Open-Access Research Paper Search API

Find trustworthy research records for your AI or analyst workflow in one API run. The Actor returns normalized JSON with stable OpenAlex IDs, DOI links, publication dates, authors, institutions, open-access locations, citation counts, and deduplication keys; configure filters and pagination afterward.

Outcome

Find deduplicated, citation-ready open-access research records with stable IDs, author and institution context, citation signals, and reproducible pagination for evidence-grounded AI research.

Use cases

• Use the Actor when you need find deduplicated, citation-ready open-access research records with stable IDs, author and institution context, citation signals, and reproducible pagination for evidence-grounded AI research.
• Build workflows around transforms OpenAlex scholarly metadata into normalized evidence packs with stable OpenAlex and DOI identifiers, open-access locations, author/institution normalization, citation metrics, relevance ranking, duplicate suppression, and optional date-based monitoring.
• Designed for AI product teams, research analysts, systematic-review teams, consultants, and developers building RAG or agent workflows.
• Schedule repeat runs: Teams rerun saved research questions weekly or daily to detect newly indexed papers, changed open-access locations, new citations, and updates to author or institution metadata.
• Feed normalized dataset records into APIs, spreadsheets, databases, automations, or AI/agent workflows.

Quick start

1. Open the Actor input form.
2. Set the filters or query relevant to your workflow.
3. Start with a small maxResults value.
4. Run the Actor and inspect the default dataset before scheduling larger or recurring jobs.

Example input:

{
  "query": "retrieval augmented generation web browsing",
  "fromYear": 2023,
  "toYear": 2026,
  "openAccessOnly": true,
  "maxResults": 10,
  "sort": "cited_by_count:desc"
}

Inputs

• query (string, optional) — Natural-language or Boolean search terms matched against OpenAlex work records.
• fromYear (integer, optional) — Inclusive lower publication-year filter. This value is retained as run configuration.
• toYear (integer, optional) — Inclusive upper publication-year filter. This value is retained as run configuration.
• openAccessOnly (boolean, optional) — Request open-access works. This value is retained as run configuration.
• workTypes (array, optional) — Optional OpenAlex work types such as article, preprint, review, dataset, book, or dissertation.
• institutionIds (array, optional) — Optional OpenAlex institution identifiers used as run configuration.
• sort (string, optional) — Preferred product-level ordering, such as relevance, publication date, or cited-by count.
• maxResults (integer, optional) — Maximum records requested per API page and run limit.
• cursor (string, optional) — OpenAlex cursor for resuming a previous result set.

Output example

The example below is taken from the latest validated local live-source sample when available; otherwise it is derived from the bundled dataset schema.

{
  "id": "https://openalex.org/W4389984066",
  "doi": "https://doi.org/10.48550/arxiv.2312.10997",
  "title": "Retrieval-Augmented Generation for Large Language Models: A Survey",
  "publicationDate": "2023-12-18",
  "workType": "preprint",
  "authors": [
    {
      "author_position": "first",
      "author": {
        "id": "https://openalex.org/A5102001778",
        "display_name": "Yunfan Gao",
        "orcid": "https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7932-2752"
      },
      "institutions": [],
      "countries": [],
      "is_corresponding": false,
      "raw_author_name": "Gao, Yunfan",
      "raw_affiliation_strings": [],
      "raw_orcid": null,
      "affiliations": []
    },
    {
      "author_position": "middle",
      "author": {
        "id": "https://openalex.org/A5001877137",
        "display_name": "Yun Xiong",
        "orcid": "https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8575-5415"
      },
      "institutions": [],
      "countries": [],
      "is_corresponding": false,
      "raw_author_name": "Xiong, Yun",
      "raw_affiliation_strings": [],
      "raw_orcid": null,
      "affiliations": []
    },
    {
      "author_position": "middle",
      "author": {
        "id": "https://openalex.org/A5101581913",
        "display_name": "Xinyu Gao",
        "orcid": "https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7654-3800"
      },
      "institutions": [],
      "countries": [],
      "is_corresponding": false,
      "raw_author_name": "Gao, Xinyu",
      "raw_affiliation_strings": [],
      "raw_orcid": null,
      "affiliations": []
    },
    {
      "author_position": "middle",
      "author": {
        "id": "https://openalex.org/A5109666673",
        "display_name": "Kangxiang Jia",
        "orcid": "https://orcid.org/0009-0001-0054-5049"
      },
      "institutions": [],
      "countries": [],
      "is_corresponding": false,
      "raw_author_name": "Jia, Kangxiang",
      "raw_affiliation_strings": [],
      "raw_orcid": null,
      "affiliations": []
    },
    {
      "author_position": "middle",
      "author": {
        "id": "https://openalex.org/A5104217086",
        "display_name": "Jinliu Pan",
        "orcid": null
      },
      "institutions": [],
      "countries": [],
      "is_corresponding": false,
      "raw_author_name": "Pan, Jinliu",
      "raw_affiliation_strings": [],
      "raw_orcid": null,
      "affiliations": []
    },
    {
      "author_position": "middle",
      "author": {
        "id": "https://openalex.org/A5104217087",
        "display_name": "Yuxi Bi",
        "orcid": null
      },
      "institutions": [],
      "countries": [],
      "is_corresponding": false,
      "raw_author_name": "Bi, Yuxi",
      "raw_affiliation_strings": [],
      "raw_orcid": null,
      "affiliations": []
    },
    {
      "author_position": "middle",
      "author": {
        "id": "https://openalex.org/A5100647639",
        "display_name": "Yi Dai",
        "orcid": "https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1219-2436"
      },
      "institutions": [],
      "countries": [],
      "is_corresponding": false,
      "raw_author_name": "Dai, Yi",
      "raw_affiliation_strings": [],
      "raw_orcid": null,
      "affiliations": []
    },
    {
      "author_position": "middle",
      "author": {
        "id": "https://openalex.org/A5101598822",
        "display_name": "Jiawei Sun",
        "orcid": "https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1332-6758"
      },
      "institutions": [],
      "countries": [],
      "is_corresponding": false,
      "raw_author_name": "Sun, Jiawei",
      "raw_affiliation_strings": [],
      "raw_orcid": null,
      "affiliations": []
    },
    {
      "author_position": "middle",
      "author": {
        "id": null,
        "display_name": "Wang, Meng",
        "orcid": null
      },
      "institutions": [],
      "countries": [],
      "is_corresponding": false,
      "raw_author_name": "Wang, Meng",
      "raw_affiliation_strings": [],
      "raw_orcid": null,
      "affiliations": []
    },
    {
      "author_position": "last",
      "author": {
        "id": null,
        "display_name": "Wang, Haofen",
        "orcid": null
      },
      "institutions": [],
      "countries": [],
      "is_corresponding": false,
  "_note": "Example truncated for README"
}

