diff --git a/NAMESPACE b/NAMESPACE
index 5c5f350..404af0c 100644
--- a/NAMESPACE
+++ b/NAMESPACE
@@ -20,7 +20,7 @@
 exportClasses(KorAPCorpusStats)
 exportClasses(KorAPQuery)
 exportMethods(apiCall)
-exportMethods(clearApiToken)
+exportMethods(clearAccessToken)
 exportMethods(clearCache)
 exportMethods(corpusQuery)
 exportMethods(corpusStats)
@@ -29,7 +29,7 @@
 exportMethods(fetchRest)
 exportMethods(frequencyQuery)
 exportMethods(initialize)
-exportMethods(persistApiToken)
+exportMethods(persistAccessToken)
 exportMethods(show)
 import(R.cache)
 import(httr)
diff --git a/R/KorAPConnection.R b/R/KorAPConnection.R
index 98a088f..69eecf7 100644
--- a/R/KorAPConnection.R
+++ b/R/KorAPConnection.R
@@ -12,22 +12,22 @@
 #' @import utils
 #' @import methods
 #' @export
-KorAPConnection <- setClass("KorAPConnection", slots=c(KorAPUrl="character", apiVersion="character", apiUrl="character", apiToken="characterOrNULL", userAgent="character", timeout="numeric", verbose="logical", cache="logical"))
+KorAPConnection <- setClass("KorAPConnection", slots=c(KorAPUrl="character", apiVersion="character", apiUrl="character", accessToken="characterOrNULL", userAgent="character", timeout="numeric", verbose="logical", cache="logical"))
 
 #' @param .Object KorAPConnection object
 #' @param KorAPUrl the URL of the KorAP server instance you want to access.
 #' @param apiVersion which version of KorAP's API you want to connect to.
 #' @param apiUrl URL of the KorAP web service.
-#' @param apiToken OAuth2 API token. To use authorization based on an API token
+#' @param accessToken OAuth2 access token. To use authorization based on an access token
 #'   in subsequent queries, intialize your KorAP connection with
-#'   \code{kco <- new("KorAPConnection", apiToken="<API Token>")}.
+#'   \code{kco <- new("KorAPConnection", accessToken="<access token>")}.
 #'   In order to make the API
 #'   token persistent for the currently used \code{KorAPUrl} (you can have one
 #'   token per KorAPUrl / KorAP server instance), use
-#'   \code{persistApiToken(kco)}. This will store it in your keyring using the
+#'   \code{persistAccessToken(kco)}. This will store it in your keyring using the
 #'   \code{\link{keyring}} package. Subsequent new("KorAPConnection") calls will
 #'   then automatically retrieve the token from your keying. To stop using a
-#'   persisted token, call \code{clearApiToken(kco)}. Please note that for
+#'   persisted token, call \code{clearAccessToken(kco)}. Please note that for
 #'   DeReKo, authorized queries will behave differently inside and outside the
 #'   IDS, because of the special license situation. This concerns also cached
 #'   results which do not take into account from where a request was issued. If
@@ -49,7 +49,7 @@
 #' kq <- fetchAll(kq)
 #'
 #' \dontrun{
-#' kcon <- new("KorAPConnection", verbose = TRUE, apiToken="e739u6eOzkwADQPdVChxFg")
+#' kcon <- new("KorAPConnection", verbose = TRUE, accessToken="e739u6eOzkwADQPdVChxFg")
 #' kq <- corpusQuery(kcon, "Ameisenplage", metadataOnly=FALSE)
 #' kq <- fetchAll(kq)
 #' kq@collectedMatches$snippet
@@ -58,7 +58,7 @@
 #' @rdname KorAPConnection-class
 #' @export
 setMethod("initialize", "KorAPConnection",
-          function(.Object, KorAPUrl = "https://korap.ids-mannheim.de/", apiVersion = 'v1.0', apiUrl, apiToken = getApiToken(KorAPUrl), userAgent = "R-KorAP-Client", timeout=10, verbose = FALSE, cache = TRUE) {
+          function(.Object, KorAPUrl = "https://korap.ids-mannheim.de/", apiVersion = 'v1.0', apiUrl, accessToken = getAccessToken(KorAPUrl), userAgent = "R-KorAP-Client", timeout=10, verbose = FALSE, cache = TRUE) {
             .Object <- callNextMethod()
             m <- regexpr("https?://[^?]+", KorAPUrl, perl = TRUE)
             .Object@KorAPUrl <- regmatches(KorAPUrl, m)
@@ -70,7 +70,7 @@
             } else {
               .Object@apiUrl = apiUrl
             }
-            .Object@apiToken = apiToken
+            .Object@accessToken = accessToken
             .Object@apiVersion = apiVersion
             .Object@userAgent = userAgent
             .Object@timeout = timeout
@@ -80,51 +80,51 @@
           })
 
