# SWORD (protocol)

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Digital interoperability standard

SWORD Developed by JISC Latest release 3.0 Type of format Resource deposit Extended from ATOM Website swordapp.org

**SWORD** (**Simple Web-service Offering Repository Deposit**) is an [interoperability](/source/Interoperability) standard that allows [digital repositories](/source/Repository_(publishing)) to accept the deposit of content from multiple sources in different formats (such as [XML](/source/XML) documents) via a [standardized](/source/Technical_standard) [protocol](/source/Communications_protocol). In the same way that the [HTTP protocol](/source/Hypertext_Transfer_Protocol) allows any [web browser](/source/Web_browser) to talk to any [web server](/source/Web_server), so SWORD allows [clients](/source/Client_(computing)) to talk to repository [servers](/source/Server_(computing)). SWORD is a profile (specialism) of the [Atom Publishing Protocol](/source/Atom_Publishing_Protocol), but restricts itself solely to the scope of depositing resources into scholarly systems.

## History

The first version of the SWORD [protocol](/source/Communications_protocol) was created in 2007 by a consortium of UK [institutional repository](/source/Institutional_repository) experts. The project to develop SWORD was funded by the [JISC](/source/Joint_Information_Systems_Committee) and managed by [UKOLN](/source/UKOLN).[1] An overview of the initial development of SWORD is given in "SWORD: Simple Web-service Offering Repository Deposit."[2] The standard grew out of a need for an [interoperable](/source/Interoperability) method by which resources could be deposited into repositories. Interoperable standards existed to allow the harvesting of content (e.g. [Open Archives Initiative Protocol for Metadata Harvesting](/source/Open_Archives_Initiative_Protocol_for_Metadata_Harvesting)) or for searching (e.g. [OpenSearch](/source/OpenSearch_(specification))) but not for deposit.

Between the original release in 2007, two subsequent projects were undertaken until 2009 to further refine the version 1.0 specification and perform advocacy work. The resulting release was numbered 1.3.[3] Further descriptions of the work is available in Lewis et al., "If SWORD is the answer, what is the question? Use of the Simple Web service Offering Repository Deposit protocol."[4]

In 2011 a new project began to extend the "fire and forget" approach of the SWORD 1.x specification into a full [CRUD](/source/CRUD) (Create, Retrieve, Update, Delete) interface, and the result was a new version (designated 2.0).[5] This was followed by extensive development work on client environments in several programming languages, and incorporation into the development of several [Jisc](/source/Joint_Information_Systems_Committee)-funded efforts.[6][7]

## Use cases

Many different use cases exist[8] where it may be desirable to remotely deposit resources into scholarly systems. These include:

- Deposit to multiple repositories at once.

- Deposit from a desktop client (rather from within the repository system itself)

- Deposit by third party systems (for example by [automated laboratory equipment](/source/Laboratory_automation))

- Repository to repository deposit

## Implementations

Three categories of implementation exist: repository implementations for existing repository [servers](/source/Server_(computing)), [client](/source/Client_(computing)) implementations that can be used to perform SWORD deposits, and code libraries to assist in the creation of new SWORD clients or servers.

### SWORD-compliant repositories

The following digital repositories are SWORD compliant:

- [arXiv](/source/ArXiv)[9]

- [Dataverse](/source/Dataverse)[10]

- [DSpace](/source/DSpace)

- [EPrints](/source/EPrints)

- [Fedora](/source/Fedora_Commons)

- [HAL](/source/HAL_(open_archive))[11]

- [Hyku](/source/Samvera)

- Intralibrary *(project deprecated)*[12]

- [Microsoft](/source/Microsoft) Zentity *(project deprecated)*[13]

- [MyCoRe](/source/MyCoRe)[14]

### SWORD clients

- EasyDeposit[15]

- [Open Journal Systems](/source/Open_Journal_Systems)[16]

- Pressbooks client[17]

### SWORD code libraries

- [PHP](/source/PHP) SWORD client library[18][19]

- [Ruby](/source/Ruby_(programming_language)) SWORD client library [20]

- [Java](/source/Java_(programming_language)) SWORD client and server library[21]

- [Python](/source/Python_(programming_language)) client library[22]

- [Python](/source/Python_(programming_language)) server library and SWORD 2.0 reference implementation[23]

### Other resources

The SWORD Course[24]

## References

1. **[^](#cite_ref-1)** ["SWORD Project - DigiRepWiki"](http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/repositories/digirep/index/SWORD_Project). *www.ukoln.ac.uk*.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-2)** Julie Allinson; Sebastien François; Stuart Lewis (2008-01-30), [*SWORD: Simple Web-service Offering Repository Deposit*](http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue54/allinson-et-al/), Ariadne, retrieved 2011-01-08

