# OpenAlex Research Scraper - Papers, Authors & Citations (`thirdwatch/openalex-research-scraper`) Actor

Search OpenAlex scholarly works and export DOI, title, authors, institutions, abstract, citations, topics, open-access status, publication data, and source links. Built for research and data pipelines. No login, cookies, or API keys — clean JSON output and pay-per-result pricing.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/thirdwatch/openalex-research-scraper.md
- **Developed by:** [Thirdwatch](https://apify.com/thirdwatch) (community)
- **Categories:** Education, Business
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 0.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

from $2.00 / 1,000 results

This Actor is paid per event. You are not charged for the Apify platform usage, but only a fixed price for specific events.
Since this Actor supports Apify Store discounts, the price gets lower the higher subscription plan you have.

Learn more: https://docs.apify.com/actors/running/actors-in-store.md#pay-per-event

## What's an Apify Actor?

An Actor is a serverless cloud program that runs on the Apify platform. It has two run modes.
In Batch mode, an Actor accepts a well-defined JSON input, performs an action which can take anything from a few seconds to a few hours,
and optionally produces a well-defined JSON output, datasets with results, or files in key-value store.
In Standby mode, an Actor provides a web server which can be used as a website, API, or an MCP server.

Apify vocabulary and the platform model are defined once, in the agent quickstart at https://apify.com/agents.md.

## How to integrate an Actor?

If asked about integration, you help developers integrate Actors into their projects.
You adapt to their stack and deliver integrations that are safe, well-documented, and production-ready.

Do not guess an integration path. Every one of them is in the agent quickstart at https://apify.com/agents.md: the Apify MCP server, Agent Skills with the Apify CLI, the JavaScript and Python clients, the REST API, and the account-free path for an agent with no human to sign in. It also carries the rule on stating cost before the first paid run.

For examples already wired to this Actor's own input schema, see the [API](#api) section below.

Each client library has reference documentation the quickstart does not restate: [JavaScript/TypeScript](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs.md) (`npm install apify-client`) and [Python](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs.md) (`pip install apify-client`).

# README

## OpenAlex Research Scraper

> Search OpenAlex papers and export DOIs, titles, authors, institutions, abstracts, topics, citations, open-access status, and publication links.

### What you get

Turn research queries into structured scholarly-work rows for literature reviews, topic monitoring, institutional analysis, and DOI enrichment. Apply publication-year and open-access filters or page through a large result set.

### Output fields

| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| `openalex_id` | OpenAlex work identifier |
| `doi` | DOI URL when available |
| `title` | Work title |
| `publication_year` | Publication year |
| `publication_date` | Publication date |
| `work_type` | OpenAlex work type |
| `language` | Detected language |
| `authors` | Author IDs, names, and positions |
| `institutions` | Unique affiliated institutions |
| `abstract` | Reconstructed abstract when available |
| `cited_by_count` | OpenAlex citation count |
| `is_retracted` | Retraction flag |
| `is_paratext` | Paratext flag |
| `open_access` | Open-access status and related fields |
| `source_name` | Journal or source name |
| `source_issn` | Source ISSN-L |
| `landing_page_url` | Work landing page |
| `pdf_url` | PDF URL when available |
| `topics` | Leading OpenAlex topics |
| `query` | Query that produced the row |
| `source` | Data-source name |

### Example output

```json
{
  "openalex_id": "https://openalex.org/W4387712345",
  "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-026-01234-5",
  "title": "Reliable evaluation of language-model agents",
  "publication_year": 2026,
  "authors": [{"name": "Maya Rao", "position": "first"}],
  "institutions": ["Indian Institute of Science"],
  "cited_by_count": 27,
  "source_name": "Nature"
}
```

### Input parameters

| Parameter | Required | Description |
|---|---|---|
| `queries` | No | Titles, topics, authors, or institution terms; defaults to `artificial intelligence` |
| `fromPublicationYear` | No | Inclusive start year |
| `toPublicationYear` | No | Inclusive end year |
| `openAccessOnly` | No | Return only works marked open access; defaults to `false` |
| `maxResultsPerQuery` | No | Maximum works per query; defaults to 20 |
| `apiKey` | No | Optional OpenAlex key for a higher upstream allowance |

### Use cases

- Researchers: assemble topic-specific literature-review datasets.
- Universities: track publications and affiliations across institutions.
- Analysts: monitor emerging concepts and citation activity.
- Developers: enrich DOI workflows with authors, abstracts, and topics.

