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scopuspybliometrics

Cursor vs. Start parameter in Scopus API

I am working on a project that uses Scopus API to get document names or journal names under different scenarios. I am using ScopusSearch API (https://dev.elsevier.com/documentation/ScopusSearchAPI.wadl) and SerialTitle API (https://dev.elsevier.com/documentation/SerialTitleAPI.wadl) for the purpose.

However, the total number of documents I am able to retrieve using these API's is very few. I want to increase the number of documents being fetched. Now, I've been through the documentation of these API's a several times but I am confused with the use of start parameter and the cursor parameter. Take for example, ScopusSearch API, under its query params section:

start parameter use of start as query parameter cursor parameteruse of cursor

Can someone please help me understand the difference between these two? And more specifically when to use the start and when to use the cursor parameter?

Solution

  • If you use pybliometrics, as your tag suggests, then you don't need to care about this.

    The basic idea behind this pagination (that's what you're after) is:

    1. Run a query with unlimited number of results with cursor set to "*"
    2. Set start to 0 and get the first count results
    3. Set start to start+count+1 and get the next count results
    4. Repeat step 3 until all results are fetched