ORCID Scraper – Researcher Profiles and Affiliations

Extract publicly available researcher profile information and institutional affiliations from the ORCID public API. Search researchers by keyword and collect names, public email addresses, ORCID identifiers, and institution names in a structured dataset.

The scraper supports JSON, CSV, and Excel exports through Apify. It does not require an API key or login.

Features

• Search researcher profiles using keywords.
• Extract ORCID iDs and researcher names.
• Collect institutional affiliations from expanded search results.
• Optionally retrieve public person records for additional names and public email addresses.
• Preserve the source's available profile information.
• Skip duplicate ORCID iDs.
• Handle pagination, request timeouts, and temporary API errors.
• Save request failures as structured error rows.
• Support scheduled searches to refresh researcher datasets.

Use Cases

• Researcher discovery: Find researchers associated with topics such as climate science and export their names and affiliations.
• Affiliation research: Collect institution names without manually opening individual profiles.
• Public email discovery: Enable person-record retrieval to collect email addresses that researchers have made public.
• Research monitoring: Schedule recurring searches to refresh researcher lists.
• Academic data management: Export structured profile information for research directories and institutional analysis.

What Data Does This Actor Extract?

Each successful row represents one researcher. Most fields come from the ORCID expanded search endpoint. When includePerson is enabled, the scraper also requests the public person record to retrieve additional names and publicly available email addresses.

Affiliations remain sourced from the expanded search results.

Field	Type	Description
orcid-id	String	ORCID identifier; used to skip duplicate records
given-names	String	Researcher's given names
family-names	String	Researcher's family names
credit-name	String or null	Publicly available credit name
other-name	Array	Other names associated with the researcher
email	Array	Public email addresses; often empty
institution-name	Array	Institution names returned by expanded search
scrapedAt	String	UTC timestamp when the row was saved
sourceUrl	String	API request reference associated with the row
error	String	Error details, present when a request fails

When a search request fails, the scraper saves an error row containing error, sourceUrl, and scrapedAt. Other profile fields are omitted from that row.

An empty search result is logged without creating an error row. If an individual person-record request fails, the scraper records the error for that researcher and continues with the next result.

Input Parameters

Parameter	Type	Default	Description
mode	String	search	Researcher search mode; returns one row per ORCID iD
query	String	climate	Search query sent to the API
includePerson	Boolean	false	Also request the public person record for additional names and public emails
maxItems	Integer	100	Maximum number of dataset rows, including error rows; hard cap of 1,000
timeoutSecs	Integer	300	Maximum run duration for starting new requests, in seconds
requestTimeoutSecs	Integer	30	Timeout for each individual HTTP request, in seconds

Example Input

{
  "mode": "search",
  "query": "climate",
  "includePerson": false,
  "maxItems": 100,
  "timeoutSecs": 300,
  "requestTimeoutSecs": 30
}

Set includePerson to true when additional public names and email addresses are needed.

Example Output

{
  "orcid-id": "0009-0007-7778-9088",
  "given-names": "Gerald",
  "family-names": "Kutney",
  "credit-name": null,
  "other-name": [],
  "email": [],
  "institution-name": [
    "Royal Canadian Geographical Society",
    "University of Toronto"
  ],
  "scrapedAt": "2026-10-12T00:00:00+00:00",
  "sourceUrl": "API_REQUEST_URL"
}

The example uses a placeholder for the source request URL. Actual records may contain different fields or values depending on the information publicly available from ORCID.

Pagination, Limits, and Error Handling

The scraper uses the ORCID expanded search API with query, page size, and starting offset parameters.

• Pagination: Starts at offset 0 and advances according to the number of results returned.
• Page size: Requests up to 50 records per page, or fewer when the remaining item limit is smaller.
• Maximum results: The dataset is limited to 1,000 rows, including error rows.
• Sequential requests: Requests run one at a time, with approximately 0.75 seconds between calls.
• Deduplication: Duplicate ORCID iDs are skipped.
• Run timeout: New requests stop being initiated when timeoutSecs is reached.
• Retry handling: HTTP 429 and 5xx responses, as well as request timeouts, are retried three additional times with waits of 2, 4, and 8 seconds.
• Retry-After: A longer wait specified by the response takes precedence.
• Other HTTP errors: Other 4xx responses are not retried.
• Invalid responses: HTTP 200 responses containing invalid JSON are handled as errors.
• Failed searches: A failed expanded-search request produces an error row and stops further pagination.
• Failed person lookups: A failed person-record request produces an error row for that researcher, and processing continues.
• Empty searches: A query with no matching results produces a log entry rather than an error row.

The scraper is designed for the public API and should remain within ORCID's published rate limits and usage quotas.

Data Source and Licensing

Researcher information is retrieved from the public ORCID API, including expanded search and optional public person records.

ORCID makes certain registry data available under a limited licence for public data. That licence does not automatically cover third-party materials linked from a record, such as full-text articles.

Users should review the applicable ORCID public API terms before collecting, redistributing, or reusing data. Non-commercial-use restrictions, attribution requirements, and published rate limits may apply.

The scraper does not require an API key for the supported public endpoints. Each record includes a sourceUrl reference for source identification.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does this ORCID scraper require an API key?

No. It uses the public expanded search and person-record endpoints without requiring an API key or login.

Why are most email arrays empty?

ORCID only returns email addresses that researchers have made publicly available. An empty array means no public email address was returned for that record.

What does includePerson do?

When enabled, the scraper requests the researcher's public person record and uses it to populate available public email addresses, other names, and the credit name. Institutional affiliations continue to come from expanded search results.

Why did I receive an error row?

A request may fail because of an invalid query, an HTTP error, a timeout, or a response that cannot be parsed as JSON. The scraper records the available error details rather than silently treating a failed request as a successful result.

What happens when a query returns no matches?

The scraper logs the empty result and completes without creating a provider record or treating the empty result as an API failure.

Can I export results to CSV, JSON, or Excel?

Yes. Apify provides dataset export options for JSON, CSV, and Excel.

How many rows can one run save?

The default is 100 rows, with a hard maximum of 1,000, including error rows.

Changelog

Version 1.0

• Added ORCID expanded search with offset-based pagination.
• Added optional public person-record retrieval.
• Implemented duplicate detection, retries, and error handling.
• Set a maximum dataset size of 1,000 rows.

Trademark Notice

ORCID and related names, logos, and trademarks belong to their respective owners. Their use in this documentation identifies the data source and does not imply affiliation, sponsorship, endorsement, or partnership.

Disclaimer

This is an independent tool and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, sponsored by, or officially associated with ORCID or its owners.

The scraper collects publicly available information. Users are responsible for complying with applicable API terms, licensing conditions, attribution requirements, rate limits, and privacy laws.

Is Web Scraping Legal?

Accessing publicly available information does not automatically make every use of that information lawful. Legal obligations depend on the data collected, the intended use, and applicable laws and source terms.

• Personal data: Researcher records may contain names, email addresses, and affiliation details. Collect and store this information only for appropriate purposes and in accordance with applicable privacy laws, including the GDPR or CCPA where relevant.
• Copyright: Descriptions, articles, and other linked content may be protected by copyright. Check the applicable licence before reproducing or redistributing such material.
• Terms of use: Respect ORCID's published API terms, usage quotas, rate limits, and licensing restrictions.
• Legal advice: This section provides general information, not legal advice. Consult a qualified legal professional if you are unsure about your intended use.