# ResearchGate Academic Scraper (`crawlerbros/researchgate-scraper`) Actor Scrape ResearchGate for academic publications and researcher profiles. Search papers by query, browse researcher profiles, and fetch detailed publication metadata including citations, reads, DOI, and PDF availability. - **URL**: https://apify.com/crawlerbros/researchgate-scraper.md - **Developed by:** [Crawler Bros](https://apify.com/crawlerbros) (community) - **Categories:** Developer tools, Other - **Stats:** 1 total users, 0 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 7 bookmarks - **User rating**: 5.00 out of 5 stars ## Pricing from $3.00 / 1,000 results This Actor is paid per event and usage. You are charged both the fixed price for specific events and for Apify platform usage. Since this Actor supports Apify Store discounts, the price gets lower the higher subscription plan you have. Learn more: https://docs.apify.com/platform/actors/running/actors-in-store#pay-per-event ## What's an Apify Actor? Actors are a software tools running on the Apify platform, for all kinds of web data extraction and automation use cases. 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. Actors are written with capital "A". ## 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. The best way to integrate Actors is as follows. In JavaScript/TypeScript projects, use official [JavaScript/TypeScript client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js.md): ```bash npm install apify-client ``` In Python projects, use official [Python client library](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python.md): ```bash pip install apify-client ``` In shell scripts, use [Apify CLI](https://docs.apify.com/cli/docs.md): ````bash # MacOS / Linux curl -fsSL https://apify.com/install-cli.sh | bash # Windows irm https://apify.com/install-cli.ps1 | iex ```bash In AI frameworks, you might use the [Apify MCP server](https://docs.apify.com/platform/integrations/mcp.md). If your project is in a different language, use the [REST API](https://docs.apify.com/api/v2.md). For usage examples, see the [API](#api) section below. For more details, see Apify documentation as [Markdown index](https://docs.apify.com/llms.txt) and [Markdown full-text](https://docs.apify.com/llms-full.txt). # README ## ResearchGate Academic Scraper Scrape academic publications and researcher profiles from [ResearchGate](https://www.researchgate.net) — one of the world's largest academic social network platforms. No login required. ### Features - **Search Publications** — find academic papers by keyword with title, abstract, authors, DOI, citations, and PDF availability - **Search Researchers** — find researcher profiles by name or field with institution, h-index, and research interests - **By Profile** — fetch detailed data for a specific ResearchGate researcher profile - **By Publication ID** — fetch detailed metadata for a single publication by its ID - Filter by keyword, minimum citations, and publication year - Parses JSON-LD structured data (`ScholarlyArticle`, `Person`) embedded in ResearchGate HTML - Supplemental extraction from HTML text for reads, citations, h-index, and follower counts ### Output Fields #### Publication Records (`recordType: "publication"`) | Field | Type | Description | |-------|------|-------------| | `publicationId` | string | ResearchGate publication ID | | `title` | string | Publication title | | `abstract` | string | Abstract or description (up to 2000 chars) | | `authors` | array | Full list of author names | | `primaryAuthor` | string | First/primary author | | `journal` | string | Journal or conference name | | `publishedDate` | string | Publication year or full date | | `doi` | string | Digital Object Identifier | | `reads` | integer | Number of reads on ResearchGate | | `citations` | integer | Number of citations | | `recommendations` | integer | ResearchGate recommendations count | | `publicationUrl` | string | Full ResearchGate URL | | `pdfAvailable` | boolean | Whether a PDF download link was found | | `keywords` | array | Keywords from the publication | | `recordType` | string | Always `"publication"` | | `siteName` | string | Always `"ResearchGate"` | | `scrapedAt` | string | ISO-8601 scrape timestamp | #### Researcher Records (`recordType: "researcher"`) | Field | Type | Description | |-------|------|-------------| | `researcherId` | string | ResearchGate profile username/ID | | `name` | string | Full name | | `username` | string | Profile URL slug | | `institution` | string | Affiliated institution | | `department` | string | Department within institution | | `researchInterests` | array | Research