ORCID Researcher Search Scraper

Search ORCID public researcher profiles by name, affiliation, keyword, country, or advanced ORCID query syntax. Export clean researcher discovery lists with ORCID iDs, profile URLs, public emails, institutions, affiliations, keywords, researcher URLs, and recent works when enrichment is enabled.

Use this actor when you need a repeatable way to build academic recruiting lists, pharma KOL discovery tables, grant intelligence exports, university partnership maps, or outreach lists from the public ORCID registry.

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What does ORCID Researcher Search Scraper do?

ORCID Researcher Search Scraper queries the official ORCID public API and saves matching researcher records to an Apify dataset.

It supports two workflows:

• 🔎 Fast search lists from ORCID expanded-search results.
• 🧬 Enriched researcher profiles by optionally fetching each ORCID /record endpoint.

The actor can search by:

• Raw ORCID query syntax
• Full name
• Given name
• Family name
• Affiliation organization
• Research keyword
• Affiliation country code

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Who is it for?

This scraper is useful for teams that need structured researcher discovery data without manually searching ORCID.

• 🎓 University recruiting teams can find researchers by institution or topic.
• 💊 Pharma and biotech teams can build KOL discovery lists by disease, method, or institution.
• 🤝 Partnership teams can map researchers at universities, hospitals, labs, and companies.
• 💸 Grant and funding analysts can identify researchers active in specific domains.
• 📬 Outreach teams can export ORCID IDs, public emails, and profile links for compliant outreach workflows.
• 🧑‍💻 Data teams can feed ORCID records into CRMs, enrichment pipelines, or internal research graphs.

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Why use this actor?

ORCID is a public registry, but building repeatable search exports manually is time consuming. This actor turns ORCID search into a simple Apify job.

Benefits:

• Uses the official public ORCID API.
• No login or API key required for public records.
• Supports advanced ORCID query syntax.
• Includes friendly filters for non-technical users.
• Saves normalized JSON records.
• Can optionally enrich each result with affiliations and works.
• Includes result position and total-result counts for auditability.
• Runs as an Apify actor, so it can be scheduled, integrated, and called by API.

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What data can you extract?

Field	Description
orcidId	Researcher's ORCID iD.
orcidUrl	Public ORCID profile URL.
fullName	Combined display name.
givenNames	Given names from ORCID.
familyName	Family name from ORCID.
creditName	Public credit name when available.
emails	Public emails exposed by ORCID.
institutions	Institutions from expanded search results.
otherNames	Other public names.
query	Query used for the run.
resultPosition	Position in the exported result list.
totalResults	ORCID total matches for the query.
profileLastModified	Profile modification timestamp, when enriched.
biography	Public biography, when enriched.
keywords	Public ORCID keywords, when enriched.
researcherUrls	Public profile/researcher URLs, when enriched.
countries	Countries found in public address or affiliation data.
employments	Public employment summaries, when enriched.
educations	Public education summaries, when enriched.
otherAffiliations	Memberships, services, distinctions, qualifications, and invited positions.
worksCount	Count of public works groups found in the ORCID record.
recentWorks	Up to 10 work summaries with title, type, date, journal, and DOI.
scrapedAt	Timestamp when the record was saved.

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How much does it cost to search ORCID researchers?

This actor uses pay-per-event pricing.

• A $0.005 start fee is charged once per run.
• A per-result event is charged for every ORCID researcher saved to the dataset.
• BRONZE per-result price: $0.0000304 per saved researcher, with tiered discounts for higher Apify plans.
• Enrichment may make runs slower because it performs one additional public ORCID API request per researcher, but billing is still based on saved records.

You can control spend with maxItems.

For a low-cost first run, keep the default maxItems value or run a narrow query such as one affiliation organization plus one keyword.

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Input options

The actor accepts either a raw ORCID query or friendly filters.

Input	Type	Description
query	string	Raw ORCID query. Overrides friendly filters.
name	string	Full-name text search.
givenName	string	ORCID given-name filter.
familyName	string	ORCID family-name filter.
affiliationOrgName	string	Organization name in affiliations.
keyword	string	Research keyword.
country	string	Two-letter affiliation country code.
maxItems	integer	Maximum researcher records to save.
rowsPerPage	integer	ORCID API page size.
includeDetails	boolean	Fetch per-record enrichment from /record.
requestDelayMs	integer	Polite delay between ORCID requests.

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Example input: affiliation search

{
  "query": "affiliation-org-name:\"Harvard University\"",
  "maxItems": 100,
  "rowsPerPage": 100,
  "includeDetails": false,
  "requestDelayMs": 500
}

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Example input: friendly filters

{
  "affiliationOrgName": "Stanford University",
  "keyword": "machine learning",
  "maxItems": 50,
  "includeDetails": false
}

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Example input: enriched named researcher search

{
  "givenName": "Jennifer",
  "familyName": "Doudna",
  "maxItems": 5,
  "includeDetails": true,
  "requestDelayMs": 500
}

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Output example

{
  "orcidId": "0000-0001-9161-999X",
  "orcidUrl": "https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9161-999X",
  "givenNames": "Jennifer",
  "familyName": "Doudna",
  "fullName": "Jennifer Doudna",
  "emails": [],
  "institutions": [],
  "otherNames": [],
  "query": "given-names:\"Jennifer\" AND family-name:\"Doudna\"",
  "resultPosition": 1,
  "totalResults": 1,
  "source": "orcid-expanded-search",
  "worksCount": 524,
  "scrapedAt": "2026-07-02T02:14:39.788Z"
}

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How to run it

1. Open the actor on Apify.
2. Enter a raw ORCID query or fill friendly filters.
3. Set maxItems to control the size of your export.
4. Decide whether you need includeDetails.
5. Click Start.
6. Download results from the default dataset as JSON, CSV, Excel, XML, or RSS.

