# ORCID Researcher Profiles Scraper (`devilscrapes/orcid-researcher-profiles-scraper`) Actor

Search ORCID's public 20M+ researcher registry by name, institution, email, or a raw Lucene query, and export flat profile rows with optional per-researcher employment history (organization, role, department, start/end dates) enrichment.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/devilscrapes/orcid-researcher-profiles-scraper.md
- **Developed by:** [DevilScrapes](https://apify.com/devilscrapes) (community)
- **Categories:** Lead generation, 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/actors/running/actors-in-store.md#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" />

## ORCID Researcher Profiles Scraper

**💰 $3.20 / 1 000 results**  ·  pay only for results  ·  no credit card to try

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

Search ORCID's public 20M+ researcher registry by name, institution, email, or a raw Lucene query, and export flat profile rows with optional per-researcher employment history (organization, role, department, start/end dates) enrichment.

</div>

***

### 🎯 What this scrapes

ORCID is the researcher-identity registry behind most of scholarly publishing — every ORCID iD carries a public profile with names, affiliations, and (optionally) employment history. The registry's own search API exposes a full Lucene query syntax, but no public tool surfaces it, and the pagination ceiling ORCID enforces for unauthenticated callers is easy to walk straight past without noticing. This Actor builds correct Lucene queries from plain fields, paginates honestly against ORCID's own limits, and — on request — fetches each researcher's employment history so a recruiting or research-ops list lands in one flat, ready-to-use dataset.

### 🔥 What we handle for you

- Builds correct ORCID Lucene queries from plain fields — no field-name guessing, no malformed clause syntax.
- Paginates `expanded-search` honestly against ORCID's own documented `rows`/`start` ceilings, re-checking `num-found` every page instead of trusting a stale first read.
- Retries transient `429`/`5xx` responses with backoff, and never retries a documented `400` — it surfaces ORCID's own error message instead.

### 💡 Use cases

- Build a recruiting longlist of researchers at a target institution or department.
- Track a competitor lab's or department's current and former staff.
- Enrich a CRM or outreach list with verified ORCID iDs and public affiliation history.
- Compile an institutional or funder report of researchers matching a name/affiliation query.

### ⚙️ How to use it

1. Click **Try for free** at the top of the page.
2. Fill in at least one search field — a name, an institution, an email, or a raw Lucene query.
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 |
|---|---|:--:|---|---|
| `givenNames` | `string` | no | — | Given (first) name(s). |
| `familyNames` | `string` | no | — | Family (last) name(s). |
| `creditName` | `string` | no | — | Published/credit name, if different. |
| `affiliationOrgName` | `string` | no | 'MIT' | Any affiliation (past or present) organization name. |
| `currentInstitution` | `string` | no | — | Current employer/institution name only. |
| `email` | `string` | no | — | Public email address on file. |
| `freeText` | `string` | no | — | Unprefixed broad-match search term. |
| `rawQuery` | `string` | no | — | Advanced: a raw ORCID Lucene query string. Overrides every other field when set. |
| `maxResults` | `integer` | no | 200 | Stop after this many profiles. ORCID caps effective reach at index ~11 000. |
| `enrichEmployment` | `boolean` | no | false | +1 HTTP call/row for full employment history at the same per-row price. |
| `proxyConfiguration` | `object` | no | `{"useApifyProxy": true}` | Apify Proxy settings. |

At least one of `givenNames`, `familyNames`, `creditName`, `affiliationOrgName`, `currentInstitution`, `email`, `freeText`, or `rawQuery` must be set — an unconstrained search against 20M+ records is not supported.

#### Example input

```json
{
  "affiliationOrgName": "MIT",
  "maxResults": 20,
  "enrichEmployment": false,
  "proxyConfiguration": {
    "useApifyProxy": true
  }
}
```

### 📤 Output

Every row is one dataset item.

| Field | Type | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| `orcid_id` | `string` | ORCID iD, e.g. `0000-0002-4392-0814`. |
| `given_names` | `string` | Given (first) name(s). |
| `family_names` | `string` | Family (last) name(s). |
| `credit_name` | `string` | Published/credit name, when different. |
| `email` | `string` | First public email on file, if any. |
| `institutions` | `array` | All affiliation organization names, order preserved. |
| `current_institution` | `string` | Current employer — only set when `enrichEmployment` is true. |
| `current_role` | `string` | Current role title — only set when `enrichEmployment` is true. |
| `employment_history` | `array` | Full employment history — only set when `enrichEmployment` is true. |

