openalex

name	openalex
user_invocable	true
description	Query and analyze scholarly literature using the OpenAlex API. Use for literature searches, finding papers by author or institution, citation analysis, and bibliometric queries.

OpenAlex literature search

Query the OpenAlex API for academic papers, authors, institutions, and citation data.

Client

from scripts.openalex_client import OpenAlexClient

client = OpenAlexClient()

Script paths are relative to this skill's directory.

The client handles rate limiting, retries, and cursor-based pagination. Set OPENALEX_API_KEY in the environment; OpenAlex provides free keys at https://openalex.org/settings/api. The client permits limited no-key requests and also accepts an explicit api_key argument.

Key Patterns

Search works

results = client.search_works(search="CRISPR", filter_params={"publication_year": ">2020", "is_oa": "true"}, sort="cited_by_count:desc")

Resolve names before filtering

Names are ambiguous. Search for the entity, inspect candidate identifiers, affiliations, and topics, then filter by the selected OpenAlex ID:

matches = client.get("/authors", params={"search": "Jennifer Doudna", "per_page": 5})
author_id = matches["results"][0]["id"].split("/")[-1]  # select after inspection
works = client.search_works(filter_params={"authorships.author.id": author_id})

Get entity by external ID

work = client.get_entity("works", "https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-021-03819-2")
author = client.get_entity("authors", "https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1613-5981")

Batch DOI lookup (up to 100 per request)

works = client.batch_lookup("works", doi_list, "doi")

Paginate large results (cursor-based)

all_papers = client.paginate_all("/works", params={"search": "quantum computing", "filter": "publication_year:2022-2024"}, max_results=5000)

Aggregate by field

by_year = client.group_by("works", "publication_year", filter_params={"authorships.author.id": author_id})

Filter Syntax

Single:     publication_year:2023
AND:        publication_year:>2020,is_oa:true
OR:         type:journal-article|book
NOT:        type:!paratext
Range:      publication_year:2020-2024
Greater:    cited_by_count:>100
Both inst:  authorships.institutions.id:ID1+ID2    (AND)
Either:     authorships.institutions.id:ID1|ID2    (OR)

Common filters: publication_year, is_oa, cited_by_count, type, authorships.author.id, authorships.institutions.id, primary_location.source.id, topics.id, has_doi.

Attribution

OpenAlex client adapted from K-Dense-AI/claude-scientific-skills (MIT License).