interests/expertise areas | | `publicationsCount` | integer | Number of publications on ResearchGate | | `citationsCount` | integer | Total citation count | | `hIndex` | integer | h-index | | `followersCount` | integer | Number of followers | | `profileUrl` | string | Full ResearchGate profile URL | | `avatarUrl` | string | Profile photo URL | | `recordType` | string | Always `"researcher"` | | `siteName` | string | Always `"ResearchGate"` | | `scrapedAt` | string | ISO-8601 scrape timestamp | ### Input Options | Field | Type | Default | Description | |-------|------|---------|-------------| | `mode` | select | `searchPublications` | `searchPublications`, `searchResearchers`, `byProfile`, `byPublicationId` | | `query` | string | `deep learning` | Search query for `searchPublications` or `searchResearchers` | | `profileUsername` | string | — | Profile slug for `byProfile` mode (e.g. `Alice-Smith-42`) | | `publicationId` | string | — | Publication ID for `byPublicationId` mode (e.g. `379417897`) | | `containsKeyword` | string | — | Case-insensitive filter on title/abstract | | `minCitations` | integer | — | Minimum citation count (0–9,999,999) | | `fromYear` | integer | — | Only include publications from this year onwards (1900–2030) | | `maxItems` | integer | `20` | Maximum records to return (1–1000) | ### Example Use Cases **Search for papers on deep learning:** ```json {"mode": "searchPublications", "query": "deep learning", "maxItems": 20} ```` **Find highly-cited papers on cancer treatment from 2020+:** ```json {"mode": "searchPublications", "query": "cancer treatment", "minCitations": 100, "fromYear": 2020} ``` **Search for machine learning researchers:** ```json {"mode": "searchResearchers", "query": "machine learning", "maxItems": 20} ``` **Get a specific researcher's profile:** ```json {"mode": "byProfile", "profileUsername": "Yann-LeCun"} ``` **Get a single publication's details:** ```json {"mode": "byPublicationId", "publicationId": "379417897"} ``` ### FAQs **Do I need a ResearchGate account?** No authentication is required. The actor uses public HTML pages and JSON-LD structured data. **Why might some fields be missing?** ResearchGate doesn't always embed all data in machine-readable JSON-LD. Fields like reads, citations, and h-index are extracted from page text using pattern matching and may vary by page. **Are full paper PDFs downloaded?** No. The `pdfAvailable` field indicates whether ResearchGate shows a download link. The actor does not download or store PDF files. **How reliable is this scraper?** ResearchGate uses Cloudflare but serves most pages without JavaScript challenges for standard requests. The actor retries on 429/5xx responses with exponential backoff (10/20/40s delays, 3 attempts). **What is the `publicationId`?** It is the numeric ID from the ResearchGate URL: `researchgate.net/publication/379417897_...` — just the digits. **What is the `profileUsername`?** It is the slug from the ResearchGate profile URL: `researchgate.net/profile/Alice-Smith-42` — the `Alice-Smith-42` part. # Actor input Schema ## `mode` (type: `string`): What to scrape from ResearchGate. ## `query` (type: `string`): Keywords to search for (e.g. `deep learning`, `cancer treatment`, `climate change`). ## `profileUsername` (type: `string`): ResearchGate profile username/slug as it appears in the URL (e.g. `John-Smith-42`). ## `publicationId` (type: `string`): ResearchGate publication ID as it appears in the URL (e.g. `379417897`). ## `containsKeyword` (type: `string`): Only include publications whose title or abstract contains this keyword (case-insensitive). ## `minCitations` (type: `integer`): Only include publications with at least this many citations. ## `fromYear` (type: `integer`): Only include publications published in or after this year. ## `maxItems` (type: `integer`): Maximum number of records to return. ## `proxyConfiguration` (type: `object`): Apify proxy configuration. Residential proxy is required to bypass ResearchGate bot protection. ## Actor input object example ```json { "mode": "byPublicationId", "query": "deep learning", "publicationId": "267960035", "maxItems": 5, "proxyConfiguration": { "useApifyProxy": true, "apifyProxyGroups": [ "RESIDENTIAL" ] } } ``` # Actor output Schema ## `records` (type: `string`): Dataset containing all scraped ResearchGate records (publications and/or researchers). # 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 '' with your token const client = new ApifyClient({ token: '', }); // Prepare Actor input const input = { "mode": "byPublicationId", "query": "deep learning", "publicationId": "267960035", "maxItems": 5, "proxyConfiguration": { "useApifyProxy": true, "apifyProxyGroups": [ "RESIDENTIAL" ] } }; // Run the Actor and wait for it to finish const run = await client.actor("crawlerbros/researchgate-scraper").