# Crossref Scraper — Scholarly Works, DOIs & Citations (`hipersoft/crossref-scraper`) Actor

Bulk-scrape scholarly works from Crossref's 150M+ record index: DOI, title, authors (with ORCID), journal, publisher, publication date, citation count, references, ISSN, subjects and abstract. Full-text search, date and type filters, thousands of results per run. No login, no API key.

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

## Pricing

from $0.0004 / work scraped

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 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/docs.md):

```bash
npm install apify-client
```

In Python projects, use official [Python client library](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs.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/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

## Crossref Scraper — Bulk Scholarly Works, DOIs, Citations & Metadata

Bulk-scrape scholarly metadata from **Crossref**, the DOI registry indexing **150M+ works** across virtually every academic publisher. Get DOIs, titles, authors (with ORCID), journals, publishers, publication dates, **citation counts**, references, ISSNs, subjects and abstracts. Full-text search plus date and type filters. Thousands of results per run. No account, no API key.

### Features

- 🔎 **Full-text search** — across titles, authors, journals and more
- 📅 **Date filters** — from/until publication date
- 🗂️ **Type filter** — journal-article, book-chapter, proceedings-article, dataset, preprint…
- 🔗 **DOIs + citation counts** — `is-referenced-by-count` per work, plus reference counts
- 👥 **Authors with ORCID + affiliation**
- 🧾 **Abstracts** — when the publisher deposits them (coverage varies)
- 📊 **Bulk & deep-paginated** — cursor paging scales to hundreds of thousands of records

### What you get

One record per work:

```json
{
  "doi": "10.1089/crispr.2018.29011.rba",
  "title": "Cultivating CRISPR",
  "type": "journal-article",
  "authors": [{ "name": "Rodolphe Barrangou", "given": "Rodolphe", "family": "Barrangou", "orcid": null, "affiliation": [] }],
  "journal": "The CRISPR Journal",
  "publisher": "SAGE Publications",
  "publishedYear": 2018,
  "citationCount": 12,
  "referenceCount": 0,
  "issn": "2573-1599",
  "subjects": [],
  "url": "https://doi.org/10.1089/crispr.2018.29011.rba",
  "abstract": null
}
````

### Input

```json
{
  "query": "crispr gene editing",
  "fromDate": "2020-01-01",
  "type": "journal-article",
  "maxResults": 5000
}
```

| Field | Description |
|-------|-------------|
| `query` | Free-text search (blank = browse by filters only). |
| `fromDate` / `toDate` | Publication date range. |
| `type` | Crossref work type filter. |
| `hasAbstractOnly` | Only works that include an abstract. |
| `maxResults` | Max works to return. |
| `mailto` | Your email — joins Crossref's faster "polite pool". |

### Use cases

- **Literature reviews & bibliometrics** — pull every work on a topic with citation counts
- **Research databases** — build DOI/metadata datasets at scale
- **Citation analysis** — rank works and authors by impact
- **Publisher / journal monitoring** — track new output by type and date

### Pricing

Pay-per-event: a small amount per work scraped. See the **Pricing** tab for current rates.

### FAQ

**Do I need an API key?**
No. This Actor uses the public [Crossref](https://www.crossref.org) REST API — no account, login or API key needed. You can optionally add your email via `mailto` to join Crossref's faster "polite pool".

**How many works can I scrape per run?**
Set `maxResults` as high as you need — cursor paging scales to hundreds of thousands of records per run, so you can pull an entire topic or date range in one go.

**Is scraping Crossref legal?**
Yes. Crossref openly publishes DOI and citation metadata through its REST API, and this Actor reads only those public records and returns them as-is.

**What format is the output?**
Structured JSON — one record per work — exportable as JSON, CSV or Excel. Each record includes DOI, title, authors with ORCID, journal, publisher, publication year, citation count, references and (where deposited) an abstract.

**Can I filter by date or work type?**
Yes. Use `fromDate`/`toDate` for a publication date range, `type` to keep only `journal-article`, `book-chapter`, `dataset`, `preprint` etc., and `hasAbstractOnly` to return only works that include an abstract.

### Related Actors

Building a citation or metadata dataset? These other hipersoft scrapers pair well with this one:

- [OpenAlex Scraper](https://apify.com/hipersoft/openalex-scraper) — 250M+ scholarly works with citations, authors and abstracts
- [Semantic Scholar Scraper](https://apify.com/hipersoft/semantic-scholar-scraper) — papers with citation and influential-citation metrics
- [PubMed Scraper](https://apify.com/hipersoft/pubmed-scraper) — biomedical papers, abstracts and MeSH terms
- [arXiv Papers Scraper](https://apify.com/hipersoft/arxiv-scraper) — preprints with full abstracts and PDF links

### Notes

Uses the public Crossref REST API. Returns Crossref's openly-available metadata as-is. This is an independent tool and is not affiliated with or endorsed by Crossref.

# Actor input Schema

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

Free-text search across titles, authors, journals and more. Leave blank to browse purely by the filters below.

## `fromDate` (type: `string`):

Earliest publication date (YYYY-MM-DD or YYYY). Optional.

