# OpenAlex Scholarly Works Search - Papers, DOIs, Citations (`kdhan/openalex-scholarly-works-search`) Actor

Search 250M+ scholarly papers from OpenAlex by keyword, DOI, institution, year, open access and citation count. Returns title, journal, authors with affiliations, citations, topics and abstract. Official CC0 data, no personal identifiers.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/kdhan/openalex-scholarly-works-search.md
- **Developed by:** [Doohan Kim](https://apify.com/kdhan) (community)
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

from $1.00 / 1,000 work records

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

## OpenAlex Scholarly Works Search - Papers, DOIs, Citations

Search scholarly papers in [OpenAlex](https://openalex.org), the open catalog of the research system,
by keyword, DOI, institution, publication year, open access status and citation count. One row per paper.
Official OpenAlex API, data released under CC0.

### What you get (one row per work)

`openalexId`, `doi`, `title`, `publicationYear`, `publicationDate`, `type`, `citedByCount`,
`isOpenAccess`, `oaStatus`, `oaUrl`, `journal`, `publisher`, `authors[]` (name and affiliation names only),
`authorCount`, `primaryTopic`, `topics[]`, `concepts[]`, `abstract` (rebuilt from OpenAlex's inverted index,
first 600 characters), `referencedWorksCount`, `isRetracted`, `dataAsOf`, `retrievedAt`, `disclaimer`.

Author ORCID iDs, author IDs, e-mail addresses and raw affiliation strings are deliberately **not** returned.
Up to 30 authors per paper are listed (`authorsTruncated` tells you when more exist).

### Input

| Field | Meaning |
|---|---|
| `searchTerms` | Matched against title and abstract. Quotes make a phrase; `AND`, `OR`, `NOT` work. Each term is its own search. |
| `dois` | Look up specific papers (up to 100). Papers not in OpenAlex return `found: false` and are free. |
| `institutions` | Names or OpenAlex IDs (`I139264467`). A name uses OpenAlex's best match (shown in the run log and in the `RUN_SUMMARY` record); sub-institutions such as affiliated hospitals are included. Use an I-number when you need an exact institution. |
| `publicationYearFrom` / `To`, `openAccessOnly`, `minCitations` | Filters. They apply to searches, not to DOI lookups. |
| `sortBy` | `relevance` (needs search terms), `cited_by_count`, `publication_date` (newest first). |
| `maxResults` | Per search term, default 25, max 1000. |
| `apiKey` | Optional. Your free OpenAlex key (openalex.org/settings/api-key, sign up at openalex.org/signup). |
| `contactEmail` | Optional, sent as `mailto`. |

With no input the Actor runs an example search ("large language models", 25 results).

### Important: OpenAlex usage limits

OpenAlex gives anonymous callers a small daily budget that is **shared by everyone on the same IP address**.
On a shared cloud IP it can run out, in which case the affected query comes back as a row with
`found: null` and an `error` explaining it - never as an empty "nothing found" result.
For reliable runs add your own free `apiKey`; it also switches paging to OpenAlex cursors.
An OpenAlex search request costs $0.001 and returns up to 100 papers, so 1,000 papers cost about $0.01
of the $1 daily budget that a free key has (anonymous callers get $0.10).

### Notes

- Results are what OpenAlex holds: coverage, author/institution matching and open access status are
  machine-generated and can be wrong. Citation counts change daily.
- Abstracts are cut to 600 characters. Structured abstracts keep their section words (for example
  "BACKGROUND") in the text, as OpenAlex stores them.
- Billing: one `work-record` event per paper returned. DOIs, queries or institutions that find nothing or fail are free.

# Actor input Schema

## `searchTerms` (type: `array`):

Matched against title and abstract. Quotes make a phrase; AND, OR, NOT (uppercase) work. Each term is a separate search.

## `dois` (type: `array`):

Look up specific papers, for example 10.1021/tx400385x. Up to 100.

## `institutions` (type: `array`):

Institution names or OpenAlex IDs (I139264467). A name uses the best match, shown in the run log; sub-institutions are included.

## `publicationYearFrom` (type: `integer`):

First publication year to include.

## `publicationYearTo` (type: `integer`):

Last publication year to include.

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

Only works that are free to read.

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

Only works cited at least this many times.

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

Relevance only applies when search terms are given.

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

Upper limit of works returned for each search term. You are charged per work returned.

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

Your free key from openalex.org/settings/api-key (sign up at openalex.org/signup). Without it the small shared keyless daily limit applies and runs may fail.

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

Sent to OpenAlex as the mailto parameter so they can reach you about heavy use.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "searchTerms": [
    "large language models"
  ],
  "openAccessOnly": false,
  "sortBy": "relevance",
  "maxResults": 25
}
```

# Actor output Schema

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

Work metadata: title, DOI, year, citations, open access, journal, authors with affiliations, topics, abstract (first 600 characters), data freshness and disclaimer.

# 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 = {
    "searchTerms": [
        "large language models"
    ]
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("kdhan/openalex-scholarly-works-search").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 = { "searchTerms": ["large language models"] }

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("kdhan/openalex-scholarly-works-search").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 '{
  "searchTerms": [
    "large language models"
  ]
}' |
apify call kdhan/openalex-scholarly-works-search --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,kdhan/openalex-scholarly-works-search"
        }
    }
}
```

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/tPEomzTEP8SefprTi/builds/x86B2bXYwoHYJkWK9/openapi.json