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 '' with your token. client = ApifyClient("") # Prepare the Actor input run_input = { "mode": "byPublicationId", "query": "deep learning", "publicationId": "267960035", "maxItems": 5, "proxyConfiguration": { "useApifyProxy": True, "apifyProxyGroups": ["RESIDENTIAL"], }, } # Run the Actor and wait for it to finish run = client.actor("crawlerbros/researchgate-scraper").call(run_input=run_input) # Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if there are any) print("💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/" + run["defaultDatasetId"]) for item in client.dataset(run["defaultDatasetId"]).iterate_items(): print(item) # 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs/quick-start ``` ## CLI example ```bash echo '{ "mode": "byPublicationId", "query": "deep learning", "publicationId": "267960035", "maxItems": 5, "proxyConfiguration": { "useApifyProxy": true, "apifyProxyGroups": [ "RESIDENTIAL" ] } }' | apify call crawlerbros/researchgate-scraper --silent --output-dataset ``` ## MCP server setup ```json { "mcpServers": { "apify": { "command": "npx", "args": [ "mcp-remote", "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=crawlerbros/researchgate-scraper", "--header", "Authorization: Bearer " ] } } } ``` ## OpenAPI specification ```json { "openapi": "3.0.1", "info": { "title": "ResearchGate Academic Scraper", "description": "Scrape ResearchGate for academic publications and researcher profiles. Search papers by query, browse researcher profiles, and fetch detailed publication metadata including citations, reads, DOI, and PDF availability.", "version": "1.0", "x-build-id": "bCt4u5Ka670OMaz9u" }, "servers": [ { "url": "https://api.apify.com/v2" } ], "paths": { "/acts/crawlerbros~researchgate-scraper/run-sync-get-dataset-items": { "post": { "operationId": "run-sync-get-dataset-items-crawlerbros-researchgate-scraper", "x-openai-isConsequential": false, "summary": "Executes an Actor, waits for its completion, and returns Actor's dataset items in response.", "tags": [ "Run Actor" ], "requestBody": { "required": true, "content": { "application/json": { "schema": { "$ref": "#/components/schemas/inputSchema" } } } }, "parameters": [ { "name": "token", "in": "query", "required": true, "schema": { "type": "string" }, "description": "Enter your Apify token here" } ], "responses": { "200": { "description": "OK" } } } }, "/acts/crawlerbros~researchgate-scraper/runs": { "post": { "operationId": "runs-sync-crawlerbros-researchgate-scraper", "x-openai-isConsequential": false, "summary": "Executes an Actor and returns information about the initiated run in response.", "tags": [ "Run Actor" ], "requestBody": { "required": true, "content": { "application/json": { "schema": { "$ref": "#/components/schemas/inputSchema" } } } }, "parameters": [ { "name": "token", "in": "query", "required": true, "schema": { "type": "string" }, "description": "Enter your Apify token here" } ], "responses": { "200": { "description": "OK", "content": { "application/json": { "schema": { "$ref": "#/components/schemas/runsResponseSchema" } } } } } } }, "/acts/crawlerbros~researchgate-scraper/run-sync": { "post": { "operationId": "run-sync-crawlerbros-researchgate-scraper", "x-openai-isConsequential": false, "summary": "Executes an Actor, waits for completion, and returns the OUTPUT from Key-value store in response.", "tags": [ "Run Actor" ], "requestBody": { "required": true, "content": { "application/json": { "schema": { "$ref": "#/components/schemas/inputSchema" } } } }, "parameters": [ { "name": "token", "in": "query", "required": true, "schema": { "type": "string" }, "description": "Enter your Apify token here" } ], "responses": { "200": { "description": "OK" } } } } }, "components": { "schemas": { "inputSchema": { "type": "object", "required": [ "mode" ], "properties": { "mode": { "title": "Mode", "enum": [ "searchPublications", "searchResearchers", "byProfile", "byPublicationId" ], "type": "string", "description": "What to scrape from ResearchGate.", "default": "byPublicationId" }, "query": { "title": "Search Query (mode=searchPublications or searchResearchers)", "type": "string", "description": "Keywords to search for (e.g. `deep learning`, `cancer treatment`, `climate change`).", "default": "deep learning" }, "profileUsername": { "title": "Profile Username (mode=byProfile)", "type": "string", "description": "ResearchGate profile username/slug as it