 
-apiTokenServiceName <- "RKorAPClientAPIToken"
+accessTokenServiceName <- "RKorAPClientAccessToken"
 
-setGeneric("persistApiToken", function(kco, ...) standardGeneric("persistApiToken") )
+setGeneric("persistAccessToken", function(kco, ...) standardGeneric("persistAccessToken") )
 
-#' @aliases persistApiToken
+#' @aliases persistAccessToken
 #' @rdname KorAPConnection-class
 #' @import keyring
 #' @export
 #' @examples
 #' \dontrun{
-#' kco <- new("KorAPConnection", apiToken="e739u6eOzkwADQPdVChxFg")
-#' persistApiToken(kco)
+#' kco <- new("KorAPConnection", accessToken="e739u6eOzkwADQPdVChxFg")
+#' persistAccessToken(kco)
 #' }
 #'
-setMethod("persistApiToken", "KorAPConnection",  function(kco, apiToken = kco@apiToken) {
-  if (is.null(apiToken))
-    stop("It seems that you have not supplied any API token that could be persisted.", call. = FALSE)
+setMethod("persistAccessToken", "KorAPConnection",  function(kco, accessToken = kco@accessToken) {
+  if (is.null(accessToken))
+    stop("It seems that you have not supplied any access token that could be persisted.", call. = FALSE)
 
-  kco@apiToken <- apiToken
-  key_set_with_value(apiTokenServiceName, kco@KorAPUrl, apiToken)
+  kco@accessToken <- accessToken
+  key_set_with_value(accessTokenServiceName, kco@KorAPUrl, accessToken)
 })
 
-setGeneric("clearApiToken", function(kco) standardGeneric("clearApiToken") )
+setGeneric("clearAccessToken", function(kco) standardGeneric("clearAccessToken") )
 
-#' @aliases clearApiToken
+#' @aliases clearAccessToken
 #' @rdname KorAPConnection-class
 #' @import keyring
 #' @export
 #' @examples
 #' \dontrun{
 #' kco <- new("KorAPConnection")
-#' clearApiToken(kco)
+#' clearAccessToken(kco)
 #' }
 #'
-setMethod("clearApiToken", "KorAPConnection",  function(kco) {
-  key_delete(apiTokenServiceName, kco@KorAPUrl)
+setMethod("clearAccessToken", "KorAPConnection",  function(kco) {
+  key_delete(accessTokenServiceName, kco@KorAPUrl)
 })
 
