Scholar Search API: OpenAlex, Crossref and arXiv Papers

Search academic papers across OpenAlex, Crossref and arXiv and get DOI, authors, year, citation count and PDF link as JSON. An open-data option if you need paper search without scraping Google Scholar.

Example input

{
  "queries": [
    "retrieval augmented generation"
  ],
  "maxResultsPerQuery": 10
}

How it works

• Each query is sent to the selected sources, and results are merged by DOI.
• You get title, authors, year, venue, citation count (where the source has one) and open-access links.

Output

One JSON record per result with: query, title, doi, year, authors, venue, type, citedByCount, url, pdfUrl, license, foundIn.

Limitations

• Records without authors (book front matter, many chapters) are dropped. Results are ranked by title match and citation count, and reprints of the same paper are merged (earliest year kept).
• If OpenAlex is unavailable, the Actor falls back to Crossref + arXiv, and well-known papers without a DOI (e.g. NeurIPS papers) can rank low.
• No full text, only metadata and links.
• No hits gives one NOT_FOUND row.
• On Apify's free plan, start one run at a time. Several runs started at once can be refused with HTTP 402 (memory limit for concurrent runs).

Invalid input

Text fields or list items that contain only spaces stop the run with a clear error before any external API is called. Nothing is charged.

No results

A query with no hits gives one row: {"query": ..., "status": "NOT_FOUND", "message": "No results for ..."}. It is not charged.

When something goes wrong

If the upstream API is down, times out or rejects the request, the run fails with a status message that says which API failed and why. You won't get an empty "success" that looks like "no results".

Price

$0.002 per paper. No start fee. Apify's free plan includes a small monthly credit, so testing costs next to nothing.

Using it from an MCP client

Apify's MCP server exposes it as a tool. You need an Apify account and API token (the free plan is enough to try it):

{ "mcpServers": { "apify": { "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=dataandbeyond/scholar-search", "headers": { "Authorization": "Bearer <APIFY_TOKEN>" } } } }

Or call it over HTTP and get the rows back directly:

curl -X POST "https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/dataandbeyond~scholar-search/run-sync-get-dataset-items" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $APIFY_TOKEN" -H 'Content-Type: application/json' -d '{"queries": ["retrieval augmented generation"], "maxResultsPerQuery": 10}'

Source and license

OpenAlex (CC0; used when the Actor has an OpenAlex key configured), Crossref REST API (metadata free to reuse), arXiv API (metadata CC0). Each record has a source field. Follow the source license if you redistribute the data.

Contact

Mark, Data and Beyond ApS (Denmark). Open an issue on the Actor page if something is wrong or missing.