openalex

openalex — Scholarly Literature Search

Query the OpenAlex API for academic papers, authors, institutions, and citation data. No API key required.

When to Use

• "find papers by", "search for papers on", "who cites this"
• Literature search, citation analysis, bibliometric queries
• Finding works by author, institution, or topic

Client

from scripts.openalex_client import OpenAlexClient

client = OpenAlexClient(email="user@example.edu")  # email → 10x rate limit

Script paths are relative to this skill's directory.

The client handles rate limiting, retries with exponential backoff, and cursor-based pagination.

Key Patterns

Search works

results = client.search_works(search="CRISPR", filter_params={"publication_year": ">2020", "is_oa": "true"}, sort="cited_by_count:desc")

Two-step entity lookup (always get ID first, never filter by name)

author = client.get("/authors", params={"search": "Jennifer Doudna", "per-page": 1})
author_id = author["results"][0]["id"].split("/")[-1]
works = client.search_works(filter_params={"authorships.author.id": author_id})

Get entity by external ID

work = client.get_entity("works", "https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-021-03819-2")
author = client.get_entity("authors", "https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1613-5981")

Batch DOI lookup (up to 50 per request)

works = client.batch_lookup("works", doi_list, "doi")

Paginate large results (cursor-based)

all_papers = client.paginate_all("/works", params={"search": "quantum computing", "filter": "publication_year:2022-2024"}, max_results=5000)

Aggregate by field

by_year = client.group_by("works", "publication_year", filter_params={"authorships.author.id": author_id})

Filter Syntax

Single:     publication_year:2023
AND:        publication_year:>2020,is_oa:true
OR:         type:journal-article|book
NOT:        type:!paratext
Range:      publication_year:2020-2024
Greater:    cited_by_count:>100
Both inst:  authorships.institutions.id:ID1+ID2    (AND)
Either:     authorships.institutions.id:ID1|ID2    (OR)

Common filters: publication_year, is_oa, cited_by_count, type, authorships.author.id, authorships.institutions.id, primary_location.source.id, topics.id, has_doi.

Attribution

OpenAlex client adapted from K-Dense-AI/claude-scientific-skills (MIT License).