New APIs extend Wiley's gold-standard spectral data and analytical intelligence directly into lab, vendor, and platform workflows

Wiley, a global leader in authoritative content and research intelligence, today announced the launch of its spectral analysis application programming interface (API) portfolio, providing users with a new, faster way to access its trusted spectral data, analytical algorithms, and predictive models–within their own workflows.

Wiley has one of the most comprehensive and trusted collections of scientific reference databases in the world, relied upon as a gold standard for identifying unknown chemical compounds by laboratories, instrument vendors, and software platforms across pharmaceuticals, forensics, environmental science, chemicals, food, materials, and other fields. The new portfolio extends the data and tools into modern, API-driven environments–allowing users to integrate high-quality spectral intelligence directly into their own systems and workflows.

As sample volumes grow and lab workflows become more automated and software-driven, identifying and verifying compounds quickly and reliably becomes even more critical. The new API portfolio meets that need directly, giving labs and platforms a faster way to complete the process, whether catching a quality issue on a production line or identifying an unknown compound in the field. The result is less manual effort, faster analysis, and more confidence in the answer.

The launch builds on Wiley's mission to transform knowledge into actionable intelligence for corporate and academic researchers around the world.

Speed matters when you're trying to identify an unknown substance; a delayed analysis can mean an assembly line sitting idle or a forensic lab holding up a case. We've spent decades building the reference data this industry trusts. Now, by making that spectral data and analytical intelligence available through APIs, we're setting the standard for how labs and vendors turn unknowns into answers faster and at scale."

Armughan Rafat, Senior Vice President and Chief AI and Data Services Officer, Wiley 

The API portfolio launches with four core capabilities:

• Spectral Database Search API – Query Wiley’s comprehensive reference collections for rapid compound identification.
• Spectrum-Structure Validation API – Confirm proposed chemical structures against experimental spectral data.
• Compound Classification API – Classify unknown substances, including drugs, based on compound class.
• Spectra Prediction API – Generate predicted spectra to support research, method development, and validation.

Unlike fragmented in-house databases or instrument-specific solutions, these APIs offer a continuously curated, vendor-neutral foundation that supports multi-technique workflows, regulatory compliance, and cross-platform interoperability. As a result, laboratories can increase throughput, minimize downtime, and protect the value of the instrumentation and data in which they've already invested.

Spectral databases and APIs

Spectral databases contain unique molecular “fingerprints” of substances captured through analytical techniques such as infrared (IR), mass spectrometry (MS), nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), and Raman spectroscopy. By comparing experimental spectra against validated reference data, researchers can accurately identify unknown compounds across a wide range of applications.

An API is a common way for computer systems, from lab instruments to software platforms, to request information from one another and get an answer back automatically.