With reference to ACL, it is possible to programmatically download a list of papers using a few lines of Python code and there is no need for an API. One would expect you'd have a list of the paper identifiers you finally want. We followed a set of steps quite similar to the ones you've outlined to create our CL-SciSumm corpus. I'd be happy to link you to our resources if needed.
Regards
Kokil Jaidka
Postdoctoral researcher
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