#### Example output

```json
{
  "orcid_id": "0000-0002-4392-0814",
  "given_names": "Donald",
  "family_names": "Smith",
  "credit_name": null,
  "email": null,
  "institutions": ["Guilford College", "MIT", "The University of Chicago"],
  "current_institution": "Guilford College",
  "current_role": "Professor",
  "employment_history": [
    {
      "organization_name": "Guilford College",
      "city": "Greensboro",
      "region": "NC",
      "country": "US",
      "role_title": "Professor",
      "department_name": "Physics",
      "start_date": "2005-08-01",
      "end_date": null,
      "is_current": true
    }
  ]
}
```

### 💰 Pricing

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

| Event | USD | What it is |
|---|---:|---|
| `actor-start` | $0.20 | One-off warm-up charge per run |
| `result-emitted` | $0.003 | Per researcher profile written to the dataset |

Example: 1 000 results at the rates above ≈ **$3.20**. No subscription, no minimum, no card to start — Apify gives every new account $5 of free credit.

### 🚧 Limitations

- Only public ORCID data is fetched — no OAuth-scoped or `/read-limited` fields are requested or inferred.
- Unauthenticated ORCID reach is capped at `start<=10 000` — a very broad query (e.g. a common surname with no other filter) may not reach every match. `maxResults` is capped at 11 000 for the same reason.
- `enrichEmployment` adds one HTTP call per row and increases run time; a researcher with no employment data on file simply returns empty enrichment fields, not an error.

### ❓ FAQ

**Do I need an API key?**

No. ORCID's public Search and `/employments` APIs are free and keyless.

**Why does a broad query sometimes return fewer rows than expected?**

ORCID caps unauthenticated pagination at index ~11 000. See Limitations above.

**Can I write my own advanced query?**

Yes — set `rawQuery` to a raw ORCID Lucene query string (e.g. `family-name:Smith AND affiliation-org-name:MIT`) and it overrides every structured field.

### 💬 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

## `givenNames` (type: `string`):

Researcher's given (first) name(s). Builds a `given-names:` Lucene clause.

## `familyNames` (type: `string`):

Researcher's family (last) name(s). Builds a `family-name:` Lucene clause.

## `creditName` (type: `string`):

Published/credit name, if different from given+family name. Builds a `credit-name:` Lucene clause.

## `affiliationOrgName` (type: `string`):

Any affiliation (past or present) organization name, e.g. <code>MIT</code>. Builds an `affiliation-org-name:` Lucene clause.

## `currentInstitution` (type: `string`):

Current employer/institution name only. Builds a `current-institution-affiliation-name:` Lucene clause.

## `email` (type: `string`):

Public email address on file. Builds an `email:` Lucene clause.

## `freeText` (type: `string`):

Unprefixed broad-match search term, combined with any structured fields above.

## `rawQuery` (type: `string`):

Advanced: a raw ORCID Lucene query string, e.g. <code>family-name:Smith AND affiliation-org-name:MIT</code>. When set, this overrides every other field above.

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

Stop after this many researcher profiles. ORCID's unauthenticated API caps effective reach at index ~11 000.

## `enrichEmployment` (type: `boolean`):

Fetch each researcher's `/employments` record (one extra HTTP call per row) to fill current institution/role and full employment history. Increases run time; billed at the same per-row price.

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

Apify Proxy settings. ORCID's public API has shown no fingerprint blocking, but Apify Proxy stays on by default per fleet policy.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "affiliationOrgName": "MIT",
  "maxResults": 20,
  "enrichEmployment": false,
  "proxyConfiguration": {
    "useApifyProxy": true
  }
}
```

# 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 = {
    "affiliationOrgName": "MIT",
    "maxResults": 20,
    "enrichEmployment": false,
    "proxyConfiguration": {
        "useApifyProxy": true
    }
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("devilscrapes/orcid-researcher-profiles-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 = {
    "affiliationOrgName": "MIT",
    "maxResults": 20,
    "enrichEmployment": False,
    "proxyConfiguration": { "useApifyProxy": True },
}

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("devilscrapes/orcid-researcher-profiles-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 '{
  "affiliationOrgName": "MIT",
  "maxResults": 20,
  "enrichEmployment": false,
  "proxyConfiguration": {
    "useApifyProxy": true
  }
}' |
apify call devilscrapes/orcid-researcher-profiles-scraper --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,devilscrapes/orcid-researcher-profiles-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/EQ8dH1UqaFkEQhNT9/builds/bs9DdaR2UJ68EKDPF/openapi.json