diff --git a/doc/api.rst b/doc/api.rst
index fa0fed7..b371d46 100644
--- a/doc/api.rst
+++ b/doc/api.rst
@@ -34,6 +34,13 @@ This is the full API documentation of the `sharp` package.
     qoi.RankScoreQoI
     qoi.TopKQoI
 
+.. autosummary::
+    :toctree: _generated/
+    :template: function.rst
+
+    qoi.get_qoi
+    qoi.get_qoi_names
+
 
 :mod:`sharp.visualization`
 --------------------------
diff --git a/sharp/qoi/__init__.py b/sharp/qoi/__init__.py
index d8aa086..30dfc60 100644
--- a/sharp/qoi/__init__.py
+++ b/sharp/qoi/__init__.py
@@ -9,7 +9,8 @@
     RankQoI,
     RankScoreQoI,
     TopKQoI,
-    QOI_OBJECTS,
+    get_qoi,
+    get_qoi_names,
 )
 
 __all__ = [
@@ -19,5 +20,6 @@
     "RankQoI",
     "RankScoreQoI",
     "TopKQoI",
-    "QOI_OBJECTS",
+    "get_qoi",
+    "get_qoi_names",
 ]
diff --git a/sharp/qoi/_qoi.py b/sharp/qoi/_qoi.py
index 9443bbb..e8af92d 100644
--- a/sharp/qoi/_qoi.py
+++ b/sharp/qoi/_qoi.py
@@ -1,3 +1,4 @@
+import copy
 from .base import BaseQoI, BaseRankQoI
 
 
@@ -138,7 +139,7 @@ def _calculate(self, rows1, rows2):
         return (self.estimate(rows1) - self.estimate(rows2)).mean()
 
 
-QOI_OBJECTS = {
+_QOI_OBJECTS = {
     "diff": DiffQoI,
     "flip": FlipQoI,
     "likelihood": LikelihoodQoI,
@@ -146,3 +147,65 @@ def _calculate(self, rows1, rows2):
     "rank_score": RankScoreQoI,
     "top_k": TopKQoI,
 }
+
+
+def get_qoi_names():
+    """Get the names of all available quantities of interest.
+
+    These names can be passed to :func:`~sharp.qoi.get_qoi` to
+    retrieve the QoI object.
+
+    Returns
+    -------
+    list of str
+        Names of all available quantities of interest.
+
+    Examples
+    --------
+    >>> from sharp.qoi import get_qoi_names
+    >>> all_qois = get_qoi_names()
+    >>> type(all_qois)
+    <class 'list'>
+    >>> all_qois[:3]
+    ['diff', 'flip', 'likelihood']
+    >>> "ranking" in all_qois
+    True
+    """
+    return sorted(_QOI_OBJECTS.keys())
+
+
+def get_qoi(qoi):
+    """Get a quantity of interest from string.
+
+    :func:`~sharp.qoi.get_qoi_names` can be used to retrieve the names
+    of all available quantities of interest.
+
+    Parameters
+    ----------
+    qoi : str, callable or None
+        Quantity of interest as string. If callable it is returned as is.
+        If None, returns None.
+
+    Returns
+    -------
+    quantity : callable
+        The quantity of interest.
+
+    Notes
+    -----
+    When passed a string, this function always returns a copy of the scorer
+    object. Calling `get_qoi` twice for the same scorer results in two
+    separate QoI objects.
+    """
+    if isinstance(qoi, str):
+        try:
+            quantity = copy.deepcopy(_QOI_OBJECTS[qoi])
+        except KeyError:
+            raise ValueError(
+                "%r is not a valid scoring value. "
+                "Use sklearn.metrics.get_scorer_names() "
+                "to get valid options." % qoi
+            )
+    else:
+        quantity = qoi
+    return quantity
diff --git a/sharp/tests/test_basic_usage.py b/sharp/tests/test_basic_usage.py
index 000ba5b..5af47b8 100644
--- a/sharp/tests/test_basic_usage.py
+++ b/sharp/tests/test_basic_usage.py
@@ -3,7 +3,7 @@
 import numpy as np
 from sklearn.utils import check_random_state
 from sharp import ShaRP
-from sharp.qoi import QOI_OBJECTS
+from sharp.qoi import get_qoi
 from sharp._measures import MEASURES
 
 # Set up some envrionment variables
@@ -12,10 +12,10 @@
 rng = check_random_state(RNG_SEED)
 
 rank_qois_str = ["rank", "rank_score", "top_k"]
-rank_qois_obj = [QOI_OBJECTS[qoi] for qoi in rank_qois_str]
+rank_qois_obj = [get_qoi(qoi) for qoi in rank_qois_str]
 
 clf_qois_str = ["diff", "flip", "likelihood"]
-clf_qois_obj = [QOI_OBJECTS[qoi] for qoi in clf_qois_str]
+clf_qois_obj = [get_qoi(qoi) for qoi in clf_qois_str]
 
 measures = list(MEASURES.keys())
 
diff --git a/sharp/utils/_checks.py b/sharp/utils/_checks.py
index af664f6..da9de4a 100644
--- a/sharp/utils/_checks.py
+++ b/sharp/utils/_checks.py
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 import numpy as np
 from sklearn.utils.validation import check_array, _get_feature_names
 
-from sharp.qoi import QOI_OBJECTS
+from sharp.qoi import get_qoi
 from sharp._measures import MEASURES
 
 
@@ -53,7 +53,7 @@ def check_qoi(qoi, target_function=None, X=None):
             msg = "If `qoi` is of type `str`, `target_function` cannot be None."
             raise TypeError(msg)
 
-        if QOI_OBJECTS[qoi]._qoi_type == "rank":
+        if get_qoi(qoi)._qoi_type == "rank":
             # Add dataset to list of parameters if QoI is rank-based
             params["X"] = X
 
@@ -72,5 +72,5 @@ def check_qoi(qoi, target_function=None, X=None):
     else:
         return qoi
 
-    qoi = QOI_OBJECTS[qoi](**params)
+    qoi = get_qoi(qoi)(**params)
     return qoi