# PLOS Section Literature Search Export (`jpmarketdata/plos-section-literature-search-export`) Actor

Search PLOS article titles, abstracts and sections with phrase or Boolean queries. Export full-article DOIs, authors, abstracts, journal and dates with complete-window pagination, deduplication and PLOS attribution.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/jpmarketdata/plos-section-literature-search-export.md
- **Developed by:** [h ichi](https://apify.com/jpmarketdata) (community)
- **Categories:** Automation, Developer tools
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

$1.00 / 1,000 unique literature record delivereds

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?

An Actor is a serverless cloud program that runs on the Apify platform. It has two run modes.
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.

Apify vocabulary and the platform model are defined once, in the agent quickstart at https://apify.com/agents.md.

## 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.

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 examples already wired to this Actor's own input schema, see the [API](#api) section below.

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`).

# README

## PLOS Section Literature Search Export

Search the PLOS corpus by title, abstract or article section using the source Solr phrase and Boolean syntax. Export a complete bounded publication-date selection as one DOI per full article for screening, corpus building and repeatable literature review. Data Provided by PLOS. This Actor is independently developed and is unaffiliated with PLOS.

### Input

`query`: native PLOS Solr expression, default *:*, max 500 characters. Examples: title:malaria, abstract:"synthetic biology", materials_and_methods:CRISPR. `publishedFrom` and `publishedTo`: inclusive YYYY-MM-DD; omitted or empty bounds resolve to the seven-day UTC window ending yesterday. Historical windows up to 366 inclusive days are supported; future dates rejected. `maxSafetyItems`: 1–1000, default 1000. If the entire source match set cannot fit, the Actor fails refine-required before output or billing; narrow date/query. Exact section syntax matches PLOS, with no relevance inference.

### Output

One `type=research_article` record per DOI: title, scholarly authors, abstract or null, publication timestamp, journal, articleType or null, subject paths, query, sourceUrl, sourceAttribution and retrievedAt. Always apply doc_type:full on every page to avoid the section-document DOI variants reported in community issues. Corrections and editorial article types retain their own DOI and type. Deterministic source ordering is publication_date desc,id asc; no citation or impact ranking. COVERAGE reports dates/query, sourceTotal, pages, selectedRows, complete selection and no truncation. Data Provided by PLOS appears in every row. Full-text bodies, PDF, affiliation/contact and altmetrics are excluded.

### Limits and failures

Lightweight official API JSON, 256 MB; no key, proxy or paid service. At most 12 GET attempts including robots; <=100 rows/request, sequential >=6 second spacing (<=10/minute); 4 MB wire/decoded per response, 64 MB total transfer, 24 MB staged output and 240 seconds acquisition. Maximum 10 data pages/1000 articles. Validate total, start, cardinality, full DOI, required fields, dates and duplicate IDs before any delivery. Moving source counts, missing fields, section-ID leakage, invalid query responses, robots refusal, auth blocks, 429, timeouts and malformed JSON fail explicitly. Zero source matches fail no-matching-results with uncharged COVERAGE. Delivery has a separate 90-second deadline; the Actor cloud timeout setting is 360 seconds, covering the 240-second acquisition plus 90-second delivery phases with startup margin. Frequent schedules across runs must still respect PLOS hourly/daily API quotas and the shared-IP limit.

### Privacy and rights

Only scholarly author display names and article metadata. Omit contact/affiliation/corresponding-author fields, emails/phones, raw responses and account state. Only https://api.plos.org/search is requested after its origin robots check. PLOS API display policy requires attribution; every row says Data Provided by PLOS. Source text and research findings must be cited and interpreted in context. PLOS permits mining, reuse and sharing for any purpose; see https://plos.org/text-and-data-mining/. No PLOS logos or implied sponsorship.

### Pricing

Published price: $0.001 per unique DOI actually delivered using the record-delivered primary event. Private cloud probes verified 435/435 default, 8/8 alternate and 529/529 maximum-load dataset rows to primary events. No custom start charge or actor-defined free rows; platform compute may apply. Source scanning, metadata summaries and duplicate handling are uncharged. PPE allowance must cover the complete result before delivery, rechecked for each batch with exact charged-count parity. Non-PPE local runs save data and summaries without charged events. Private cloud runs confirmed DC access and primary event counts on the reviewed build.

# Actor input Schema

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

Native source expression, e.g. title:malaria or abstract:"synthetic biology". Supports section fields and phrase/Boolean syntax. Default *:* searches the complete bounded window.

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

Inclusive YYYY-MM-DD. Omit/empty for seven UTC days before yesterday. Historical windows are allowed when the full match set fits maxSafetyItems.

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

Inclusive YYYY-MM-DD. Omit/empty for yesterday UTC. At most 366 days.

## `maxSafetyItems` (type: `integer`):

1–1000 matched full articles. If source total is larger, refine-required fails before delivery; no partial census.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "query": "*:*",
  "publishedFrom": "",
  "publishedTo": "",
  "maxSafetyItems": 1000
}
```

# Actor output Schema

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

Validated unique public literature metadata.

# 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 = {};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("jpmarketdata/plos-section-literature-search-export").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 = {}

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("jpmarketdata/plos-section-literature-search-export").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 '{}' |
apify call jpmarketdata/plos-section-literature-search-export --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,jpmarketdata/plos-section-literature-search-export"
        }
    }
}
```

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/GdGk8ulKwxJ3aR68U/builds/uKxwqW7m6HlvL746Q/openapi.json