Definition
An Application Program Interface (API) is a piece of code that allows programmers to communicate and pull data from databases. APIs are commonly used to pull data from websites including social media sites.
Further Resources
Batrinca B, Treleaven PC. (2015). Social media analytics: a survey of techniques, tools and platforms. AI & SOCIETY, 30(1), 89–116. doi.org/10.1007/s00146-014-0549-4
Edmond J, Garnett V. (2015). APIs and Researchers: The Emperor’s New Clothes? International Journal of Digital Curation, 10(1). doi.org/10.2218/ijdc.v10i1.369
Grant C. (2016). Supporting a Passion for New Ideas through Open APIs. Information Services & Use, 36(1–2), 65–72. doi.org/10.3233/ISU-160798
Paten B, Diekhans M, Druker BJ, Friend S, Guinney J, Gassner N, … Haussler D. (2015). The NIH BD2K center for big data in translational genomics (link is external). Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association, ocv047. https://doi.org/10.1093/jamia/ocv047.