# OpenAlex Works Scraper — Papers, Citations & Authors (`devilscrapes/openalex-works-scraper`) Actor

Search OpenAlex's 250M-work catalogue and export scholarly metadata — title, DOI, authors, institutions, journal, citation count, open-access status and publication date — as clean JSON, CSV or Excel.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/devilscrapes/openalex-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" />

## OpenAlex Works Scraper — Papers, Citations & Authors

**💰 $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 OpenAlex's 250M-work catalogue and export scholarly metadata — title, DOI, authors, institutions, journal, citation count, open-access status and publication date — as clean JSON, CSV or Excel.

</div>

***

### 🎯 What this scrapes

OpenAlex replaced Microsoft Academic Graph as the open citation index, and it is the only free source that covers authors, institutions and citation counts in one record. The API is generous but its records nest authorships, locations and open-access blocks several levels deep. This Actor flattens each work into one row with the author and institution lists already joined, so a literature landscape or a citation report lands straight in a spreadsheet.

### 🔥 What we handle for you

walks OpenAlex's cursor paging so there is no 10 000-record ceiling
flattens nested authorship and open-access blocks into one row per work
retries transient 429/5xx responses instead of failing the whole run

### 💡 Use cases

- Build a literature landscape for a research area with citation counts attached.
- Find which institutions publish most in a field before a partnership or hiring decision.
- Track a competitor lab's output and how often it gets cited.
- Assemble an open-access-only reading list you can actually download.

### ⚙️ 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 |
|---|---|:--:|---|---|
| `searchQuery` | `string` | no | 'large language models' | Full-text search across titles, abstracts and fulltext. Leave empty if you are filtering only. |
| `fromPublicationDate` | `string` | no | '2025-01-01' | Only works published on or after this date, as <code>YYYY-MM-DD</code>. Leave empty for no floor. |
| `openAccessOnly` | `boolean` | no | False | Restrict results to works with a free full text. |
| `minCitations` | `integer` | no | 0 | Only works cited at least this many times. Leave at 0 for no floor. |
| `maxResults` | `integer` | no | 100 | Stop after this many works. Each work is one billed result row. |
| `proxyConfiguration` | `object` | no | {'useApifyProxy': False} | OpenAlex is a public API and does not need a proxy. Leave this off unless your account requires egress through Apify… |

#### Example input

```json
{
  "searchQuery": "large language models",
  "fromPublicationDate": "2025-01-01",
  "maxResults": 3,
  "proxyConfiguration": {
    "useApifyProxy": false
  }
}
```

### 📤 Output

Every row is one dataset item.

| Field | Type | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| `openalex_id` | `string` | OpenAlex work identifier. |
| `doi` | `string` | DOI URL, when the work has one. |
| `title` | `string` | Work title. |
| `publication_year` | `integer` | Year of publication. |
| `publication_date` | `string` | Publication date (`YYYY-MM-DD`). |
| `type` | `string` | Work type, e.g. `article`, `preprint`. |
| `language` | `string` | Two-letter language code. |
| `cited_by_count` | `integer` | Number of citing works. |
| `is_open_access` | `boolean` | Whether a free full text exists. |
| `oa_status` | `string` | Open-access colour, e.g. `gold`, `green`, `closed`. |
| `source_name` | `string` | Journal or repository name. |
| `landing_page_url` | `string` | Publisher landing page. |
| `pdf_url` | `string` | Direct PDF URL when OpenAlex knows one. |
| `authors` | `array` | Author display names, in listed order. |
| `first_author` | `string` | First author's display name. |
| `institutions` | `array` | Distinct affiliated institution names. |
| `countries_count` | `integer` | Distinct author countries. |

#### Example output

```json
{}
```

### 💰 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 and links only — it does not download PDFs or reconstruct abstracts.
- Citation counts are OpenAlex's own and will differ from Scopus or Web of Science.

### ❓ FAQ

**Do I need an API key?**

No. OpenAlex is free and keyless. The Actor identifies itself politely so runs stay inside the shared rate limit.

**How deep can I page?**

OpenAlex's cursor paging has no 10 000-record wall, so the only limit is the <b>Maximum works</b> you set.

**Are abstracts included?**

No — the row carries metadata and links. Abstracts are inverted-index encoded in OpenAlex and are a poor fit for a flat spreadsheet column.

### 💬 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

## `searchQuery` (type: `string`):

Full-text search across titles, abstracts and fulltext. 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.

## `openAccessOnly` (type: `boolean`):

Restrict results to works with a free full text.

## `minCitations` (type: `integer`):

Only works cited at least this many times. Leave at 0 for no floor.

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

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

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

OpenAlex 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
{
  "searchQuery": "large language models",
  "fromPublicationDate": "2025-01-01",
  "openAccessOnly": false,
  "minCitations": 0,
  "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 = {
    "searchQuery": "large language models",
    "fromPublicationDate": "2025-01-01",
    "proxyConfiguration": {
        "useApifyProxy": false
    }
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("devilscrapes/openalex-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 = {
    "searchQuery": "large language models",
    "fromPublicationDate": "2025-01-01",
    "proxyConfiguration": { "useApifyProxy": False },
}

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("devilscrapes/openalex-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 '{
  "searchQuery": "large language models",
  "fromPublicationDate": "2025-01-01",
  "proxyConfiguration": {
    "useApifyProxy": false
  }
}' |
apify call devilscrapes/openalex-works-scraper --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,devilscrapes/openalex-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/29aw8Iq45RRe7LFLb/builds/FhBipzviCrX7qXire/openapi.json