NIH Grant Publication Linkage & Output Report

Research offices, funders, and R&D portfolio teams enter NIH core project numbers or bounded project searches. The Actor connects official NIH RePORTER project records to the Publication API and optional PubMed citation metadata. It returns source-linked linkage alerts, portfolio output reports, and exports; baseline and unchanged checks produce zero rows and zero charges.

Store Quickstart

Start with a bounded value report. This example uses a public project identifier from NIH's API documentation and returns source-linked publication alerts, a portfolio report, and a reusable export. For a recurring schedule, switch the same watch to baseline_only after the first report.

{
  "watches": [
    {
      "id": "nih-linked-publications",
      "coreProjectNumbers": ["UG1HD078437"]
    }
  ],
  "monitorKey": "nih-linked-publications",
  "initialRunMode": "emit_backfill",
  "generateReport": true,
  "emitRawRows": false,
  "emitExport": true,
  "emitUnchanged": false,
  "includePubMedMetadata": true,
  "maxProjectsPerWatch": 5,
  "maxPublicationsPerProject": 25,
  "maxChargeUsd": 35,
  "dryRun": false
}

The report and export are the primary buyer deliverables; alerts explain the individual changed links. Repeat the same watch on a weekly schedule with initialRunMode: "baseline_only" for a free baseline, then receive only new or changed public links. If nothing changes, the run emits zero rows and zero charges.

Run the next report

Use a new monitorKey and emit_backfill when an explicit current portfolio report is needed:

{
  "watches": [
    {
      "id": "nih-linked-publications",
      "coreProjectNumbers": ["UG1HD078437"]
    }
  ],
  "monitorKey": "nih-linked-publications-current",
  "initialRunMode": "emit_backfill",
  "generateReport": true,
  "emitRawRows": false,
  "emitExport": true,
  "includePubMedMetadata": true,
  "maxProjectsPerWatch": 5,
  "maxPublicationsPerProject": 25,
  "maxChargeUsd": 35,
  "dryRun": false
}

Use the publication.pmid values from this report as the next literature input. Run PubMed Literature Watch & Research Report with those PMIDs or a related query: set generateReport: true for a current literature update, and also set generateExport: true with emitRawRows: false when you need a systematic-review screening/reference export. This keeps the grant-output and literature-review steps in one source-linked workflow.

Input examples

Topic and fiscal-year portfolio

{
  "watches": [
    {
      "id": "immunotherapy-r01",
      "terms": ["immunotherapy"],
      "fiscalYears": [2025, 2026],
      "activityCodes": ["R01"]
    }
  ],
  "monitorKey": "immunotherapy-r01-output",
  "initialRunMode": "baseline_only",
  "generateReport": true,
  "emitRawRows": false,
  "maxProjectsPerWatch": 10,
  "maxPublicationsPerProject": 100,
  "maxChargeUsd": 35,
  "dryRun": false
}

Institution portfolio

{
  "watches": [
    {
      "id": "institution-u01",
      "institutions": ["Example University"],
      "activityCodes": ["U01"],
      "fiscalYears": [2024, 2025, 2026]
    }
  ],
  "monitorKey": "institution-u01-output",
  "initialRunMode": "baseline_only",
  "generateReport": true,
  "includePubMedMetadata": true,
  "maxProjectsPerWatch": 10,
  "maxPublicationsPerProject": 100,
  "maxChargeUsd": 35,
  "dryRun": false
}

Explicit export without PubMed enrichment

{
  "watches": [
    {
      "id": "project-export",
      "coreProjectNumbers": ["UG1HD078437"]
    }
  ],
  "monitorKey": "project-export-2026",
  "initialRunMode": "emit_backfill",
  "generateReport": false,
  "emitRawRows": true,
  "emitExport": true,
  "includePubMedMetadata": false,
  "maxProjectsPerWatch": 5,
  "maxPublicationsPerProject": 50,
  "maxChargeUsd": 25,
  "dryRun": false
}

Sample output

The report is the primary output:

{
  "rowType": "nih_grant_publication_output_report",
  "billingEventName": "nih-grant-publication-output-report",
  "report": {
    "reportType": "grant_publication_output_change_report",
    "selectedProjectCount": 2,
    "selectedPublicationLinkCount": 7,
    "newLinkCount": 7,
    "metadataChangeCount": 0,
    "byPublicationYear": [
      {"key": "2026", "count": 4},
      {"key": "2025", "count": 3}
    ],
    "interpretation": "Descriptive public link and citation metadata only."
  },
  "sourceUrl": "https://api.reporter.nih.gov/?urls.primaryName=V2.0"
}

See docs/sample-output.json for representative alert, report, and export rows.

Buyer workflow

1. Link a bounded grant portfolio to new public citations with this Actor's alert/report/export path.
2. Compare the associated award portfolio in NIH RePORTER Funding Landscape Report.
3. Continue to PubMed Literature Watch & Research Report for the literature update and systematic-review export step, then widen discovery with OpenAlex Research Intelligence when needed.

See also

• NIH RePORTER Funding Landscape Report for the preceding award-landscape report.
• PubMed Literature Watch & Research Report for the next literature update or systematic-review export.

Output fields

• project: public NIH project number, title, organization, fiscal year, award amount, dates, and official source URL.
• publication: PMID, linked core project number, optional title, journal, publication date/type, DOI, and official URLs.
• changeType: new_publication_link or publication_metadata_changed.
• report: project/link totals and descriptive grouping by project, publication year, and journal.
• limitations and prohibitedInterpretations: safeguards that travel with each row.

The Actor intentionally omits investigator and program-officer identity, direct communication fields, article abstracts, and full text.

Pricing

Event	Price	Delivered when
nih-grant-publication-link-row	$0.008	Optional normalized public grant-publication link
nih-publication-output-change-alert	$0.25	A new linkage or citation-metadata change is observed
nih-grant-publication-output-report	$15.00	Selected changes are grouped into a portfolio report
nih-grant-publication-export	$10.00	Selected records are packaged as a source-linked export

There is no start charge. The Actor estimates the complete configured event charge before its first dataset push and fails closed if the estimate exceeds maxChargeUsd.

Baseline and no-change billing

• baseline_only stores the first observed links and emits zero rows and zero charges.
• A later unchanged run emits zero rows and zero charges.
• emitUnchanged cannot override this billing safeguard.
• State is committed only after all billable rows receive a positive Apify PPE receipt.

Compliance and interpretation

• Sources: official NIH RePORTER Project and Publication APIs plus optional NCBI ESummary citation metadata.
• Requests use no login, browser session, shared credential, or required API key.
• NIH requests are sequential and no faster than one request per second.
• NCBI keyless requests remain below the documented three-request-per-second limit.
• A linkage is a public association, not proof that a grant caused a publication.
• The report is not a quality, productivity, investigator, institution, clinical, or return-on-investment score.
• It is not medical, investment, financial, grant-writing, legal, procurement, or hiring advice.
• No NIH, HHS, NCBI, NLM, or funding-agency endorsement is implied.

Development

npm test
npm start