is a Data Source.
The IUPAC Compendium of Chemical Terminology, known as the Gold Book, collects authoritative definitions of chemical terms from IUPAC recommendations published in Pure and Applied Chemistry and the other IUPAC Colour Books, ratified by IUPAC's Interdivisional Committee on Terminology, Nomenclature and Symbols. Version 5.0.0 (5th edition, 2025) holds 14,588 terms, each with a stable code and DOI, and the site offers an API for downloading single terms or the whole vocabulary as JSON or XML.
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| ID | Name | URL | Category | Format | Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| goldbook.portal ⚠ | IUPAC Gold Book Website | goldbook.iupac.org | Graphical Interface | http | Gold Book website for browsing and se... |
| goldbook.terms.json ⚠ | Gold Book Terms JSON | download | Product | json | All Gold Book terms with definitions ... |
| goldbook.terms.xml ⚠ | Gold Book Terms XML | download | Product | xml | All Gold Book terms with definitions ... |
| goldbook.sources.json ⚠ | Gold Book Sources JSON | download | Product | json | Index of the IUPAC recommendations an... |
| goldbook.api ⚠ | Gold Book API | api | Programming Interface | http | Gold Book API (v1.1) for retrieving s... |
| ID | Name | URL | Category | Format | Relation | Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| obo-db-ingest.goldbook.obo | goldbook OBO | goldbook.obo (1.5 MB) | Product | obo | had primary source | IUPAC Gold Book (Compendium of Chemic... |
| obo-db-ingest.goldbook.owl | goldbook OWL | goldbook.owl (1.7 MB) | Product | owl | had primary source | IUPAC Gold Book (Compendium of Chemic... |
| obo-db-ingest.goldbook.json | goldbook OBO Graph JSON | goldbook.json (1.7 MB) | Product | json | had primary source | IUPAC Gold Book (Compendium of Chemic... |
| obo-db-ingest.goldbook.sssom.tsv | goldbook SSSOM | goldbook.sssom.tsv (226.0 KB) | Mapping | sssom | had primary source | IUPAC Gold Book (Compendium of Chemic... |
| obo-db-ingest.goldbook.tsv | goldbook Nodes TSV | goldbook.tsv (954.5 KB) | Product | tsv | had primary source | IUPAC Gold Book (Compendium of Chemic... |
The IUPAC Compendium of Chemical Terminology is called the Gold Book after Victor Gold, who started work on the first edition. It is one of IUPAC’s Colour Books on chemical nomenclature, terminology, symbols and units. Its definitions come from IUPAC recommendations published in Pure and Applied Chemistry and the other Colour Books, supplemented by some definitions from ISO and the International Vocabulary of Metrology.
The online version 5.0.0 (5th edition, 2025) has 14,588 terms. Each term has a code (such as A00001) and a DOI under 10.1351/goldbook.. Jan Kaiser is the content editor and Stuart Chalk the technical editor, for the Joint Subcommittee on the IUPAC Gold Book.
The Gold Book API (v1.1) is documented at https://goldbook.iupac.org/pages/api:
/terms/index/all/[xml|json]/download: every term./terms/view/<code>/[xml|json]: one term./sources/index/all/[xml|json]/download: the cited source documents.When checked on 2026-10-04 the site returned HTTP 403 to automated clients, so the URLs above were taken from an August 2026 Wayback Machine capture of the API page.
The biopragmatics obo-db-ingest project converts the Gold Book to OBO, OWL, OBO Graph JSON, SSSOM and other formats (see the obo-db-ingest.goldbook.* products).
The Gold Book site and the obo-db-ingest export state CC BY-SA 4.0 for individual terms, and IUPAC asks parties wishing to reuse the entire Gold Book commercially to contact the Executive Director. The Crossref record for DOI 10.1351/goldbook lists CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 (from 2019), which was the license of earlier versions.
Created: October 04, 2026 | Last modified: October 04, 2026