## `toDate` (type: `string`):

Latest publication date (YYYY-MM-DD or YYYY). Optional.

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

Filter by type, e.g. journal-article, book-chapter, proceedings-article, dataset, posted-content. Optional.

## `hasAbstractOnly` (type: `boolean`):

Return only records that include an abstract.

## `includeAbstract` (type: `boolean`):

Include abstract text when Crossref has it (coverage varies by publisher).

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

Maximum works to return (a broad query can match hundreds of thousands).

## `mailto` (type: `string`):

Your email — joins Crossref's faster 'polite pool'. Optional.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "query": "crispr gene editing",
  "hasAbstractOnly": false,
  "includeAbstract": true,
  "maxResults": 1000
}
```

# 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": "crispr gene editing"
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("hipersoft/crossref-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": "crispr gene editing" }

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("hipersoft/crossref-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 '{
  "query": "crispr gene editing"
}' |
apify call hipersoft/crossref-scraper --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "command": "npx",
            "args": [
                "mcp-remote",
                "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=hipersoft/crossref-scraper",
                "--header",
                "Authorization: Bearer <YOUR_API_TOKEN>"
            ]
        }
    }
}

```

## OpenAPI specification

```json
{
    "openapi": "3.0.1",
    "info": {
        "title": "Crossref Scraper — Scholarly Works, DOIs & Citations",
        "description": "Bulk-scrape scholarly works from Crossref's 150M+ record index: DOI, title, authors (with ORCID), journal, publisher, publication date, citation count, references, ISSN, subjects and abstract. Full-text search, date and type filters, thousands of results per run. No login, no API key.",
        "version": "1.0",
        "x-build-id": "jj4LxerU3gsmYOeeX"
    },
    "servers": [
        {
            "url": "https://api.apify.com/v2"
        }
    ],
    "paths": {
        "/acts/hipersoft~crossref-scraper/run-sync-get-dataset-items": {
            "post": {
                "operationId": "run-sync-get-dataset-items-hipersoft-crossref-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": {
                                "$ref": "#/components/schemas/inputSchema"
                            }
                        }
                    }
                },
                "parameters": [
                    {
                        "name": "token",
                        "in": "query",
                        "required": true,
                        "schema": {
                            "type": "string"
                        },
                        "description": "Enter your Apify token here"
                    }
                ],
                "responses": {
                    "200": {
                        "description": "OK"
                    }
                }
            }
        },
        "/acts/hipersoft~crossref-scraper/runs": {
            "post": {
                "operationId": "runs-sync-hipersoft-crossref-scraper",
                "x-openai-isConsequential": false,
                "summary": "Executes an Actor and returns information about the initiated run in response.",
                "tags": [
                    "Run Actor"
                ],
                "requestBody": {
                    "required": true,
                    "content": {
                        "application/json": {
                            "schema": {
                                "$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": {
                                    "$ref": "#/components/schemas/runsResponseSchema"
                                }
                            }
                        }
                    }
                }
            }
        },
        "/acts/hipersoft~crossref-scraper/run-sync": {
            "post": {
                "operationId": "run-sync-hipersoft-crossref-scraper",
                "x-openai-isConsequential": false,
                "summary": "Executes an Actor, waits for completion, and returns the OUTPUT from Key-value store in response.",
                "tags": [
                    "Run Actor"
                ],
                "requestBody": {
                    "required": true,
                    "content": {
                        "application/json": {
                            "schema": {
                                "$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",
                "properties": {
                    "query": {
                        "title": "Search query",
                        "type": "string",
                        "description": "Free-text search across titles, authors, journals and more. Leave blank to browse purely by the filters below."
                    },
                    "fromDate": {
                        "title": "Published from",
                        "type": "string",
                        "description": "Earliest publication date (YYYY-MM-DD or YYYY). Optional."
                    },
                    "toDate": {
                        "title": "Published to",
                        "type": "string",
                        "description": "Latest publication date (YYYY-MM-DD or YYYY). Optional."
                    },
                    "type": {
                        "title": "Work type",
                        "type": "string",
                        "description": "Filter by type, e.g. journal-article, book-chapter, proceedings-article, dataset, posted-content. Optional."
                    },
                    "hasAbstractOnly": {
                        "title": "Only works with an abstract",
                        "type": "boolean",
                        "description": "Return only records that include an abstract.",
                        "default": false
                    },
                    "includeAbstract": {
                        "title": "Include abstracts",
                        "type": "boolean",
                        "description": "Include abstract text when Crossref has it (coverage varies by publisher).",
                        "default": true
                    },
                    "maxResults": {
                        "title": "Max results",
                        "minimum": 1,
                        "maximum": 200000,
                        "type": "integer",
                        "description": "Maximum works to return (a broad query can match hundreds of thousands).",
                        "default": 1000
                    },
                    "mailto": {
                        "title": "Contact email (optional)",
                        "type": "string",
                        "description": "Your email — joins Crossref's faster 'polite pool'. Optional."
                    }
                }
            },
            "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
                                    }
                                }
                            }
                        }
                    }
                }
            }
        }
    }
}
```