DataCite Scraper - DOIs, Datasets & Publishers

Scrape the DataCite DOI registry in bulk. Extract DOI, title, creators, publisher, publication year, resource type, licence, subjects and landing URL from any query to CSV/JSON. No API key, no login.

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What does the DataCite Scraper do?

This Actor turns any DataCite search into a structured dataset. You give it by topic or filtered to datasets, it walks the result pages one after another, and it writes one clean row per record into your dataset — ready to export as JSON, CSV or Excel, or to pull straight from the Apify API.

DataCite runs the DOI registry for research outputs and exposes it through a keyless REST API. The Actor reads that directly, so licences, resource types and publishers arrive as fields rather than as text to be parsed out of a page. Pagination is followed automatically until it runs out of results, hits your page limit or hits your Max items cap, whichever comes first. Every row is de-duplicated across the whole run, so you are never billed twice for the same record.

There is no API key, no login and no browser involved. That keeps runs fast and cheap, and it means you can schedule the Actor without worrying about credentials expiring.

Who is it for?

• Research data managers tracking what their institution registers.
• Bibliometricians analysing output by publisher, year or type.
• AI teams locating openly licensed datasets.
• Funders and policy analysts measuring research output.
• Developers building discovery tools over research data.

Use cases

• Export every DOI matching a topic and group them by publisher.
• Find openly licensed datasets using the licence field.
• Track how a repository's registrations grow year over year.
• Build a dataset index for a research domain.
• Cross-reference DOIs against another bibliographic source.

Why use this DataCite Scraper?

• 🔑 Keyless — no account, no API token, no cookies to paste.
• 📦 15 fields per record — everything the result page exposes, already typed.
• 📄 Real pagination — it walks page after page instead of returning the first screen.
• 🎯 Precise caps — Max items stops the run exactly where you want it, so the bill is predictable.
• 📊 Export anywhere — JSON, CSV, Excel or HTML, plus the Apify API and integrations.
• 💸 Pay per result — you pay for rows you actually receive, with no platform fees to calculate.

What data can you extract?

Every run produces one row per record, with these fields:

Field	Type	Description
doi	string	Digital Object Identifier
title	string	Primary title of the record
doiUrl	string	Resolvable DOI link
landingUrl	string	Landing page the DOI resolves to
creators	string	Creators, separated by a pipe
publisher	string	Publisher or repository
publicationYear	number	Publication year
resourceType	string	General resource type, e.g. Dataset or Text
resourceTypeDetail	string	Schema.org type when supplied
subjects	string	Subjects, separated by a pipe
rights	string	Licence or rights statement
registeredAt	string	ISO timestamp the DOI was registered
query	string	Search term this row came from
page	number	Result page the record appeared on
scrapedAt	string	ISO timestamp of extraction

Output example

{
  "creators": "jahanirahaei, ali | milelli, massimo | chiesa, giacomo",
  "doi": "10.5281/zenodo.22249268",
  "doiUrl": "https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.22249268",
  "landingUrl": "https://zenodo.org/doi/10.5281/zenodo.22249268",
  "page": 1,
  "publicationYear": 2026,
  "publisher": "Zenodo",
  "query": "climate",
  "registeredAt": "2026-09-17T08:40:26Z",
  "resourceType": "ComputationalNotebook",
  "resourceTypeDetail": "SoftwareSourceCode",
  "rights": "Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International",
  "scrapedAt": "2026-09-17T08:42:12.989Z",
  "subjects": "uhi | urban dry island | epw | actual meteorological year | turin | building energy simulation | typical meteorological year | energy plus",
  "title": "Weather-Forcing Manifests and Reproducibility Package for Urban Heat-Island Building Simulations in Turin (2014\u20132023)"
}

How to use

Option A — by topic

{
  "maxItems": 1000,
  "maxPagesPerSearch": 10,
  "searchQueries": [
    "climate"
  ]
}

1. Open the Actor and fill in the topic field.
2. Set Max pages per search and Max items to bound the run.
3. Click Start, then export from the Output tab.

Option B — filtered to datasets

{
  "maxItems": 1000,
  "maxPagesPerSearch": 10,
  "resourceType": "Dataset",
  "searchQueries": [
    "genomics"
  ]
}

Paste one or more DataCite URLs into Start URLs and the Actor paginates each of them independently.

Input parameters

Parameter	Type	Default	Description
searchQueries	array	–	What to search the DOI registry for, e.
resourceType	string	``	Restrict to one general type, e.
maxPagesPerSearch	integer	3	How many result pages to walk for each search.
maxItems	integer	100	Stop after this many records.
maxConcurrency	integer	2	Parallel requests.
proxyConfiguration	object	{"useApifyProxy": true}	Proxy used to fetch pages.

