# Scholarly Paper Search & DOI Metadata (Crossref + OpenAlex) (`clearpathdata/scholarly-paper-search`) Actor

Search research papers or resolve DOIs to clean metadata: title, authors, journal, year, citations, abstract, open-access link via Crossref or OpenAlex APIs.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/clearpathdata/scholarly-paper-search.md
- **Developed by:** [Six Figure Salute](https://apify.com/clearpathdata) (community)
- **Categories:** Developer tools, AI
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

$1.80 / 1,000 scholarly works

This Actor is paid per event. You are not charged for the Apify platform usage, but only a fixed price for specific events.

Learn more: https://docs.apify.com/actors/running/actors-in-store.md#pay-per-event

## What's an Apify Actor?

An Actor is a serverless cloud program that runs on the Apify platform. It has two run modes.
In Batch mode, an Actor accepts a well-defined JSON input, performs an action which can take anything from a few seconds to a few hours,
and optionally produces a well-defined JSON output, datasets with results, or files in key-value store.
In Standby mode, an Actor provides a web server which can be used as a website, API, or an MCP server.

Apify vocabulary and the platform model are defined once, in the agent quickstart at https://apify.com/agents.md.

## How to integrate an Actor?

If asked about integration, you help developers integrate Actors into their projects.
You adapt to their stack and deliver integrations that are safe, well-documented, and production-ready.

Do not guess an integration path. Every one of them is in the agent quickstart at https://apify.com/agents.md: the Apify MCP server, Agent Skills with the Apify CLI, the JavaScript and Python clients, the REST API, and the account-free path for an agent with no human to sign in. It also carries the rule on stating cost before the first paid run.

For examples already wired to this Actor's own input schema, see the [API](#api) section below.

Each client library has reference documentation the quickstart does not restate: [JavaScript/TypeScript](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs.md) (`npm install apify-client`) and [Python](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs.md) (`pip install apify-client`).

# README

## Scholarly Paper Search & DOI Metadata (Crossref + OpenAlex)

Search research papers or resolve DOIs to clean metadata: title, authors, journal, year, citations, abstract, open-access link via Crossref or OpenAlex APIs.

Search **millions of scholarly works** or turn a list of **DOIs into clean citation metadata** using two open scholarly-metadata APIs, **Crossref** and **OpenAlex**. This Actor does not scrape Google Scholar, so you get no CAPTCHAs, no blocks and no terms-of-service risk.

**Uses:** literature reviews, building reference lists and BibTeX pipelines, citation counts for grant reports, enriching DOI lists, research-intelligence dashboards, and RAG/AI datasets that need trustworthy paper metadata.

#### Output fields

doi, title, authors\[], firstAuthor, year, publicationDate, venue (journal/conference), publisher, type, volume, issue, pages, ISSN, citationCount, referencesCount, license, abstract (where available), subjects/topics, url. OpenAlex adds openalexId, isOpenAccess, oaStatus, oaUrl and language.

#### Notes

Unresolved DOIs and failed lookups are returned as `found: false` and are free. Crossref metadata is open; OpenAlex data is CC0. Abstracts are only present when the publisher deposited them. Not affiliated with Crossref or OpenAlex/OurResearch.

#### Pricing

Pay per event: **work** at $0.0018 ($1.8 per 1,000). Charged per paper/work metadata record returned. You pay only for results; not-found and error rows are free. Apify platform usage is included.

#### Example input

```json
{
  "query": "CRISPR gene editing",
  "dois": [
    "10.1038/nature14539",
    "10.9999/does-not-exist-xyz"
  ],
  "fromYear": "2020",
  "maxResults": 5
}
```

Built by clearpathdata, a maker of official open-data Actors. Questions and feature requests are welcome in the Issues tab.

# Actor input Schema

## `query` (type: `string`):

Keywords searched across titles, authors, abstracts, etc., e.g. "large language models medicine".

## `dois` (type: `array`):

DOIs or doi.org URLs to resolve, e.g. 10.1038/nature14539.

## `source` (type: `string`):

Crossref (default) needs no key and has the broadest DOI coverage. OpenAlex adds open-access links, topics and abstracts for more papers; without a key it shares a small per-IP daily budget.

## `openalexApiKey` (type: `string`):

Free key from openalex.org/settings/api. Strongly recommended when the source is OpenAlex.

## `contactEmail` (type: `string`):

Sent as mailto, which puts you in Crossref's 'polite pool' for faster, more reliable responses.

## `fromYear` (type: `string`):

Earliest publication year (OpenAlex) or date YYYY\[-MM-DD] (Crossref).

## `toYear` (type: `string`):

Latest publication year or date.

## `workType` (type: `string`):

Crossref: journal-article, book-chapter, proceedings-article, posted-content... OpenAlex: article, book, preprint, review...

## `maxResults` (type: `integer`):

Cap on works returned for the search query (DOIs are always resolved).

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "query": "CRISPR gene editing",
  "dois": [
    "10.1038/nature14539"
  ],
  "source": "crossref",
  "maxResults": 20
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `results` (type: `string`):

No description

# API

You can run this Actor programmatically using our API. Below are code examples in JavaScript, Python, and CLI, as well as the OpenAPI specification and MCP server setup.

## JavaScript example

```javascript
import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

// Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
// Replace the '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token
const client = new ApifyClient({
    token: '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>',
});

// Prepare Actor input
const input = {
    "query": "CRISPR gene editing",
    "dois": [
        "10.1038/nature14539"
    ],
    "maxResults": 20
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("clearpathdata/scholarly-paper-search").call(input);

// Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if any)
console.log('Results from dataset');
console.log(`💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/${run.defaultDatasetId}`);
const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
items.forEach((item) => {
    console.dir(item);
});

// 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs

```

## Python example

```python
from apify_client import ApifyClient

# Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
# Replace '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token.
client = ApifyClient("<YOUR_API_TOKEN>")

# Prepare the Actor input
run_input = {
    "query": "CRISPR gene editing",
    "dois": ["10.1038/nature14539"],
    "maxResults": 20,
}

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("clearpathdata/scholarly-paper-search").call(run_input=run_input)

# Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if there are any)
print(f"💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/{run.default_dataset_id}")
for item in client.dataset(run.default_dataset_id).iterate_items():
    print(item)

# 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs/quick-start

```

## CLI example

```bash
echo '{
  "query": "CRISPR gene editing",
  "dois": [
    "10.1038/nature14539"
  ],
  "maxResults": 20
}' |
apify call clearpathdata/scholarly-paper-search --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,clearpathdata/scholarly-paper-search"
        }
    }
}
```

The hosted server signs you in with OAuth on first connect, so no API token belongs in this config. Clients without OAuth support can send an `Authorization: Bearer <APIFY_API_TOKEN>` header instead, using a token from API & Integrations in Apify Console (https://console.apify.com/settings/integrations).

## OpenAPI specification

Download the OpenAPI definition: https://api.apify.com/v2/actors/RCy4Anvu7tXQ89V2N/builds/Zwcnarl8aIHNi2DnT/openapi.json