OpenAlex Work Search: Papers by Keyword, Author or Institution

Search scholarly papers by keyword, topic, author, or institution with metadata and citations from OpenAlex.

Academic researchers, bibliometricians, science intelligence teams, and R&D analysts use this actor to discover research literature, trace author publications, map institutional research output, and extract citation metrics without rate-limit headaches or manual exports. Retrieve DOIs, open-access full-text links, author affiliations with ORCID, publication dates, and reconstructed abstracts. You pay only for works actually returned; misses and empty queries are free.

How to use

1. In the Apify Console. Open the actor page and click Start — the queries field is already pre-filled with a working example. Results land in the run's dataset as soon as each item is found.
2. Via the API. Call it directly with a POST request — no Console needed once you have an API token:

   curl "https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/accountable_eel~openalex-work-search-lookup/run-sync-get-dataset-items?token=<YOUR_TOKEN>" \
     -X POST \
     -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
     -d '{"queries":["graph neural networks"]}'
   

3. On a schedule. Save this actor as an Apify Task with the input you want, then add a Schedule (hourly, daily, weekly) so it runs on its own — no server of your own required.

Input

{
  "queries": [
    "graph neural networks"
  ]
}

One search per line. Enter keywords (e.g. "graph neural networks"), OpenAlex author IDs (e.g. "A5057871229"), ORCIDs, or institution IDs (e.g. "I4210132348"). Accepted formats: graph neural networks, A5057871229, 0000-00-02-1963-8755, I4210132348, author:Yann LeCun, institution:Harvard University.

You can search by keywords or phrases, or filter directly by author ID, ORCID, institution ID, or ROR.

Output

One row per work returned, for example:

query	found	status	searchQuery	workCount	totalResults	works	openalexId	doi	title	publicationYear	publicationDate	type	venue	citedByCount	isOpenAccess	oaStatus	oaUrl	pdfUrl	landingPageUrl	authorNames	authorCount	primaryInstitution	institutions	authors	primaryTopic	concepts	abstract	sourceUrl	scrapedAt
graph neural networks	true	OK				<all works returned (full array)>							<venue / journal name>		<is open access?>											<concepts / key topics>			1970-01-01T00:00:00.000Z

A query that returns no works yields a single row with "found": false and is never charged. Missing values are null, never 0 or empty strings.

Pricing

• Work returned: $1.50 per 1,000 works ($1.00 per 1,000 on Gold)

Plus a $0.002 start fee per run. Charged per work returned — misses (found:false) are free.

Example runs

Paste any of these into the Input tab and press Start. All three run keyless with no login or setup required.

Search papers by topic or keyword (default).

{
  "queries": ["graph neural networks"],
  "maxItems": 25
}

Find works by an author using their OpenAlex ID or ORCID.

{
  "queries": ["A5057871229"],
  "maxItems": 20
}

Recent open-access papers from an institution.

{
  "queries": ["I4210132348"],
  "openAccessOnly": true,
  "publicationYear": "2024",
  "maxItems": 20
}

Use it from Clay, n8n, Make, or an AI agent

This actor runs synchronously over plain HTTP — call it directly from a script, a workflow tool, or an AI agent, no Apify Console needed once you have an API token.

curl "https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/accountable_eel~openalex-work-search-lookup/run-sync-get-dataset-items?token=<YOUR_TOKEN>" \
  -X POST \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"queries":["graph neural networks"]}'

n8n. Add an HTTP Request node: Method POST, URL https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/accountable_eel~openalex-work-search-lookup/run-sync-get-dataset-items?token=<YOUR_TOKEN>, Body Content Type JSON, JSON Body {"queries":["graph neural networks"]} (swap in an expression from an earlier node for a real value).

Clay. Add an "HTTP API" column: Method POST, URL https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/accountable_eel~openalex-work-search-lookup/run-sync-get-dataset-items?token=<YOUR_TOKEN>, Body {"queries":["{{query}}"]}, mapping the row's query into the queries array.

MCP. In Claude, Cursor, or any MCP client with the Apify MCP server, ask for "openalex scraper" — the agent will find and run this actor.