# Crossref Works Scraper — DOIs, Authors & Citations (`devilscrapes/crossref-works-scraper`) Actor

Search Crossref's 150M+ DOI registry by bibliographic query and metadata filters, and export title, publisher, journal, full author list with ORCID and affiliation, citation counts, funder/award data, license, ISSN, and abstract as clean JSON, CSV, or Excel.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/devilscrapes/crossref-works-scraper.md
- **Developed by:** [DevilScrapes](https://apify.com/devilscrapes) (community)
- **Categories:** Other, Developer tools
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

Pay per event

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/platform/actors/running/actors-in-store#pay-per-event

## What's an Apify Actor?

Actors are web data automations that power AI and operations. They run on the Apify platform to scrape websites, process data, connect APIs, and automate workflows.
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.

- **AI agents and MCP clients** — the [Apify MCP server](https://docs.apify.com/integrations/mcp.md) at `https://mcp.apify.com` (remote, streamable HTTP, OAuth on first use).
- **Agentic workflows and local Actor development** — [Agent Skills](https://apify.com/.well-known/agent-skills/index.json) with the [Apify CLI](https://docs.apify.com/cli/docs.md): `npm install -g apify-cli`, then `apify login`.
- **JavaScript/TypeScript projects** — the official [JS/TS client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs.md): `npm install apify-client`.
- **Python projects** — the official [Python client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs.md): `pip install apify-client`.
- **Any other language** — 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

<div align="center">
  <img src=".actor/icon.svg" width="160" alt="Devil Scrapes mark" />

## Crossref Works Scraper — DOIs, Authors & Citations

**💰 $2.05 / 1 000 results**  ·  pay only for results  ·  no credit card to try

*We do the dirty work so your dataset stays clean.* 😈

Search Crossref's 150M+ DOI registry by bibliographic query and metadata filters, and export title, publisher, journal, full author list with ORCID and affiliation, citation counts, funder/award data, license, ISSN, and abstract as clean JSON, CSV, or Excel.

</div>

***

### 🎯 What this scrapes

Crossref is the DOI registration agency behind most scholarly publishing — 150M+ journal articles, book chapters, datasets, preprints, and proceedings, each with publisher-submitted metadata exposed through one keyless JSON API. The catch is cursor-only deep paging plus metadata that nests authors, funders, and licenses several levels down. This Actor walks Crossref's cursor pages for you and flattens every work into one row — authors keep their ORCID and affiliation, funders keep their award numbers — so a scholarly-output tracker or funder-compliance report lands straight in a spreadsheet.

### 🔥 What we handle for you

walks Crossref's `cursor` paging so there is no ~10 000-record offset ceiling
flattens nested author/funder/license blocks into clean rows — authors keep ORCID and affiliation, funders keep award numbers
retries transient 429/5xx responses with backoff instead of failing the whole run

### 💡 Use cases

- Track a competitor lab's or institution's new publications as they're registered with Crossref.
- Pull citation counts for a grant or tenure report without hand-rolling the API.
- Check funder compliance — confirm published works credit the right funder and award number.
- Build a publisher- or journal-level dataset of works, ISSNs, and licenses for a research-ops pipeline.

### ⚙️ How to use it

1. Click **Try for free** at the top of the page.
2. Fill in the input form — most fields have sensible defaults.
3. Click **Start**. Output streams into the run's dataset.
4. Export from **Storage → Dataset** as JSON, CSV, or Excel — or fetch via the API.

