# Most-cited papers on a topic since 2020

**Use case:** 

Searches OpenAlex for the most-cited papers on a topic published since 2020 and returns one row per paper: title, abstract, year, venue and publisher, DOI, citation count and percentile, open-access status with the PDF link when one exists, authors with institutions, topics and keywords. Change the query, the year window, or add Crossref, arXiv and PubMed as extra sources.

## Input

```json
{
  "queries": [
    "large language models"
  ],
  "sources": [
    "openalex"
  ],
  "maxResults": 100,
  "dois": [],
  "arxivIds": [],
  "pmids": [],
  "arxivCategories": [],
  "yearFrom": 2020,
  "types": [],
  "openAccessOnly": false,
  "sortBy": "citations",
  "includeAbstract": true,
  "includeAuthors": true,
  "dedupe": true,
  "maxConcurrency": 3,
  "maxRunSecs": 240,
  "proxyConfiguration": {
    "useApifyProxy": true
  }
}
```

## Output

```json
{
  "title": {
    "label": "Title",
    "format": "string"
  },
  "year": {
    "label": "Year",
    "format": "integer"
  },
  "venue": {
    "label": "Venue",
    "format": "string"
  },
  "citationCount": {
    "label": "Citations",
    "format": "integer"
  },
  "isOpenAccess": {
    "label": "Open access",
    "format": "boolean"
  },
  "doi": {
    "label": "DOI",
    "format": "string"
  },
  "pdfUrl": {
    "label": "PDF",
    "format": "string"
  },
  "firstAuthor": {
    "label": "First author",
    "format": "string"
  },
  "source": {
    "label": "Source",
    "format": "string"
  }
}
```

## About this Actor

This example demonstrates how to use [Academic Papers Search API — OpenAlex, Crossref, arXiv, PubMed](https://apify.com/insight.solutions/academic-papers-api.md) with a specific input configuration. Visit the [Actor detail page](https://apify.com/insight.solutions/academic-papers-api.md) to learn more, explore other use cases, and run it yourself.


## How to integrate an Actor?

This Task's input is already configured above. Use it as-is rather than inventing a new one.

Do not guess an integration path. Every one of them is in the agent quickstart at https://apify.com/agents.md: the Apify MCP server, Agent Skills with the Apify CLI, the JavaScript and Python clients, the REST API, and the account-free path for an agent with no human to sign in. It also carries the rule on stating cost before the first paid run.

For full API examples (JavaScript, Python, CLI, MCP, OpenAPI), see this Task's Actor page: https://apify.com/insight.solutions/academic-papers-api.md

Each client library has reference documentation the quickstart does not restate: [JavaScript/TypeScript](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs.md) (`npm install apify-client`) and [Python](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs.md) (`pip install apify-client`).