# OpenAlex Scholar Scraper (`leorochasantos/openalex-scholar`) Actor

Scrape scholarly works from OpenAlex's 250M+ open research graph. Search by keyword, filter by open access, and get authors, institutions, journal, year, citations, and DOI as clean typed JSON — no API key required.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/leorochasantos/openalex-scholar.md
- **Developed by:** [Leonardo Santos](https://apify.com/leorochasantos) (community)
- **Categories:** Developer tools, Automation, Other
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

from $1.30 / 1,000 scholarly work results

This Actor is paid per event. You are not charged for the Apify platform usage, but only a fixed price for specific events.
Since this Actor supports Apify Store discounts, the price gets lower the higher subscription plan you have.

Learn more: https://docs.apify.com/platform/actors/running/actors-in-store#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

## OpenAlex Scholar Scraper

Scrape scholarly works from [OpenAlex](https://openalex.org) — the open research graph with 250M+ works, 90M+ authors, and 120K+ institutions. Search by keyword, filter by open-access, sort by relevance, citations, or publication date. Returns title, authors, institutions, journal, year, DOI, citation count, open-access status, and concepts. No API key required.

### Pricing

Pay per event, and **the platform usage is on us** — the price you see is the price you pay, with no compute bill on top.

| Event | Price | What one charge buys |
|---|---|---|
| Scholarly Work Result | **$0.002** | One scholarly work row delivered. Includes title, authors, institutions, journal, year, citations, open-access status, concepts, and DOI. Error items are never charged. |
| Actor Start | **$0.002** | One run, whatever it returns. |

Higher Apify subscription tiers pay less on every event (Silver −20%, Gold −35%).

### Input

| Field | Type | Description |
|-------|------|-------------|
| `query` | string (required) | Free-text search query |
| `maxResults` | integer (1–200) | Max works to return, default 25 |
| `filter` | select | `all` or `open_access` |
| `sort` | select | `relevance`, `cited_by_count`, or `publication_date` |

### Output

Each row represents one scholarly work with:

- `openalexId`, `doi`, `title`, `year`, `citedByCount`
- `authors[]`, `institutions[]`, `journal`
- `isOa`, `oaUrl`, `concepts[]`
- `workUrl`, `scraped_at`

### Use Cases

- Literature reviews and research intelligence
- Citation analysis and bibliometrics
- Open science corpus building
- RAG pipeline data ingestion

# Actor input Schema

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

Free-text search query for OpenAlex. Supports boolean operators and field filters.

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

Maximum number of works to return (1–200).

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

Filter by open-access status.

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

Result ordering.

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

Proxy to use for outgoing requests. OpenAlex is an open API with no auth; the default Apify datacenter proxy works.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "query": "machine learning",
  "maxResults": 25,
  "filter": "all",
  "sort": "relevance",
  "proxyConfiguration": {
    "useApifyProxy": true
  }
}
```

# Actor output Schema

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

No description

# 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": "machine learning"
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("leorochasantos/openalex-scholar").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": "machine learning" }

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("leorochasantos/openalex-scholar").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 '{
  "query": "machine learning"
}' |
apify call leorochasantos/openalex-scholar --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

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

```

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/x6aFItqWjXvkOILZK/builds/2c4stEARMy5rvbgZD/openapi.json