1. **[^](#cite_ref-3)** ["SWORD APP Profile version 1.3"](https://web.archive.org/web/20090531061543/http://www.swordapp.org/docs/sword-profile-1.3.html). *swordapp.org*. Archived from [the original](http://swordapp.org/docs/sword-profile-1.3.html) on 2009-05-31.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-4)** Stuart Lewis; Leonie Hayes; Vanessa Newton-Wade; Antony Corfield; Richard Davis; Tim Donohue; Scott Wilson (2009), ["If SWORD is the answer, what is the question? Use of the Simple Web service Offering Repository Deposit protocol"](https://www.research.ed.ac.uk/portal/en/publications/if-sword-is-the-answer-what-is-the-question(699b760f-9d1a-428f-88ba-6394c9db0ed6).html), *Program: Electronic Library and Information Systems*, **43** (4), 'Program' Emerald: 407–418, [doi](/source/Doi_(identifier)):[10.1108/00330330910998057](https://doi.org/10.1108%2F00330330910998057), [hdl](/source/Hdl_(identifier)):[2292/5315](https://hdl.handle.net/2292%2F5315)

1. **[^](#cite_ref-5)** ["SWORD 2.0 Profile"](https://web.archive.org/web/20120901103523/http://swordapp.github.com/SWORDv2-Profile/SWORDProfile.html). *swordapp.github.com*. Archived from [the original](https://swordapp.github.com/SWORDv2-Profile/SWORDProfile.html) on 2012-09-01.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-6)** ["Extending DMPOnline with SWORDv2 – SWORD"](http://swordapp.org/2012/08/extending-dmponline-with-swordv2/).

1. **[^](#cite_ref-7)** ["DataFlow project"](https://web.archive.org/web/20111212055359/http://www.dataflow.ox.ac.uk/). *www.dataflow.ox.ac.uk*. Archived from [the original](http://www.dataflow.ox.ac.uk/) on 2011-12-12.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-8)** Stuart Lewis; Pablo de Castro; Richard jones (2012), "SWORD: Facilitating Deposit Scenarios", *D-Lib Magazine*, **18**, [doi](/source/Doi_(identifier)):[10.1045/january2012-lewis](https://doi.org/10.1045%2Fjanuary2012-lewis)

1. **[^](#cite_ref-9)** [https://arxiv.org/help/submit_sword](https://arxiv.org/help/submit_sword)

1. **[^](#cite_ref-10)** ["SWORD API — Dataverse.org"](https://guides.dataverse.org/en/latest/api/sword.html). *guides.dataverse.org*.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-11)** ["Import SWORD | API Archive Ouverte HAL"](https://api.archives-ouvertes.fr/docs/sword). *api.archives-ouvertes.fr*. Retrieved 2022-02-15.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-12)** ["Products / Home - Intrallect"](https://web.archive.org/web/20070820194231/http://www.intrallect.com/index.php/intrallect/products). 20 August 2007. Archived from [the original](http://www.intrallect.com/index.php/intrallect/products) on 20 August 2007. Retrieved 17 July 2020.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-13)** ["Research-Output Repository Platform - Microsoft Research"](https://web.archive.org/web/20090523170341/http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/projects/zentity/). 23 May 2009. Archived from [the original](http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/projects/zentity/) on 23 May 2009. Retrieved 17 July 2020.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-14)** [https://www.mycore.de/site/features/interfaces/](https://www.mycore.de/site/features/interfaces/)

1. **[^](#cite_ref-15)** ["EasyDeposit"](https://web.archive.org/web/20110114011950/http://easydeposit.swordapp.org/). Archived from [the original](http://easydeposit.swordapp.org/) on 2011-01-14. Retrieved 2011-01-23.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-16)** ["SWORD plugin now available for OJS | Public Knowledge Project"](https://web.archive.org/web/20110721084756/http://pkp.sfu.ca/node/1777). Archived from [the original](http://pkp.sfu.ca/node/1777) on 2011-07-21. Retrieved 2011-01-23.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-17)** ["Excalibur"](https://github.com/pressbooks/excalibur). *[GitHub](/source/GitHub)*. 7 August 2021.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-18)** ["Index of /"](https://web.archive.org/web/20090601121354/http://php.swordapp.org/). *php.swordapp.org*. Archived from [the original](http://php.swordapp.org) on 2009-06-01.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-19)** ["Swordapp/Swordappv2-PHP-library"](https://github.com/swordapp/swordappv2-php-library/). *[GitHub](/source/GitHub)*. 19 October 2021.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-20)** ["Sword2Ruby gem"](https://github.com/swordapp/sword2ruby). *[GitHub](/source/GitHub)*. 4 May 2017.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-21)** ["SWORD - Browse /SWORD Java Library at SourceForge.net"](https://sourceforge.net/projects/sword-app/files/SWORD%20Java%20Library/).

1. **[^](#cite_ref-22)** ["Swordapp/Python-client-sword2"](https://github.com/swordapp/python-client-sword2). *[GitHub](/source/GitHub)*. 25 February 2021.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-23)** ["SSS - Simple SWORD Server"](https://github.com/swordapp/Simple-Sword-Server). *[GitHub](/source/GitHub)*. 17 July 2020.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-24)** ["The SWORD Course » SWORD"](https://web.archive.org/web/20101017102655/http://swordapp.org/the-sword-course/). *swordapp.org*. Archived from [the original](http://swordapp.org/the-sword-course/) on 2010-10-17.

## External links

- [swordapp.org](http://swordapp.org/)

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Adapted from the Wikipedia article [SWORD (protocol)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SWORD_(protocol)) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SWORD_(protocol)?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.