---
id: pystac-ext-scientific
version: "1.0.1"
license: Apache-2.0
license_treatment: permissive
maintenance: active
---

# pystac-ext-scientific — Scientific extension for PySTAC

License: permissive · Maintenance: active · Downloads: 4.0M/mo

## What it is and what it does

pystac-ext-scientific is a PySTAC extension that adds support for the Scientific Citation Extension specification (v1.0.0). It allows you to attach scientific publication metadata—including DOIs, citations, and bibliographic information—directly to STAC items and collections, enabling better discoverability and linking of geospatial data to the scientific literature that produced or describes it.

The package is a thin wrapper around the PySTAC core library, requiring only pystac-core as a runtime dependency. It targets Python 3.10 and later, is actively maintained, and carries no known security vulnerabilities. The versioning scheme ties package versions to the extension specification version, with post-releases used for code updates that don't change the target spec.

Use it for:

- Link satellite imagery or raster datasets to the peer-reviewed papers that describe their methodology or validation.
- Attach DOI references to STAC collections so downstream users can cite the original scientific work.
- Build searchable catalogs of geospatial data where each item includes its source publication metadata.
- Integrate scientific citation metadata into existing PySTAC workflows without rewriting catalog structure.
- Enable STAC clients to automatically extract and display bibliographic information for data provenance.

## Worth the install?

AI-flagged interpretation of the facts above — verify before relying.

Extends PySTAC to add scientific publication metadata fields—DOIs, citations, and bibliographic references—to STAC items and collections.

Yes. The package is actively maintained, has no security issues, installs with low friction, and fills a clear gap for projects that need to link STAC data to scientific publications. Use it if you're building or extending STAC catalogs that require publication metadata; skip it if your catalogs don't need citation tracking.

## Install

pip install pystac-ext-scientific
uv add pystac-ext-scientific
poetry add pystac-ext-scientific

## Installing pystac-ext-scientific

Before you install: Low friction install with a single runtime dependency (pystac-core). Active maintenance with a recent release (4 days old) and no known vulnerabilities.

License in practice: Apache-2.0 permissive license allows commercial and private use with minimal restrictions; suitable for most projects.

Quickstart:

pip install pystac-ext-scientific

from pystac_ext_scientific import ScientificExtension

# Use with a PySTAC item to add scientific citation fields
scientific_ext = ScientificExtension.ext(item, add_if_missing=True)

Requires Python 3.10 or later; pystac-core must be installed as a runtime dependency.

Verify before relying:

- Whether the extension fully implements all v1.0.0 schema features or if some are partial/planned.
- Whether post-release versioning (e.g., 1.0.0.post1) indicates bug fixes or feature additions.
- Performance characteristics when working with large STAC catalogs containing many scientific citations.

## Package facts

- License: Apache-2.0 (permissive)
- Python support: supports_current
- Install friction: low
- Maintenance: active
- Downloads: 4.0M/month (top 5,000 on PyPI)
- Known vulnerabilities: none known

## Tags

STAC scientific extension, PySTAC scientific citations, STAC DOI metadata, scientific publication linking, STAC bibliography extension, PySTAC scholarly metadata, stac-extension, geospatial-metadata, scientific-data

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