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ORCID query tips

ORCID search supports fielded query syntax.

Useful examples:

• affiliation-org-name:"Harvard University"
• given-names:"Jennifer" AND family-name:"Doudna"
• keyword:"cancer" AND affiliation-org-country:US
• affiliation-org-name:"University of Oxford" AND keyword:"genomics"

When using friendly filters, the actor builds a query with AND between provided fields.

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Enrichment mode

Set includeDetails to true when you need deeper public profile information.

Enrichment can add:

• Public biography
• Public keywords
• Researcher URLs
• Employment summaries
• Education summaries
• Other affiliation summaries
• Country values
• Recent works
• Work count

For large discovery jobs, start without enrichment. Then re-run narrower searches with enrichment for high-value subsets.

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Integrations

You can connect ORCID Researcher Search Scraper to many workflows:

• 📊 Export CSV to Google Sheets for recruiting review.
• 🧩 Send JSON to a CRM enrichment workflow.
• 🧠 Feed researcher profiles into an LLM research assistant.
• 🗂️ Store ORCID IDs in a knowledge graph.
• 📬 Build compliant outreach lists using public emails only.
• ⏰ Schedule weekly monitoring for new researchers matching a query.

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API usage: Node.js

import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

const client = new ApifyClient({ token: process.env.APIFY_TOKEN });
const run = await client.actor('automation-lab/orcid-researcher-search-scraper').call({
  affiliationOrgName: 'Harvard University',
  keyword: 'oncology',
  maxItems: 100,
});

const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
console.log(items);

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API usage: Python

from apify_client import ApifyClient

client = ApifyClient('MY-APIFY-TOKEN')
run = client.actor('automation-lab/orcid-researcher-search-scraper').call(run_input={
    'affiliationOrgName': 'Harvard University',
    'keyword': 'oncology',
    'maxItems': 100,
})

items = client.dataset(run['defaultDatasetId']).list_items().items
print(items)

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API usage: cURL

curl -X POST 'https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/automation-lab~orcid-researcher-search-scraper/runs?token=MY-APIFY-TOKEN' \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -d '{"affiliationOrgName":"Harvard University","keyword":"oncology","maxItems":100}'

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MCP usage

Use this actor through Apify MCP from Claude Code, Claude Desktop, or other MCP-compatible tools.

MCP server URL:

https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=automation-lab/orcid-researcher-search-scraper

Claude Code setup:

$claude mcp add apify-orcid-researchers https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=automation-lab/orcid-researcher-search-scraper

Claude Desktop JSON config:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "apify-orcid-researchers": {
      "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=automation-lab/orcid-researcher-search-scraper"
    }
  }
}

Example prompts:

• "Search ORCID for researchers at Harvard University working on oncology and summarize the top 20."
• "Find public ORCID profiles for Stanford machine learning researchers and export a CSV-ready table."
• "Build a shortlist of ORCID researchers in Germany with CRISPR-related keywords."

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Best practices

• Start with a narrow query and low maxItems.
• Use raw query for advanced ORCID syntax.
• Use includeDetails only when you need affiliations, keywords, URLs, and works.
• Increase requestDelayMs for very large enriched jobs.
• Review public email availability; many ORCID profiles do not expose emails.
• Treat ORCID data as public profile metadata, not a verified contact database.

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Troubleshooting

I get zero results. What should I try?

Check the query syntax and try a broader filter. For example, use only affiliationOrgName first, then add keyword after you confirm ORCID has matches.

Why are emails missing?

ORCID profiles only expose emails when the researcher made them public. Missing emails are normal and should not be treated as an extraction error.

Why is enrichment slower?

Enrichment fetches one extra ORCID /record endpoint per researcher. For large lists, this naturally adds more requests and time.

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Data quality notes

ORCID records are user-managed and institution-linked public metadata can vary by profile.

Expect variation in:

• Name completeness
• Public email availability
• Affiliation detail
• Keyword detail
• Works metadata
• Profile update freshness

The actor preserves available public values and leaves unavailable optional fields empty.

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Legality and responsible use

This actor uses public ORCID API endpoints and exports public profile metadata. You are responsible for using the data in accordance with applicable laws, ORCID terms, privacy rules, and outreach regulations.

Do not use exported data for spam, harassment, or discriminatory profiling. Respect opt-outs and only contact researchers through appropriate, compliant channels.

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Related scrapers

Other automation-lab actors that may complement this workflow:

• https://apify.com/automation-lab/orcid-researcher-profile-scraper
• https://apify.com/automation-lab/openfda-drug-ndc-directory-scraper

Use the profile scraper when you already have ORCID IDs and need profile-by-record extraction. Use this search scraper when you need discovery by query, organization, country, or keyword.

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FAQ

Does this actor require an ORCID API key?

No. It uses public ORCID API endpoints that worked without login or API key during feasibility testing.

Can I search by organization?

Yes. Use affiliationOrgName, for example Harvard University, or raw query syntax such as affiliation-org-name:"Harvard University".

Can I search by country?

Yes. Use a two-letter country code in country, or raw query syntax such as affiliation-org-country:US.

Can I export publications?

The actor returns up to 10 recent work summaries when includeDetails is enabled, plus worksCount. It is optimized for researcher discovery, not full publication harvesting.

Can I schedule recurring searches?

Yes. Apify tasks can schedule this actor to run daily, weekly, or monthly for the same ORCID query.

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Changelog

• 0.1 Initial version with ORCID expanded search, friendly filters, optional detail enrichment, dataset schema, and PPE-ready charge events.