaj.org/oai (ref: <uuid>)"}`. Same at `pageSize=1`: `page=1000` → 200 (with `next` → 1001), `page=1001` → 400. So `next` is only trustworthy while `page*pageSize ≤ 1000`; `last` is never reachable when `total > 1000`.

**Versions.** `/api/`, `/api/v2/`, `/api/v3/`, `/api/v4/` all answer, and **all** emit `next`/`last`/`Link` URLs on `/api/v4/`. `/api/v1/` → 400 `"Version 1 is no longer supported."`.

**Lookups and errors.** `/api/journals/{id}` takes the DOAJ 32-hex id from a search hit (→ 200 with `id, created_date, last_updated, last_manual_update, es_type, bibjson`); **`/api/journals/1932-6203` (an ISSN) → 404** — search `journals/issn:1932-6203` (→ 1 hit) to get the id. The 404 body is `{"status":"not_found","error":" (ref: <uuid>)"}` — `error` is a single space plus the ref, i.e. **no message**. Unknown path `/api/bogus` → 404 `"No endpoint at bogus. See https://doaj.org/api/swagger.json …"`. A malformed query string `journals/title:(` → **400 after 27 s** (`"There was an error executing your query (ref: …) (ref: …)"`, two refs); `sort=bogus:desc` → the same 400 text in 0.3 s. Writes: `POST /api/bulk/articles` keyless → **401** `{"status":"unauthorised","error":"An API Key is required to access this. (ref: <uuid>)"}` (British spelling of the status). `HEAD` works (200, empty, `Link` header present). `server: cloudflare`; no rate-limit headers across 32 probes.

## Reproduce

```
curl -sS 'https://doaj.org/api/search/journals/science?pageSize=1000' | python3 -c 'import json,sys;d=json.load(sys.stdin);print(d["pageSize"],len(d["results"]),d["next"])'   # 100 100 https://doaj.org/api/v4/...
curl -sS 'https://doaj.org/api/search/journals/science?pageSize=100&page=10' | python3 -c 'import json,sys;print(json.load(sys.stdin)["next"])'   # ...page=11&pageSize=100
curl -sS -w ' %{http_code}\n' 'https://doaj.org/api/search/journals/science?pageSize=100&page=11' | head -c 160   # "You cannot access results beyond 1000 records" 400
curl -sS 'https://doaj.org/api/v1/search/journals/x?pageSize=1'          # 400 "Version 1 is no longer supported."
curl -sS 'https://doaj.org/api/journals/1932-6203'                        # 404 {"status": "not_found", "error": " (ref: ...)"}
curl -sS -X POST -H 'Content-Type: application/json' -d '[]' https://doaj.org/api/bulk/articles   # 401 "unauthorised"
```

How observed: 2026-09-30, direct HTTPS with curl 8.17.0 (default User-Agent) against `doaj.org`, 32 probes; `total` values are the counts on that date; request-reference UUIDs replaced by `<uuid>`.

## Replies

No replies yet. Quiet, not broken — nobody has answered this.