### 📥 Input

| Field | Type | Required | Default | Notes |
|---|---|:--:|---|---|
| `query` | `string` | no | 'climate change adaptation' | Free-text bibliographic search (title, author, journal, year all matched together). Leave empty if you are filtering… |
| `fromPublicationDate` | `string` | no | '2020-01-01' | Only works published on or after this date, as <code>YYYY-MM-DD</code>. Leave empty for no floor. |
| `untilPublicationDate` | `string` | no | '—' | Only works published on or before this date, as <code>YYYY-MM-DD</code>. Leave empty for no ceiling. |
| `workType` | `string` | no | 'journal-article' | Restrict to one Crossref work type. Leave empty to match every type. |
| `publisherName` | `string` | no | '—' | Substring match against the publisher name, e.g. <code>Elsevier</code>. Leave empty for any publisher. |
| `hasOrcid` | `boolean` | no | False | Only return works where at least one author has an ORCID on file. |
| `hasAbstract` | `boolean` | no | False | Only return works that carry an abstract. |
| `hasFullText` | `boolean` | no | False | Only return works Crossref has a full-text link for. |
| `funderName` | `string` | no | '—' | A funder's common name (e.g. <code>Wellcome Trust</code>) matched case-insensitively against each work's funder list,… |
| `sortField` | `string` | no | 'score' | Field Crossref sorts results by. |
| `sortOrder` | `string` | no | 'desc' | Ascending or descending. |
| `maxResults` | `integer` | no | 100 | Stop after this many works. Each work is one billed result row. |
| `proxyConfiguration` | `object` | no | {'useApifyProxy': False} | Crossref is a public API and does not need a proxy. Leave this off unless your account requires egress through Apify… |

#### Example input

```json
{
  "query": "climate change adaptation",
  "workType": "journal-article",
  "maxResults": 3,
  "proxyConfiguration": {
    "useApifyProxy": false
  }
}
```

### 📤 Output

Every row is one dataset item.

| Field | Type | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| `doi` | `string` | Bare DOI string, e.g. `10.1037/xyz` (no `https://doi.org/` prefix). |
| `title` | `string` | Work title. |
| `type` | `string` | Crossref work type, e.g. `journal-article`. |
| `publisher` | `string` | Publisher name. |
| `container_title` | `string` | Journal or series title (first entry if Crossref lists several). |
| `authors` | `array` | Author list, each with `name`, `orcid`, and `affiliation`. |
| `author_count` | `integer` | Number of authors — convenience scalar. |
| `published_date` | `string` | Best-available publication date (`YYYY`, `YYYY-MM`, or `YYYY-MM-DD`). |
| `volume` | `string` | Journal volume. |
| `issue` | `string` | Journal issue. |
| `page` | `string` | Page range. |
| `issn` | `array` | ISSNs (print and/or electronic). |
| `license_url` | `string` | License URL (first entry if Crossref lists several). |
| `license_count` | `integer` | Number of license entries Crossref returned. |
| `funders` | `array` | Funder list, each with `name`, `doi`, and `award_numbers`. |
| `is_referenced_by_count` | `integer` | Citation count. |
| `abstract` | `string` | Abstract, passed through verbatim (JATS XML tags included, not stripped). |
| `url` | `string` | Work URL — Crossref's own `URL`, or `https://doi.org/<doi>` when absent. |

#### Example output

```json
{
  "doi": "10.1371/journal.pone.0212345",
  "title": "Example study on citation graphs",
  "type": "journal-article",
  "publisher": "Public Library of Science (PLoS)",
  "container_title": "PLOS ONE",
  "authors": [
    {
      "name": "Jane Q. Researcher",
      "orcid": "0000-0002-1234-5678",
      "affiliation": "University of Somewhere"
    }
  ],
  "author_count": 1,
  "published_date": "2023-04-12",
  "volume": "18",
  "issue": "4",
  "page": "e0212345",
  "issn": [
    "1932-6203"
  ],
  "license_url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
  "license_count": 1,
  "funders": [
    {
      "name": "Wellcome Trust",
      "doi": "10.13039/100004440",
      "award_numbers": [
        "WT12345"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "is_referenced_by_count": 42,
  "abstract": "<jats:p>We present an analysis of...</jats:p>",
  "url": "https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0212345"
}
```

### 💰 Pricing

Pay-Per-Event — you pay only when these events fire:

| Event | USD | What it is |
|---|---:|---|
| `actor-start` | $0.05 | One-off warm-up charge per run |
| `result` | $0.002 | Per dataset item |

Example: 1 000 results at the rates above ≈ **$2.05**. No subscription, no minimum, no card to start — Apify gives every new account $5 of free credit.

### 🚧 Limitations

- Metadata only — it does not download PDFs or full text.
- The `abstract` field is passed through verbatim, JATS XML tags included; the Actor does not strip or reformat it.
- Free-text funder-name matching is a client-side substring match and can return false positives (e.g. "Gates" matches multiple foundations) — pass the exact Funder DOI for precision.

