The /edsapi/rest/citationstyles endpoint retrieves a record citation(s) by specifying an AN, database, and a list of formats. You will find the AN and DBID of a record in the header of the /edsapi/rest/search or /edsapi/rest/retrieve response message. The /edsapi/rest/search response message header below.

<Record>
    <ResultId>1</ResultId>
        <Header>
            <DbId>a9h</DbId>
            <DbLabel>Academic Search Complete</DbLabel>
            <An>129860888</An>
            <RelevancyScore>2340</RelevancyScore>
        </Header>
        .
        .
        .
</Record>

Endpoint URL for Retrieving Citations

GET /eds-api.ebscohost.com/edsapi/rest/citationstyles

Data Parameters

Parameter Name	Description	Required/Optional	Parameter Type	Format	Default	Example Values
x-authenticationToken	Token identifying the caller.	Required	Header	string	-	f4714669-ebfa-40d3-acac-bf6e0f22fbb9
x-sessionToken	Token identifying the session this call is in relation to.	Required	Header	string	-	4cc009f9-6acd-4a82-ab9f-0401392431a4.kL9OvDK8pTL7x5YDaaCyzg==
DBID	Database short name specifying which database to retrieve the record from	Required	Query	string		"lfh"
AN	Identifier of the record to obtain	Required	Query	string		a9h
styles	Comma separated list of citation styles to build. To request all available citations, use the value 'all'.	Required	Query	String		mla,chicago

/edsapi/rest/citationstyles supports application/xml or application/json.

Request

GET http://eds-api.ebscohost.com/edsapi/rest/CitationStyles?an=129860888&dbid=aph&styles=mla%2cchicago

Response

{
    "Citations":[
        {
            "Id":"mla",
            "Label":"MLA",
            "SectionLabel":"Works Cited",
            "Data":"Sanderson, Katharine. “H2Oh!: Water Is Not One Liquid... It’s Two, Says Katharine Sanderson.” <i>New Scientist<\/i>, vol. 238, no. 3180, June 2018, pp. 26–29.","Caption":"Modern Language Assoc.",
            "Indent":1
        },
        {
            "Id":"chicago",
            "Label":"Chicago\/Turabian: Author-Date",
            "SectionLabel":"Reference List",
            "Data":"Sanderson, Katharine. 2018. “H2Oh!: Water Is Not One Liquid... It’s Two, Says Katharine Sanderson.” <i>New Scientist<\/i> 238 (3180): 26–29.",
            "Indent":1
        }
    ]
}

<CitationStylesResponseMessage xmlns="http://epnet.com/webservices/EbscoApi/Contracts" xmlns:i="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
  <Citations>
    <Citation>
      <Id>mla</Id>
      <Label>MLA</Label>
      <SectionLabel>Works Cited</SectionLabel>
      <Data>Sanderson, Katharine. “H2Oh!: Water Is Not One Liquid... It’s Two, Says Katharine Sanderson.” <i>New Scientist</i>, vol. 238, no. 3180, June 2018, pp. 26–29.</Data>
      <Caption>Modern Language Assoc.</Caption>
      <Indent>1</Indent>
    </Citation>
    <Citation>
      <Id>chicago</Id>
      <Label>Chicago/Turabian: Author-Date</Label>
      <SectionLabel>Reference List</SectionLabel>
      <Data>Sanderson, Katharine. 2018. “H2Oh!: Water Is Not One Liquid... It’s Two, Says Katharine Sanderson.” <i>New Scientist</i> 238 (3180): 26–29.</Data>
      <Indent>1</Indent>
    </Citation>
  </Citations>
</CitationStylesResponseMessage>

The response can be XML or JSON. The response format is defined by the Accept value set in the HTTP header. If the Accept value is not present in the HTTP header, the Content-type value in the HTTP header is used. The AuthTimeout value in the response is in seconds.

Response Elements

Field	Description	Required
Id	The ID for the citation style.	Yes
Label	The name of the citation style/standard represented by the citation. This is the displayed citation style label.	Yes
Indent	Some citation standards use a "hanging indent". This causes the body to be indented by 1/2 inch from the second line onward. The value is "1" if the citation should use a hanging indent. If not present or is a different value, there should not be an indent.	No
SectionLabel	Standard specific section heading label.	Yes
Caption	An optional description of what the cite style is.	No
Data	The data of the citation that is formatted per the citation style.	Yes
Error	Message returned if there was an error returning the requested style. (ex. Style does not exist.)	No

The values below are placeholders that represent changes in style or other substitution.

Template Placeholders

Placeholder	Description
<i>/</i>	Start / end of an italicized piece of text.
<b>/</b>	Start / end of a bolded piece of text.

Sample JSON Reponse with Mapping to a Sample UI

Error Handling

Sample error responses for when the database does not support citations and invalid citations are below.

Database Does Not Support Citations

{
    "DetailedErrorDescription":"",
    "ErrorDescription":“Citation Styles are not available for this record.”,
    "ErrorNumber":"151"
}

<APIErrorMessage xmlns="http://epnet.com/webservices/EbscoApi" xmlns:i="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
  <DetailedErrorDescription />
  <ErrorDescription>Citation Styles are not available for this record.</ErrorDescription>
  <ErrorNumber>151</ErrorNumber>
</APIErrorMessage>

Invalid Citation

{
    "Citations":[
        {
            "Id":"someInvalidStyle",
            "Label":null,
            "SectionLabel":null,
            "Data":null,
            "Error":"Invalid citation style"
         }
    ]
}

Possible Citation Style Errors Returned

Error	Description
150	Error occurred when calling Citation Adapter Service
151	Citation Styles are not available for this record