/openalex/authors

POST /api/openalex/authors

Price: 1 credit

Get an OpenAlex author by their identifier

How to use it

Get full details of a researcher from OpenAlex by their identifier. Accepts an OpenAlex author id (A...) or a prefixed ORCID like orcid:<id>. Returns the author's name and name alternatives, ORCID, total works and citation counts, summary stats (h-index, i10-index, 2-year mean citedness), past and last-known institutional affiliations with years, main research topics with the share of the field they cover, top concepts, year-by-year work and citation counts, and the API link to their works.

Parameters

• access-token string required

Request body

• timeout integer — Max scrapping execution timeout (in seconds) (default: 300; min: 20; max: 1500)
• author string required — Author identifier: OpenAlex id (A...) or a prefixed ORCID (orcid:<id>) (examples: "A5023888391", "orcid:0000-0001-6187-6610"; minLength: 1)

Response

• @type string (default: "OpenalexAuthor")
• id string required
• orcid string nullable
• display_name string (default: "")
• display_name_alternatives array (default: [])
• works_count integer (default: 0)
• cited_by_count integer (default: 0)
• summary_stats object nullable
  • @type string (default: "OpenalexSummaryStats")
  • two_year_mean_citedness number nullable
  • h_index integer nullable
  • i10_index integer nullable
• affiliations array (default: [])
  • @type string (default: "OpenalexAuthorAffiliation")
  • id string required
  • display_name string (default: "")
  • ror string nullable
  • country_code string nullable
  • type string nullable
  • years array (default: [])
• last_known_institutions array (default: [])
  • @type string (default: "OpenalexAuthorAffiliation")
  • id string required
  • display_name string (default: "")
  • ror string nullable
  • country_code string nullable
  • type string nullable
  • years array (default: [])
• topics array (default: [])
  • @type string (default: "OpenalexTopic")
  • id string required
  • display_name string (default: "")
  • score number nullable
  • works_count integer nullable
  • topic_share number nullable
  • subfield string nullable
  • field string nullable
  • domain string nullable
• topic_share array (default: [])
  • @type string (default: "OpenalexTopic")
  • id string required
  • display_name string (default: "")
  • score number nullable
  • works_count integer nullable
  • topic_share number nullable
  • subfield string nullable
  • field string nullable
  • domain string nullable
• x_concepts array (default: [])
  • @type string (default: "OpenalexAuthorConcept")
  • id string required
  • display_name string (default: "")
  • score number nullable
  • wikidata string nullable
• counts_by_year array (default: [])
  • @type string (default: "OpenalexCountByYear")
  • year integer required
  • works_count integer nullable
  • cited_by_count integer nullable
• works_api_url string nullable
• updated_at string nullable
• created_at string nullable

Errors

• 422 — The request body did not validate Check the fields against this schema. A URN with the wrong prefix is the most common cause.
• 408 — The request ran past its time limit Raise `timeout` in the request body, up to the maximum this endpoint documents. Lowering `count` or turning off the `with_*` flags also helps, because less work finishes sooner.
• 412 — Author not found Retrying will not help: either the entity does not exist, or the input points at a different one.
• 429 — Too many requests: a rate limit or a usage window is exhausted When the response carries an X-Retry-After header, wait that many seconds and retry: the same number is in the body as `detail.retry_after`, and the limit clears once that window passes. The message in the body names the limit that was hit.
• 500 — Something broke on our side Retrying will not help. If it keeps happening, send us the X-Request-ID from the response headers.
• 529 — Rate limit reached, or the endpoint is overloaded Wait at least 30 seconds, then retry.

Response headers

• X-Error — Error message text (present only on error)
• X-Request-ID — Unique request identifier
• X-Execution-Time — Execution time in seconds
• X-Result-Count — How many records the body carries. 0 means an empty result, which is a normal answer and not by itself an error. A non-zero count can come back together with X-Error when the failure happened partway through — read this header and X-Error independently.
• X-Total-Available-Results — How many records exist for this query, when the endpoint can say. On a `dry_run` request this is the answer and the body is empty. It saturates: the endpoint's documented maximum means 'at least that many', any smaller number is exact.
• X-Warning — Present when the request body carried keys this endpoint does not document. They were ignored, so any filter you meant to apply through them did not apply. Check the spelling against this schema and retry.
• X-Retry-After — Seconds to wait before retrying. Present only on 429.