 #' @import keyring
-getApiToken <- function(KorAPUrl) {
-    keyList <- withCallingHandlers(key_list(service = apiTokenServiceName),
+getAccessToken <- function(KorAPUrl) {
+    keyList <- withCallingHandlers(key_list(service = accessTokenServiceName),
                                    warning = function(w) invokeRestart("muffleWarning"),
                                    error = function(e) return(NULL))
   if (KorAPUrl %in% keyList)
-    key_get(apiTokenServiceName, KorAPUrl)
+    key_get(accessTokenServiceName, KorAPUrl)
   else
     NULL
 }
@@ -146,13 +146,13 @@
 #' @export
 setMethod("apiCall", "KorAPConnection",  function(kco, url) {
   if (kco@cache) {
-    parsed <- R.cache::loadCache(dir=KorAPCacheSubDir(), key=list(url, kco@apiToken))
+    parsed <- R.cache::loadCache(dir=KorAPCacheSubDir(), key=list(url, kco@accessToken))
     if (!is.null(parsed)) {
       return(parsed)
     }
   }
-  if (!is.null(kco@apiToken))
-    resp <- GET(url, user_agent(kco@userAgent), timeout(kco@timeout), add_headers(Authorization = paste("Bearer", kco@apiToken)))
+  if (!is.null(kco@accessToken))
+    resp <- GET(url, user_agent(kco@userAgent), timeout(kco@timeout), add_headers(Authorization = paste("Bearer", kco@accessToken)))
   else
     resp <- GET(url, user_agent(kco@userAgent), timeout(kco@timeout))
   if (!http_type(resp) %in% c("application/json", "application/ld+json")) {
@@ -174,7 +174,7 @@
     stop(message, call. = FALSE)
   }
   if (kco@cache) {
-    R.cache::saveCache(parsed, key = list(url, kco@apiToken), dir = KorAPCacheSubDir(), compress = TRUE)
+    R.cache::saveCache(parsed, key = list(url, kco@accessToken), dir = KorAPCacheSubDir(), compress = TRUE)
   }
   parsed
 })
diff --git a/man/KorAPConnection-class.Rd b/man/KorAPConnection-class.Rd
index 08350e0..fb8f5b8 100644
--- a/man/KorAPConnection-class.Rd
+++ b/man/KorAPConnection-class.Rd
@@ -5,10 +5,10 @@
 \alias{KorAPConnection-class}
 \alias{KorAPConnection}
 \alias{initialize,KorAPConnection-method}
-\alias{persistApiToken,KorAPConnection-method}
-\alias{persistApiToken}
-\alias{clearApiToken,KorAPConnection-method}
-\alias{clearApiToken}
+\alias{persistAccessToken,KorAPConnection-method}
+\alias{persistAccessToken}
+\alias{clearAccessToken,KorAPConnection-method}
+\alias{clearAccessToken}
 \alias{apiCall,KorAPConnection-method}
 \alias{apiCall}
 \alias{clearCache,KorAPConnection-method}
@@ -21,16 +21,16 @@
   KorAPUrl = "https://korap.ids-mannheim.de/",
   apiVersion = "v1.0",
   apiUrl,
-  apiToken = getApiToken(KorAPUrl),
+  accessToken = getAccessToken(KorAPUrl),
   userAgent = "R-KorAP-Client",
   timeout = 10,
   verbose = FALSE,
   cache = TRUE
 )
 
-\S4method{persistApiToken}{KorAPConnection}(kco, apiToken = kco@apiToken)
+\S4method{persistAccessToken}{KorAPConnection}(kco, accessToken = kco@accessToken)
 
-\S4method{clearApiToken}{KorAPConnection}(kco)
+\S4method{clearAccessToken}{KorAPConnection}(kco)
 
 \S4method{apiCall}{KorAPConnection}(kco, url)
 
@@ -47,16 +47,16 @@
 
 \item{apiUrl}{URL of the KorAP web service.}
 
-\item{apiToken}{OAuth2 API token. To use authorization based on an API token
+\item{accessToken}{OAuth2 access token. To use authorization based on an access token
 in subsequent queries, intialize your KorAP connection with
-\code{kco <- new("KorAPConnection", apiToken="<API Token>")}.
+\code{kco <- new("KorAPConnection", accessToken="<access token>")}.
 In order to make the API
 token persistent for the currently used \code{KorAPUrl} (you can have one
 token per KorAPUrl / KorAP server instance), use
-\code{persistApiToken(kco)}. This will store it in your keyring using the
+\code{persistAccessToken(kco)}. This will store it in your keyring using the
 \code{\link{keyring}} package. Subsequent new("KorAPConnection") calls will
 then automatically retrieve the token from your keying. To stop using a
-persisted token, call \code{clearApiToken(kco)}. Please note that for
+persisted token, call \code{clearAccessToken(kco)}. Please note that for
 DeReKo, authorized queries will behave differently inside and outside the
 IDS, because of the special license situation. This concerns also cached
 results which do not take into account from where a request was issued. If
@@ -94,20 +94,20 @@
 kq <- fetchAll(kq)
 
 \dontrun{
-kcon <- new("KorAPConnection", verbose = TRUE, apiToken="e739u6eOzkwADQPdVChxFg")
+kcon <- new("KorAPConnection", verbose = TRUE, accessToken="e739u6eOzkwADQPdVChxFg")
 kq <- corpusQuery(kcon, "Ameisenplage", metadataOnly=FALSE)
 kq <- fetchAll(kq)
 kq@collectedMatches$snippet
 }
 
 \dontrun{
-kco <- new("KorAPConnection", apiToken="e739u6eOzkwADQPdVChxFg")
-persistApiToken(kco)
+kco <- new("KorAPConnection", accessToken="e739u6eOzkwADQPdVChxFg")
+persistAccessToken(kco)
 }
 
 \dontrun{
 kco <- new("KorAPConnection")
-clearApiToken(kco)
+clearAccessToken(kco)
 }
 
 }