📚 OpenAlex Scraper

Collect scholarly publications, research papers, and academic metadata from OpenAlex without coding. This scraper automates collection of complete academic data including publication metadata, author affiliations, citation metrics, open access status, and research concepts from OpenAlex's free catalog of 250+ million works. Whether you're conducting literature reviews, tracking research trends, building citation networks, or gathering publication metrics, extract comprehensive academic data in CSV, JSON, or Excel format in minutes. Perfect for researchers, librarians, academic institutions, and data analysts who need scholarly data collection without manual work or APIs.

The OpenAlex Scraper collects scholarly works with up to 23 data fields including citations, open access status, author information, and research concepts from OpenAlex's open catalog of 250+ million publications.

✨ What Does It Do

• 📝 Work Title and Abstract - Extract publication titles and abstracts to understand research content and identify matching papers
• 🔗 DOI Links and Work URLs - Get persistent identifiers and direct links for citations and full text access
• 👥 Author Names and Affiliations - Collect author lists and institutional affiliations to map collaboration networks
• 🏢 Institution Names - Gather affiliated organizations to analyze institutional research output
• 📊 Citation Metrics - Access citation counts and FWCI scores to measure research impact
• 📅 Publication Dates - Filter and organize works by publication date to track research trends
• 🔓 Open Access Status - Identify freely available publications and access open access URLs
• 🎯 Research Concepts and Topics - Extract research domains and keywords by academic field

🎬 Demo Video

🔧 Input

• Start URL - Direct OpenAlex URL to scrape from, use either this or the search filters below. Example: https://openalex.org/works?page=1&sort=cited_by_count:desc
• Max Items - Free users limited to 100, paid users up to 1,000,000 results per run
• Author ID - Filter works by author IDs, multiple values use logical OR
• Funder ID - Filter works by funding organization IDs
• Institution ID - Filter by institutional affiliations
• Open Access - Toggle to collect only freely available publications
• Title and Abstract - Search by keyword or phrase to find matching works
• Topic ID - Filter by topic or concept IDs to narrow results by research domain
• Keyword ID - Filter by keyword IDs to find works matching specific terms
• Type - Filter by publication type (article, book, chapter, dataset, etc.)
• From Publication Date - Collect works published on or after a date (format: YYYY-MM-DD)
• To Publication Date - Collect works published on or before a date (format: YYYY-MM-DD)
• Sort - Order results by Citation Count, Citation Percentile, FWCI, Title, or Year

Example input configuration:

{
  "startUrl": "https://openalex.org/works?page=1&sort=cited_by_count:desc",
  "maxItems": 10
}

Or using search filters:

{
  "search": "machine learning",
  "fromPublicationDate": "2020-01-01",
  "toPublicationDate": "2023-12-31",
  "isOA": true,
  "sort": "cited_by_count:desc",
  "maxItems": 10
}

📊 Output

Each work includes up to 23 data fields. Download as JSON, CSV, or Excel.

📝 Title	🔗 Work URL	🔗 DOI Link
📄 Abstract	👥 Author Names	🏢 Institution Names
📅 Publication Date	📊 Publication Year	🎯 Work Type
💬 Citation Count	📈 FWCI	📊 Citation Percentile
🔓 Open Access Status	🌐 Open Access URL	🗣️ Language
📍 Primary Location	🎓 Research Concepts	🎯 Primary Topic
🏷️ Keywords	📋 Bibliographic Info	⏰ Scraped Timestamp
⚠️ Error

💎 Why Choose the OpenAlex Scraper?

Feature	Our Actor	Similar Tools
Direct OpenAlex access without credentials required	✔️	❌
Search by author, institution, funder, or topic	✔️	Partial
Extract up to 23 fields per work including citations	✔️	❌
Filter by publication date range	✔️	❌
Collect up to 1,000,000 results for paid users	✔️	❌
Export to CSV, JSON, and Excel formats	✔️	✔️
Automatic pagination handling	✔️	✔️
Research concept and topic classification	✔️	❌
FWCI and citation percentile metrics included	✔️	❌
Free to use, no subscription required	✔️	❌
Works with any OpenAlex query syntax	✔️	❌
Real-time scraped timestamp for data freshness	✔️	❌

📋 How to Use

No technical skills required. Follow these simple steps:

1. Sign Up: Create a free account with $5 credit
2. Find the Tool: Search for "OpenAlex Scraper" in the Apify Store and configure your input
3. Run It: Click "Start" and watch your results appear

That's it. No coding, no setup, no complicated configuration. Now you can export your data in CSV, Excel, or JSON format.

🎯 Business Use Cases

• 📊 Research Analyst - Monitor publications in your field to identify emerging trends and influential papers before your competitors discover them
• 🎓 Academic Librarian - Collect institutional publication records and citation metrics to compile annual research impact reports and benchmark departmental performance
• 💼 Data Researcher - Build comprehensive citation networks from multiple searches to map research evolution, identify collaboration patterns, and discover gaps in published knowledge

❓ FAQ

🔍 How does it work? The scraper connects to OpenAlex to retrieve scholarly publication data. You can either provide a direct URL or use simple filter fields like author ID, institution, or keywords. No credentials needed.

📊 How accurate is the data? OpenAlex is a comprehensive catalog maintained by the University of Illinois. Data reliability depends on what institutions and researchers have submitted, but it covers publication metadata, citations, and open access information well.

📅 Can I schedule regular runs? Yes. Use the scheduler to run the scraper daily, weekly, or monthly to keep your research databases current and track new publications automatically.

⚖️ Is scraping OpenAlex data legal? Yes. OpenAlex is a public, open access database designed for research and analytics. All data is freely available. You are responsible for complying with local laws when processing data.

🛡️ Will OpenAlex block me? No. OpenAlex welcomes automated access. The scraper uses standard calls with appropriate rate limiting.

⚡ How long does a run take? Collecting 100 works typically takes 30 seconds to 2 minutes. Larger runs of 1,000+ works may take 10 to 30 minutes depending on network speed.

⚠️ Are there any limits? Free users can collect up to 100 results per run. Paid users can collect up to 1,000,000 results per run.

🔗 Integrate OpenAlex Scraper with any app

• Make - Automate workflows
• Zapier - Connect 5000+ apps
• GitHub - Version control integration
• Slack - Get notifications
• Airbyte - Data pipelines
• Google Drive - Export to spreadsheets

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Browse our complete collection of data extraction tools for more.

🚀 Ready to Start?

Create a free account with $5 credit and collect your first 100 results for free. No coding, no setup.

🆘 Need Help?

• Check the FAQ section above for common questions
• Visit the Apify support page for documentation and tutorials
• Contact us to request a new scraper, propose a custom project, or report an issue at Tally contact form

⚠️ Disclaimer

This Actor is an independent tool and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by OpenAlex or any of its subsidiaries. All trademarks mentioned are the property of their respective owners.