---
title: "Create collection"
method: POST
path: "/account/collections"
tags: ["collections"]
---

# Create collection

`POST /account/collections`

Create a new collection. Institutions with item-type based metadata enabled wrap metadata in a `fields` object; stock fields are `categories`, `funding_list`, `related_materials`, and `publisher`. `categories` input is a list of objects, each identified by either `id` (int) or `source_id` (string); mixed entries allowed (`[{"id": 69}, {"source_id": "3001"}]`). Unresolved `source_id` values are reported in the response `warnings` array. Bare integers are rejected. Unrecognised field names inside `fields` (e.g. a typo) are rejected with 422. `licence` is no longer accepted on collections (removed Apr 2026). Institutions without item-type based metadata can use the legacy flat-payload form.

## Request body

- CollectionCreate
  - `funding` string — Grant number or funding authority
  - `funding_list` FundingCreate[] — Funding creation / update items
    - `id` integer — A funding ID as returned by the Funding Search endpoint. Use either id or title, not both.
    - `title` string — The title of the new user created funding. Use either title or id, not both.
  - `title` string — Title of the collection. Required. Legacy requests send it at the top level; requests for institutions with item-type based metadata enabled send it inside the `fields` object, where it is validated. Not listed in top-level `required` because those payloads carry it within `fields`.
  - `description` string — The collection description. In a publisher case, usually this is the remote collection description
  - `articles` integer[] — List of articles to be associated with the collection
  - `authors` object[] — List of authors to be associated with the collection. The list can contain the following fields: id, name, first_name, last_name, email, orcid_id. If an id is supplied, it will take priority and everything else will be ignored. For adding more authors use the specific authors endpoint.
  - `categories` integer[] — List of category ids to be associated with the collection(e.g [1, 23, 33, 66])
  - `categories_by_source_id` string[] — List of category source ids to be associated with the collection, supersedes the categories property
  - `tags` string[] — List of tags to be associated with the collection. Keywords can be used instead
  - `keywords` string[] — List of tags to be associated with the collection. Tags can be used instead
  - `references` string[] — List of links to be associated with the collection (e.g ["http://link1", "http://link2", "http://link3"])
  - `related_materials` RelatedMaterial[] — List of related materials; supersedes references and resource DOI/title.
    - `id` integer — The ID of the related material; can be used to add existing materials of the same account to items.
    - `identifier` string — The related material identifier (e.g., DOI, Handle, ISBN). Mandatory if creating a new material.
    - `title` string — The related material title
    - `relation` 'IsCitedBy' | 'Cites' | 'IsSupplementTo' | 'IsSupplementedBy' | 'IsContinuedBy' | 'Continues' | 'Describes' | 'IsDescribedBy' | 'HasMetadata' | 'IsMetadataFor' | 'HasVersion' | 'IsVersionOf' | 'IsNewVersionOf' | 'IsPreviousVersionOf' | 'IsPartOf' | 'HasPart' | 'IsPublishedIn' | 'IsReferencedBy' | 'References' | 'IsDocumentedBy' | 'Documents' | 'IsCompiledBy' | 'Compiles' | 'IsVariantFormOf' | 'IsOriginalFormOf' | 'IsIdenticalTo' | 'IsReviewedBy' | 'Reviews' | 'IsDerivedFrom' | 'IsSourceOf' | 'IsRequiredBy' | 'Requires' | 'IsObsoletedBy' | 'Obsoletes' — The relation between the item and the related material; defaults to 'References'. Mandatory if creating a new material.
    - `identifier_type` 'ARK' | 'arXiv' | 'bibcode' | 'DOI' | 'EAN13' | 'EISSN' | 'Handle' | 'IGSN' | 'ISBN' | 'ISSN' | 'ISTC' | 'LISSN' | 'LSID' | 'PMID' | 'PURL' | 'UPC' | 'URL' | 'URN' | 'w3id' — The type of the identifier of the related material; defaults to 'URL'. Mandatory if creating a new material.
    - `is_linkout` boolean — Flag for highlighting this related material in the call-out box
    - `link` string — The full hyperlink for the identifier. Automatically generated by Figshare.
  - `custom_fields` object — List of key, values pairs to be associated with the collection
  - `custom_fields_list` CustomArticleFieldAdd[] — List of custom fields values, supersedes custom_fields parameter
    - `name` string, required — Custom metadata name
    - `value` union, required — Custom metadata value (can be either a string, an array of strings, or empty)
      - string
      - string[]
      - object
  - `doi` string — Not applicable for regular users. In an institutional case, make sure your group supports setting DOIs. This setting is applied by figshare via opening a ticket through our support/helpdesk system.
  - `handle` string — Not applicable for regular users. In an institutional case, make sure your group supports setting Handles. This setting is applied by figshare via opening a ticket through our support/helpdesk system.
  - `resource_id` string — Not applicable to regular users. In a publisher case, this is the publisher article id
  - `resource_doi` string — Not applicable to regular users. In a publisher case, this is the publisher article DOI.
  - `resource_link` string — Not applicable to regular users. In a publisher case, this is the publisher article link
  - `resource_title` string — Not applicable to regular users. In a publisher case, this is the publisher article title.
  - `resource_version` integer — Not applicable to regular users. In a publisher case, this is the publisher article version
  - `group_id` integer — Not applicable to regular users. This field is reserved to institutions/publishers with access to assign to specific groups
  - `timeline` TimelineUpdate — Legacy timeline input (used by /v2/account/articles). Items with item-type based metadata do not use this object — pass dates as stock fields inside fields: {} instead.
    - `firstOnline` string — Online posted date
    - `publisherPublication` string — Publish date
    - `publisherAcceptance` string — Date when the item was accepted for publication
  - `fields` object — Institutions with item-type based metadata only: all metadata fields keyed by underlying field name (e.g. title, description, keywords, publisher, funding_list). When present, the fields object is the authoritative source for all metadata; top-level metadata keys are ignored. `categories` inside `fields` is a list of objects, each identified by either an `id` (integer) or a `source_id` (string); entries may be mixed. Unresolved `source_id` values are reported in the response `warnings` array.

## Response `201`

Created

- LocationWarnings
  - `entity_id` integer, required — Figshare ID of the entity
  - `location` string, url, required — Url for entity
  - `warnings` string[], required — Issues encountered during the operation

## Other responses

- `400` — Bad Request
- `403` — Forbidden
- `500` — Internal Server Error

---

[API](https://skmtc.net/figshare/apis/figshare-api.md) · [All operations](https://skmtc.net/figshare/apis/figshare-api/llms.txt) · [OpenAPI document](https://skmtc-service-staging.skmtc.workers.dev/v1/apis/figshare/figshare-api/versions/9dfb419f4430/schema)