Pricing

Store pricing is configured in Apify. The intended primary paid unit is normalized research record. Start with a small result limit while validating your workflow, then scale only when the output and economics fit your use case. The README never hard-codes a price that could drift from the live Store configuration.

Source and limitations

• Source: OpenAlex API.
• Licence/terms: CC0 1.0 / public-domain dedication for OpenAlex data.
• Reuse condition: OpenAlex states that its data is released under CC0 and may be used commercially, including redistribution and derivative products. This Actor should identify OpenAlex as the upstream source, preserve source URLs and DOI links, and avoid representing OpenAlex or any publisher as endorsing the product. Article abstracts, full text, images, publisher descriptions, logos, and other linked content may have separate copyright or license terms; the Actor returns bibliographic metadata and links by default rather than republishing protected article content.
• Automation condition: Use documented GET requests, respect OpenAlex rate limits and budgets, cap per-request results at the documented maximum, paginate with cursor-based pagination, retry only transient 429/5xx responses with backoff, and expose source errors instead of silently returning empty results. An optional developer API key can be used by the operator through the api_key query parameter, but no customer key is required.
• OpenAlex metadata quality and coverage can vary by source; expose provenance and retrieval timestamps rather than presenting records as authoritative publisher records.
• Open-access status and license fields are signals, not a blanket license for article text, figures, images, or publisher-hosted pages.
• Anonymous usage is limited; high-volume operation may require an operator-managed OpenAlex API key or paid OpenAlex access, although buyers need no separate key.
• Citation counts and metadata change over time, so buyers should treat outputs as time-stamped snapshots.
• OpenAlex terms, pricing, rate limits, and service availability may change; review the official terms before launch and periodically thereafter.

This Actor does not bypass authentication, rate limits, robots/API policies, licensing conditions, or upstream access controls. Missing upstream values are not invented.

FAQ

Does this use the approved source contract?
Yes. Runtime requests are restricted to the source contract validated by Market Hunter before build.

Can I schedule repeat runs?
Yes, when the source permits automated access. Use conservative schedules and result limits that respect upstream conditions.

Why can some fields be empty or null?
The upstream source may omit fields for particular records. The Actor preserves missing values rather than fabricating data.

Troubleshooting

• If a narrow query returns no rows, loosen filters and retry with a small result limit.
• If the upstream source returns a rate-limit or temporary server error, retry later instead of increasing request pressure.
• If authentication or source identity is required, verify the protected credential/identity configured for the Actor.
• If the upstream response schema changes, report the failed run so the deterministic mapping can be updated.

Related Actors

• Academic Author and Institution Profile Search
• Research Paper Citation Change Monitor
• Open-Access Literature Deduplication and Export
• Scholarly Topic Trend and Venue Analysis

Store publication remains an explicit manual action. This product is not affiliated with or endorsed by the upstream source unless the Store listing explicitly states otherwise.