/openalex/works/search

POST /api/openalex/works/search

Price: 5 credits

Search OpenAlex works (papers) by query and filters

How to use it

Search academic works on OpenAlex. Combine a free-text query (full-text, title-only, abstract-only or fulltext-only) with rich filters: publication year or date range, work type, open-access status, presence of DOI/abstract/full text, retraction status, language, and relationships to a specific author, institution, country, source/venue, ISSN, publisher, funder, topic, concept, keyword or Sustainable Development Goal. Filter by citation count and by citation relationships (cites, cited_by, related_to), and sort by relevance, citation count or publication date. Returns the same rich work objects as the get-by-id endpoint.

Parameters

• access-token string required

Request body

• timeout integer — Max scrapping execution timeout (in seconds) (default: 300; min: 20; max: 1500)
• search string nullable — Full-text search query across title, abstract and fulltext
• title_search string nullable — Search only within work titles
• abstract_search string nullable — Search only within work abstracts
• fulltext_search string nullable — Search only within work full text
• publication_year integer nullable — Exact publication year
• from_publication_date string nullable — Earliest publication date, YYYY-MM-DD (examples: "2020-01-01")
• to_publication_date string nullable — Latest publication date, YYYY-MM-DD (examples: "2023-12-31")
• type string nullable — Work type (one of: "article", "book", "book-chapter", "dataset", "dissertation", "editorial", "erratum", "grant", "letter", "other", "paratext", "peer-review", "preprint", "reference-entry", "report", "retraction", "review", "standard", "supplementary-materials")
• is_oa boolean nullable — Only open-access works when true
• oa_status string nullable — Open-access status (one of: "gold", "green", "hybrid", "bronze", "closed", "diamond")
• has_doi boolean nullable — Only works that have a DOI
• has_abstract boolean nullable — Only works that have an abstract
• has_fulltext boolean nullable — Only works with indexed full text
• is_retracted boolean nullable — Filter by retraction status
• language string nullable — ISO 639-1 language code (examples: "en", "de")
• author_id string nullable — OpenAlex author id of an author of the work (examples: "A5023888391")
• institution_id string nullable — OpenAlex institution id affiliated with the work (examples: "I27837315")
• institution_country_code string nullable — ISO country code of an affiliated institution (examples: "US")
• source_id string nullable — OpenAlex source (venue) id of the work (examples: "S137773608")
• source_issn string nullable — ISSN of the work source (venue) (examples: "0028-0836")
• publisher string nullable — OpenAlex publisher id (examples: "P4310319908")
• funder_id string nullable — OpenAlex funder id (examples: "F4320332161")
• topic_id string nullable — OpenAlex topic id (examples: "T10102")
• primary_topic_id string nullable — OpenAlex id of the work's primary topic
• concept_id string nullable — OpenAlex concept id (examples: "C41008148")
• keyword_id string nullable — OpenAlex keyword id (examples: "citation")
• sdg_id string nullable — Sustainable Development Goal id
• cited_by_count string nullable — Citation-count filter, supports range operators (examples: "100", ">100", "100-500")
• cites string nullable — Works that cite this work id (examples: "W2741809807")
• cited_by string nullable — Works cited by this work id (examples: "W2741809807")
• related_to string nullable — Works related to this work id (examples: "W2741809807")
• sort string nullable — Result ordering (one of: "relevance_score:desc", "cited_by_count:desc", "cited_by_count:asc", "publication_date:desc", "publication_date:asc")
• count integer required — Number of works to return (min: 1)

Response

• @type string (default: "OpenalexWork")
• id string required
• doi string nullable
• publication_year integer nullable
• publication_date string nullable
• language string nullable
• type string nullable
• pmid string nullable
• mag_id string nullable
• cited_by_count integer (default: 0)
• fwci number nullable
• referenced_works_count integer (default: 0)
• is_retracted boolean (default: false)
• is_oa boolean nullable
• oa_status string nullable
• oa_url string nullable
• indexed_in array (default: [])
• citation_normalized_percentile object nullable
  • @type string (default: "OpenalexCitationPercentile")
  • value number nullable
  • is_in_top_1_percent boolean nullable
  • is_in_top_10_percent boolean nullable
• abstract string nullable
• primary_location object nullable
  • @type string (default: "OpenalexWorkLocation")
  • is_oa boolean nullable
  • landing_page_url string nullable
  • pdf_url string nullable
  • license string nullable
  • version string nullable
  • source object nullable
    • @type string (default: "OpenalexWorkSource")
    • id string nullable
    • display_name string nullable
    • issn_l string nullable
    • type string nullable
    • is_oa boolean nullable
    • is_in_doaj boolean nullable
    • host_organization_name string nullable
• best_oa_location object nullable
  • @type string (default: "OpenalexWorkLocation")
  • is_oa boolean nullable
  • landing_page_url string nullable
  • pdf_url string nullable
  • license string nullable
  • version string nullable
  • source object nullable
    • @type string (default: "OpenalexWorkSource")
    • id string nullable
    • display_name string nullable
    • issn_l string nullable
    • type string nullable
    • is_oa boolean nullable
    • is_in_doaj boolean nullable
    • host_organization_name string nullable
• biblio object nullable
  • @type string (default: "OpenalexBiblio")
  • volume string nullable
  • issue string nullable
  • first_page string nullable
  • last_page string nullable
• primary_topic object nullable
  • @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
• authorships array (default: [])
  • @type string (default: "OpenalexAuthorship")
  • id string required
  • display_name string (default: "")
  • orcid string nullable
  • author_position string nullable
  • is_corresponding boolean nullable
  • raw_author_name string nullable
  • countries array (default: [])
  • institutions array (default: [])
    • @type string (default: "OpenalexWorkInstitution")
    • id string required
    • display_name string (default: "")
    • ror string nullable
    • country_code string nullable
    • type string nullable
• corresponding_author_ids 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
• keywords array (default: [])
  • @type string (default: "OpenalexKeyword")
  • id string required
  • display_name string (default: "")
  • score number nullable
• concepts array (default: [])
  • @type string (default: "OpenalexConcept")
  • id string required
  • display_name string (default: "")
  • level integer nullable
  • score number nullable
  • wikidata string nullable
• mesh array (default: [])
  • @type string (default: "OpenalexMeshTerm")
  • descriptor_ui string nullable
  • descriptor_name string (default: "")
  • qualifier_ui string nullable
  • qualifier_name string nullable
  • is_major_topic boolean nullable
• funders array (default: [])
  • @type string (default: "service__parsers__openalex__works__works__OpenalexFunder")
  • id string required
  • display_name string (default: "")
  • ror string nullable
  • award_ids array (default: [])
• sustainable_development_goals array (default: [])
  • @type string (default: "OpenalexSdg")
  • id string nullable
  • display_name string (default: "")
  • score number nullable
• referenced_works array (default: [])
• related_works array (default: [])
• counts_by_year array (default: [])
  • @type string (default: "OpenalexCountByYear")
  • year integer required
  • works_count integer nullable
  • cited_by_count integer 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 — The entity was not found, or a precondition failed 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.