Multi-source API-based Data Collection

Multi-source API-based data collection is a systematic technique in which a researcher simultaneously or sequentially queries two or more application programming interfaces (APIs) to harvest digital data for a research project. By drawing from multiple platforms or services — such as social media APIs, government open-data portals, or scientific data repositories — researchers can build richer, more representative datasets than any single source permits. The method is especially prominent in computational social science, digital humanities, public health surveillance, and environmental monitoring.