### Limitations

OpenAlex aggregates scholarly sources, so metadata completeness and citation counts vary and can be corrected later. Abstracts, PDFs, DOIs, and affiliations are not available for every work. Citation counts are OpenAlex indicators rather than universal totals. Verify critical details on the DOI or publisher page.

### Compared to alternatives

Compared with `parseforge/openalex-scraper`, this Actor combines full-text discovery, year ranges, open-access filtering, abstract reconstruction, and optional authenticated capacity. Compared with `shahidirfan/OpenAlex-Scraper`, it emphasizes clean authorship, institution, source, topic, and access fields for downstream research pipelines.

### FAQ

#### Does every result include an abstract?

No. The field is returned only when OpenAlex supplies an abstract index.

#### Can I collect only recent open-access work?

Yes. Set the two year filters and enable `openAccessOnly`.

#### Do I need an OpenAlex key?

Not for the small default run. Add your key for higher upstream usage.

Explore more at [thirdwatch.dev](https://thirdwatch.dev). Related Actors: [PubMed Research Scraper](https://apify.com/thirdwatch/pubmed-research-scraper), [arXiv Papers Scraper](https://apify.com/thirdwatch/arxiv-papers-scraper), and [Google News Scraper](https://apify.com/thirdwatch/google-news-scraper).

Last verified: 2026-07

# Actor input Schema

## `queries` (type: `array`):

Titles, concepts, topics, authors, or institution keywords.

## `fromPublicationYear` (type: `integer`):

Optional inclusive start year.

## `toPublicationYear` (type: `integer`):

Optional inclusive end year.

## `openAccessOnly` (type: `boolean`):

Only return works marked open access by OpenAlex.

## `maxResultsPerQuery` (type: `integer`):

Maximum unique works saved for each query.

## `apiKey` (type: `string`):

Optional key for higher upstream usage limits.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "queries": [
    "artificial intelligence"
  ],
  "openAccessOnly": false,
  "maxResultsPerQuery": 20
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `results` (type: `string`):

No description

# API

You can run this Actor programmatically using our API. Below are code examples in JavaScript, Python, and CLI, as well as the OpenAPI specification and MCP server setup.

## JavaScript example

```javascript
import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

// Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
// Replace the '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token
const client = new ApifyClient({
    token: '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>',
});

// Prepare Actor input
const input = {
    "queries": [
        "artificial intelligence"
    ],
    "maxResultsPerQuery": 20
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("thirdwatch/openalex-research-scraper").call(input);

// Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if any)
console.log('Results from dataset');
console.log(`💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/${run.defaultDatasetId}`);
const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
items.forEach((item) => {
    console.dir(item);
});

// 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs

```

## Python example

```python
from apify_client import ApifyClient

# Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
# Replace '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token.
client = ApifyClient("<YOUR_API_TOKEN>")

# Prepare the Actor input
run_input = {
    "queries": ["artificial intelligence"],
    "maxResultsPerQuery": 20,
}

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("thirdwatch/openalex-research-scraper").call(run_input=run_input)

# Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if there are any)
print(f"💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/{run.default_dataset_id}")
for item in client.dataset(run.default_dataset_id).iterate_items():
    print(item)

# 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs/quick-start

```

## CLI example

```bash
echo '{
  "queries": [
    "artificial intelligence"
  ],
  "maxResultsPerQuery": 20
}' |
apify call thirdwatch/openalex-research-scraper --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,thirdwatch/openalex-research-scraper"
        }
    }
}
```

The hosted server signs you in with OAuth on first connect, so no API token belongs in this config. Clients without OAuth support can send an `Authorization: Bearer <APIFY_API_TOKEN>` header instead, using a token from API & Integrations in Apify Console (https://console.apify.com/settings/integrations).

## OpenAPI specification

Download the OpenAPI definition: https://api.apify.com/v2/actors/tYIrheIJXhDOdYGXz/builds/Kv07csDGvNqBeq6Lf/openapi.json