Tips for best results

• Leave the query empty to walk the registry in relevance order; add one to focus a run.
• The API returns up to 100 records per page, so exports need few calls.
• rights is the field to filter on when you need reusable data.
• resourceType separates datasets from articles, software and images.
• publisher is the repository that registered the DOI — good for institutional analysis.
• landingUrl points at the record itself; doiUrl is the stable resolver link.
• Not every record declares a licence; an empty rights means none was supplied.
• Schedule a monthly run to track registrations in a domain.
• Keep concurrency low — the API is free and shared.
• Pair with the Zenodo and Crossref scrapers for wider coverage.

Integrations

Send results straight into the tools you already use: Google Sheets, Slack, Zapier, Make, Airtable or any Webhook. You can also schedule the Actor to run hourly, daily or weekly and have each run append to the same dataset, which is how you build a price or availability history rather than a one-off snapshot.

API usage

Run the Actor and collect results from any language. Replace <YOUR_TOKEN> with your Apify API token.

cURL

curl -X POST "https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/logiover~datacite-doi-scraper/run-sync-get-dataset-items?token=<YOUR_TOKEN>" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"maxItems": 1000, "maxPagesPerSearch": 10, "searchQueries": ["climate"]}'

Node.js

import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

const client = new ApifyClient({ token: '<YOUR_TOKEN>' });
const run = await client.actor('logiover/datacite-doi-scraper').call({"maxItems": 1000, "maxPagesPerSearch": 10, "searchQueries": ["climate"]});
const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
console.log(items);

Python

from apify_client import ApifyClient

client = ApifyClient('<YOUR_TOKEN>')
run = client.actor('logiover/datacite-doi-scraper').call(run_input={"maxItems": 1000, "maxPagesPerSearch": 10, "searchQueries": ["climate"]})
for item in client.dataset(run['defaultDatasetId']).iterate_items():
    print(item)

Use with AI agents (MCP)

This Actor is available through the Apify MCP server, so an AI agent can call it as a tool. Point your agent at https://mcp.apify.com and it can run the DataCite Scraper on demand — for example: "Pull the first 500 records from DataCite and summarise the price distribution." The agent receives the same structured rows you would get from the UI.

FAQ

Do I need a DataCite account or API key?

No. The Actor reads publicly available pages only. There is nothing to authenticate and no credentials to rotate.

How many records can I get in one run?

As many as the search exposes. Raise Max pages per search and Max items together; the run stops at whichever limit it reaches first.

Why did I get fewer rows than I asked for?

The search ran out of records. That is normal for narrow queries — broaden the search or add more searches to one run.

Are results de-duplicated?

Yes. Each record is emitted once per run, even when it appears on several pages, so you are never billed twice for the same record.

Why are some fields empty?

DataCite does not publish every attribute for every record. Empty means the source did not show it, not that extraction failed.

What export formats are supported?

JSON, CSV, Excel, HTML and RSS from the Output tab, plus the Apify API and any integration you connect.

How fast is it?

It is pure HTTP with no browser, so a page of results typically takes a second or two. Raise Max concurrency carefully — the source rate-limits aggressive crawling.

Can I schedule it?

Yes. Use the Apify scheduler to run it on any interval and append each run to the same dataset for time-series analysis.

Does it work behind a proxy?

It uses Apify Proxy automatically. You can switch groups or supply your own proxies in Proxy configuration.

How often does the data change?

DataCite updates continuously. Re-run whenever you need current data; the Actor always reads the live pages, never a cache.

Is the output schema stable?

Yes. Field names and types are fixed, so downstream pipelines will not break between runs.

What if the site changes its layout?

Open an issue on the Issues tab and it gets fixed. The Actor is actively maintained.

Is it legal?

This Actor reads only publicly available pages on DataCite — the same content any visitor sees without logging in. It does not bypass authentication, does not collect private data and does not attempt to defeat access controls. You are responsible for how you use the output: respect the source's terms of service, applicable copyright, and data-protection law such as GDPR where personal data is involved. Scraping public data is generally lawful in the EU and the US, but the responsibility for the downstream use of that data sits with you.

Related scrapers

• Crossref Scraper — DOI and citation metadata
• Zenodo Scraper — Research datasets and software
• arXiv Scraper — Preprint metadata
• OpenAlex Scraper — Works and institutions