# /orcid/researchers/search

`POST /api/orcid/researchers/search`

Price: 5 credits

Search ORCID researchers by name, keyword, affiliation or identifier

## How to use it

Search the ORCID registry for researchers. Filter by given and family name (separately or combined), credit or other names, biography text, email, research keyword, free text, affiliated organization name (current, past or any), organization identifier (ROR, Ringgold or GRID), the title of one of their works, a work DOI (any or self-authored), a work PubMed id (PMID or PMCID), or an exact ORCID iD. Provided filters are combined with AND; an advanced raw query expression is also supported. Returns each matching researcher's ORCID iD, name and alternative names, emails and the names of the institutions they are affiliated with.

## Parameters

- `access-token` (string, required)

## Request body

- `timeout` (integer) — Max scrapping execution timeout (in seconds) (default: 300; min: 20; max: 1500)
- `query` (string, nullable) — Advanced raw search expression with field-scoped terms combined with AND/OR, e.g. 'family-name:Smith AND keyword:genomics'. Use the dedicated filter fields below for simple searches; this field is combined with them using AND. (examples: "family-name:Smith AND given-names:John")
- `given_names` (string, nullable) — Researcher given (first) name
- `family_name` (string, nullable) — Researcher family (last) name
- `given_and_family_names` (string, nullable) — Match against the researcher's combined given and family name
- `credit_name` (string, nullable) — Published / credit name of the researcher
- `other_names` (string, nullable) — An alternative name the researcher is also known by
- `biography` (string, nullable) — Text appearing in the researcher's biography
- `email` (string, nullable) — Public email address of the researcher
- `keyword` (string, nullable) — A research keyword listed on the researcher profile
- `text` (string, nullable) — Free-text match across all profile fields
- `affiliation_org_name` (string, nullable) — Name of any (current or past) affiliated organization
- `current_institution_name` (string, nullable) — Name of a current employment affiliation organization
- `past_institution_name` (string, nullable) — Name of a past employment affiliation organization
- `affiliation_org_id` (string, nullable) — ROR id of an affiliated organization. Accepts the bare ROR id or the full ror.org URL.
- `ringgold_org_id` (string, nullable) — Ringgold id of an affiliated organization
- `grid_org_id` (string, nullable) — GRID id of an affiliated organization
- `work_titles` (string, nullable) — Title of one of the researcher's works
- `doi` (string, nullable) — A DOI of one of the researcher's works
- `doi_self` (string, nullable) — A DOI of a work where the researcher is the primary author (self relationship)
- `pmid` (string, nullable) — A PubMed id (PMID) of one of the researcher's works
- `pmc` (string, nullable) — A PubMed Central id (PMCID) of one of the researcher's works
- `orcid` (string, nullable) — Exact ORCID iD. Accepts the bare id, a dashed id, or the full orcid.org URL.
- `count` (integer, required) — Number of researchers to return (min: 1)

## Response

### 200 — Successful Response

- `@type` (string) (default: "OrcidResearcherSearchResult")
- `orcid` (string, required)
- `given_name` (string, nullable)
- `family_name` (string, nullable)
- `credit_name` (string, nullable)
- `other_names` (array) (default: [])
- `emails` (array) (default: [])
- `institution_names` (array) (default: [])

## Errors

### 422 — Validation Error

The request body did not validate

What to do: Check the fields against this schema. A URN with the wrong prefix is the most common cause.

- `detail` (array)
  - `loc` (array, required)
  - `msg` (string, required)
  - `type` (string, required)
  - `input` (any)
  - `ctx` (object)

### 408

The request ran past its time limit

What to do: 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

What to do: 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

What to do: 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

What to do: 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

What to do: Wait at least 30 seconds, then retry.

## Response envelope

Success: Array of objects (may be empty if no results)

Error: Error may coexist with partial results if it occurs mid-execution. Check X-Error header and status code.

Every response carries these 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.