---
name: eric-api-ingestion
description: "How to get ERIC API (Institute of Education Sciences) data into a pandas DataFrame and Parquet: access, the request, the format, limits, quirks and terms."
---

# Search the ERIC API for education literature records

Source entry: https://signal-lab.qdt.ai/datasets/eric-api
Provider: https://eric.ed.gov/?api
Checked against the provider's documentation: 2026-11-06

## Access
- No key for the public api.ies.ed.gov/eric search endpoint.

## Request
```bash
curl 'https://api.ies.ed.gov/eric/?search=maritime&rows=1&format=json'
```

## Format
JSON with a response object carrying numFound and a docs array of ERIC records (numFound 387 for a 2026-11-05 query of "maritime").

## Load into pandas and Parquet
Needs Python 3 with requests, pandas and pyarrow.
```python
"""ERIC API search -> pandas -> Parquet. No key needed."""
import requests
import pandas as pd

URL = "https://api.ies.ed.gov/eric/"
params = {"search": "maritime", "rows": 100, "format": "json"}
r = requests.get(URL, params=params, timeout=60)
r.raise_for_status()
data = r.json()
docs = data.get("response", {}).get("docs", [])
df = pd.json_normalize(docs)
df.to_parquet("eric_maritime.parquet", index=False)
print(data.get("response", {}).get("numFound"), "total matches; saved", len(df), "records")
```
Run by us on 2026-11-05 (python 3 | pandas | pyarrow | requests). Result: ERIC API search for "maritime" returned HTTP 200 without a key on 2026-11-06: numFound 387 (JSON response.numFound).

## Limits
- Not stated numeric rate limit on the checked pages.

## Quirks
- Full texts, where linked, stay under their own authors'/publishers' copyright unless the work is a U.S. government public-domain document.

## Terms and attribution
- ERIC copyright policy: "The authors or publishers retain copyright to these works, which are used by ERIC with permission."
- "ERIC does not retain copyright to the works indexed in the database and cannot grant permission to use indexed works under copyright protection."
- "Certain works, including documents, reports, and other materials authored by the U.S. government, reside in the public domain and may be freely distributed and copied."
- Terms page: https://eric.ed.gov/?copyright

## Sources
- https://api.ies.ed.gov/eric/?search=maritime&rows=1&format=json: ""numFound": 387"
- https://eric.ed.gov/?copyright: "The authors or publishers retain copyright to these works, which are used by ERIC with permission."
- https://eric.ed.gov/?copyright: "ERIC does not retain copyright to the works indexed in the database and cannot grant permission to use indexed works under copyright protection."

## Help improve this skill
Missing a source, or see something to improve? Call the MCP tool suggest_source or feedback (or POST /api/suggest or /api/feedback). Reviewed ideas: https://signal-lab.qdt.ai/agent-suggestions

Information for educational purposes only. Free tiers, limits and licenses belong to the providers and may change; check the provider's own terms before using the data.