Roadmap for Working with Tiktok Research API

TikTok is one of the largest and fastest-growing social media sites in the world, expanding access to Research API from the US to Europe since July 2023. Volume and fidelity of data through official API is the key problem for research understanding trends in social change, human behaviour, and end consequences. This paper displays the experience of working with updating API, including online application, coding scheme, assessment of data quality and viable solutions to address limitations and research gaps. Data analysis includes published content (36 months) by 14 creators from 1 January 2020 to 31 December 2022. Compared third-party analytics platforms with manual calibration, produces low volumes of raw data but precise engagement statistics. Overall, API performance is constantly in flux regarding policies and features, forcing researchers to improvise from dependence on orthodox API routes. This paper will contribute to a better understanding of using the API and its pros and cons for TikTok researchers and suggests supplementary tools and models that produce contextual (textual, visual, and auditory) data and pluralist methodology with API facilitation.