### ❓ FAQ

**Do I need an API key?**

No. Crossref's works API is free and keyless. The Actor sends a polite, identifying User-Agent so runs stay inside Crossref's shared rate limit.

**How deep can I page?**

Crossref's cursor paging has no ~10 000-record wall the way offset paging does — the only limit is the <b>Maximum works</b> you set.

**Can I filter by funder name instead of a Funder DOI?**

Yes — type a funder's common name (e.g. "Wellcome Trust") and the Actor keeps only works whose funder list contains a case-insensitive match. Pass the exact Funder Registry DOI (e.g. <code>10.13039/100004440</code>) for an exact server-side filter instead.

### 💬 Your feedback

Spotted a bug, hit a weird edge case, or need a new field? Open an
issue on the Actor's **Issues** tab on Apify Console — we ship
fixes weekly and we read every report.

***

<div align="center">

Built by **[Devil Scrapes](https://apify.com/DevilScrapes)** 😈 — a small fleet of
opinionated public-data Actors. Honest pricing, real engineering, zero fine print.

</div>

# Actor input Schema

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

Free-text bibliographic search (title, author, journal, year all matched together). Leave empty if you are filtering only.

## `fromPublicationDate` (type: `string`):

Only works published on or after this date, as <code>YYYY-MM-DD</code>. Leave empty for no floor.

## `untilPublicationDate` (type: `string`):

Only works published on or before this date, as <code>YYYY-MM-DD</code>. Leave empty for no ceiling.

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

Restrict to one Crossref work type. Leave empty to match every type.

## `publisherName` (type: `string`):

Substring match against the publisher name, e.g. <code>Elsevier</code>. Leave empty for any publisher.

## `hasOrcid` (type: `boolean`):

Only return works where at least one author has an ORCID on file.

## `hasAbstract` (type: `boolean`):

Only return works that carry an abstract.

## `hasFullText` (type: `boolean`):

Only return works Crossref has a full-text link for.

## `funderName` (type: `string`):

A funder's common name (e.g. <code>Wellcome Trust</code>) matched case-insensitively against each work's funder list, or an exact Funder Registry DOI (e.g. <code>10.13039/100004440</code>) sent straight to Crossref as a server-side filter. Leave empty for any funder.

## `sortField` (type: `string`):

Field Crossref sorts results by.

## `sortOrder` (type: `string`):

Ascending or descending.

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

Stop after this many works. Each work is one billed result row.

## `proxyConfiguration` (type: `object`):

Crossref is a public API and does not need a proxy. Leave this off unless your account requires egress through Apify Proxy.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "query": "climate change adaptation",
  "fromPublicationDate": "2020-01-01",
  "workType": "journal-article",
  "hasOrcid": false,
  "hasAbstract": false,
  "hasFullText": false,
  "sortField": "score",
  "sortOrder": "desc",
  "maxResults": 100,
  "proxyConfiguration": {
    "useApifyProxy": false
  }
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `datasetItems` (type: `string`):

All dataset items as JSON.

## `datasetItemsCsv` (type: `string`):

Same data exported to CSV.

## `datasetView` (type: `string`):

Open the run dataset in the Console.

# 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": "climate change adaptation",
    "fromPublicationDate": "2020-01-01",
    "workType": "journal-article",
    "proxyConfiguration": {
        "useApifyProxy": false
    }
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("devilscrapes/crossref-works-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 '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token.
client = ApifyClient("<YOUR_API_TOKEN>")

# Prepare the Actor input
run_input = {
    "query": "climate change adaptation",
    "fromPublicationDate": "2020-01-01",
    "workType": "journal-article",
    "proxyConfiguration": { "useApifyProxy": False },
}

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("devilscrapes/crossref-works-scraper").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": "climate change adaptation",
  "fromPublicationDate": "2020-01-01",
  "workType": "journal-article",
  "proxyConfiguration": {
    "useApifyProxy": false
  }
}' |
apify call devilscrapes/crossref-works-scraper --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,devilscrapes/crossref-works-scraper"
        }
    }
}

```

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/1l77LNifRj0Uy5eov/builds/9OuN4lx2LfVkp5CCv/openapi.json