appears in the URL (e.g. `John-Smith-42`)." }, "publicationId": { "title": "Publication ID (mode=byPublicationId)", "type": "string", "description": "ResearchGate publication ID as it appears in the URL (e.g. `379417897`).", "default": "267960035" }, "containsKeyword": { "title": "Contains Keyword", "type": "string", "description": "Only include publications whose title or abstract contains this keyword (case-insensitive)." }, "minCitations": { "title": "Minimum Citations", "minimum": 0, "maximum": 9999999, "type": "integer", "description": "Only include publications with at least this many citations." }, "fromYear": { "title": "Published From Year", "minimum": 1900, "maximum": 2030, "type": "integer", "description": "Only include publications published in or after this year." }, "maxItems": { "title": "Max Items", "minimum": 1, "maximum": 1000, "type": "integer", "description": "Maximum number of records to return.", "default": 5 }, "proxyConfiguration": { "title": "Proxy configuration", "type": "object", "description": "Apify proxy configuration. Residential proxy is required to bypass ResearchGate bot protection.", "default": { "useApifyProxy": true, "apifyProxyGroups": [ "RESIDENTIAL" ] } } } }, "runsResponseSchema": { "type": "object", "properties": { "data": { "type": "object", "properties": { "id": { "type": "string" }, "actId": { "type": "string" }, "userId": { "type": "string" }, "startedAt": { "type": "string", "format": "date-time", "example": "2025-01-08T00:00:00.000Z" }, "finishedAt": { "type": "string", "format": "date-time", "example": "2025-01-08T00:00:00.000Z" }, "status": { "type": "string", "example": "READY" }, "meta": { "type": "object", "properties": { "origin": { "type": "string", "example": "API" }, "userAgent": { "type": "string" } } }, "stats": { "type": "object", "properties": { "inputBodyLen": { "type": "integer", "example": 2000 }, "rebootCount": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "restartCount": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "resurrectCount": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "computeUnits": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 } } }, "options": { "type": "object", "properties": { "build": { "type": "string", "example": "latest" }, "timeoutSecs": { "type": "integer", "example": 300 }, "memoryMbytes": { "type": "integer", "example": 1024 }, "diskMbytes": { "type": "integer", "example": 2048 } } }, "buildId": { "type": "string" }, "defaultKeyValueStoreId": { "type": "string" }, "defaultDatasetId": { "type": "string" }, "defaultRequestQueueId": { "type": "string" }, "buildNumber": { "type": "string", "example": "1.0.0" }, "containerUrl": { "type": "string" }, "usage": { "type": "object", "properties": { "ACTOR_COMPUTE_UNITS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "DATASET_READS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "DATASET_WRITES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "KEY_VALUE_STORE_READS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "KEY_VALUE_STORE_WRITES": { "type": "integer", "example": 1 }, "KEY_VALUE_STORE_LISTS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "REQUEST_QUEUE_READS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "REQUEST_QUEUE_WRITES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "DATA_TRANSFER_INTERNAL_GBYTES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "DATA_TRANSFER_EXTERNAL_GBYTES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "PROXY_RESIDENTIAL_TRANSFER_GBYTES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "PROXY_SERPS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 } } }, "usageTotalUsd": { "type": "number", "example": 0.00005 }, "usageUsd": { "type": "object", "properties": { "ACTOR_COMPUTE_UNITS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "DATASET_READS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "DATASET_WRITES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "KEY_VALUE_STORE_READS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "KEY_VALUE_STORE_WRITES": { "type": "number", "example": 0.00005 }, "KEY_VALUE_STORE_LISTS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "REQUEST_QUEUE_READS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "REQUEST_QUEUE_WRITES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "DATA_TRANSFER_INTERNAL_GBYTES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "DATA_TRANSFER_EXTERNAL_GBYTES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "PROXY_RESIDENTIAL_TRANSFER_GBYTES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "PROXY_SERPS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 } } } } } } } } } } ```