ScienceBase is a research infrastructure developed and operated by the U.S. Geological Survey with users and uses across a number of other agency and organization partners. Over four years ago, we released an Application Programming Interface (API) as the foundation of the system and took on the mindset that our progress would be measured by the uptake of the API by others beyond ourselves in developing interesting applications. We now measure success more by someone finding ScienceBase, organizing their data and information, developing an innovative API-driven application and then serendipitous discovery through a science meeting. Because of the way we built the RESTful API, we can characterize what parts of the system are employed. Analysis of usage data helps us take the supposition out of what works and guides design and funding decisions. This analytics-based process facilitates regular adjustments to our thinking and allows us to test design decisions as hypotheses rather than untestable aspirations.

1. Measuring the impact of an API-
first mentality with ScienceBase
after 4.5 years
Sky Bristol1
Steve Tekell2
U.S. Department of the Interior
U.S. Geological Survey
1. USGS Core Science Analytics,
Synthesis and Libraries
2. USGS Fort Collins Science
Center

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Talking Points
• ScienceBase – brief history
• What does usage tell us about how the system
is doing?
– Live apps
– Usage logs
• Public search observations
• Lessons and Implications

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2006
2007
2009
2011-
2016
myUSGS Data
Explorer/Data
Uploader
Scientific Data
Catalog/Compr
ehensive
Science Catalog
ScienceBase 1.0
and then 2.0
API-driven
design
Collaborative
tools and simple
file upload
Metadata
Cataloging &
Research Item
Concept
Digital Repository
& Research Item
Faceting
API use exceeds
portal traffic with
70+ API-driven
apps
“In the research process, we need more than just a big catalog of data. We need all
of the other important information connected to our work – published papers,
manuscripts, software, and information about people, labs, projects, and others in
our field.”
Inspiration and History

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API First

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Access to
ScienceBase via
code libraries is
beginning to
outpace access via
the web portal and
other clients

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API access includes
HTTP REST access to
the ScienceBase
Catalog along with
OGC catalog
requests and OGC
data services (WMS,
WFS, WCS, KML) for
hosted data assets

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Search engine
optimization with
schema.org
metadata resulting
in sometimes better
results than our own
search, easy custom
search apps, and
discovery “in the
wild”

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Full title search 
top of the search list
most times
Adding
“sciencebase” will
get there every time

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Simple searches
without trigger
words is still pretty
good
Note here the more
appropriate search
result coming from
the ScienceBase-
driven web app

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Lessons & Implications
• When a data system becomes successful and used, it
becomes really difficult to pay down technical debt and
invest in new capabilities.
• While it is possible to detect a tremendous number of
signals from RESTful request logs, it takes significant
engineering work to bake in useful reporting and analysis
tools.
• Still work to do on semantics, linked data, and knowledge
graph influence.
• API keys are hard to implement once the cat is out of the
bag.
• It’s hard to convince managers that “stealth apps” are the
greatest indicator of success.

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Contacts
www.sciencebase.gov
sciencebase@usgs.gov
www.google.com
Myriad other apps that may or may not indicate
they are powered by ScienceBase 