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Librarians

Inbound OpenURL specifications

Use the following specifications to link directly to an article, book, chapter or journal page on Cambridge Core using an OpenURL link.
Base URL

All inbound openURLs need to start with the following base:


https://www.cambridge.org/core/openurl
Syntax

Building on the base URL you now need to add the relevant parameters. Below is an example link with three parameters. In this example the genre describes the type of resource you are trying to link to (e.g. article or book) and each parameter is a field (e.g. title, date). See details below.


https://www.cambridge.org/core/openurl?genre=<genre>&<parameter1>=<parameter1value>&<parameter2>=<parameter2value>&<parameter3>=<parameter3value>
Accepted Genres

Cambridge Core accepts the following genres: article, book, bookitem, journal and series.


Accepted parameters for each genre

Note for all genres:

  • Parameters: Other parameters than those listed below (e.g. journal title, volume, issue, start page, ISSN) can be used in OpenURL links but the Cambridge Core link resolver will currently ignore them. This is because we have only recorded inbound OpenURLs accessing Cambridge Core using the parameters genre, title, author and date. If you would like to link to Cambridge Core using parameters other than those listed above, please get in touch: corefeedback@cambridge.org 
  • Authors: Use “aulast” and “aufirst” if you have this stored in two different fields, or “au” if passing it as a single string

Cambridge Core Inbound OpenURL link examples

Article level parameters:

genre: article
atitle: article title
au: first author name
aulast: first author’s last name
aufirst: first author’s first name
date: year of publication


https://www.cambridge.org/core/openurl?genre=article&atitle=Women%20and%20Legal%20Pluralism%20Lessons%20from%20Indigenous%20Governance%20Systems%20in%20the%20Andes&date=2017&aulast=sieder&aufirst=Rachel


Journal level parameters:

genre: journal
jtitle: journal title
title: journal title


https://www.cambridge.org/core/openurl?genre=journal&jtitle=The%20Canadian%20Entomologist


Book level parameters:

genre: book
btitle: book title
au: first author name
aulast: first author’s last name
aufirst: first author’s first name
date: year of publication


https://www.cambridge.org/core/openurl?genre=book&btitle=Mountain%20Gorillas&date=2001&aulast=Robbins


Chapter level parameters:

atitle: chapter title
au: author name
aulast: author last name
aufirst: author first name
date: publication date of book


https://www.cambridge.org/core/openurl?genre=bookitem&atitle=bankerization%20panic%20and%20the%20corporate%20personality%20in%20Dracula&date=2005&au=houston

Result

Whenever an exact match is found, the link will resolve directly to the article/book/chapter/journal page on Cambridge Core.


If no exact match is found, or when multiple matches are found, the link will resolve to a search results page. This page displays the details of the query, lists partial matches and allows user to edit the search parameters or run a new search locally.


If you have any feedback from using our OpenURLs please email us: cambridgecorefeedback@cambridge.org