Use this Skill when the user needs to search academic literature, collect papers for a systematic review, or find the latest research on any topic. Covers cross-database search via OpenAlex API, Semantic Scholar API, and arXiv API, with deduplication, citation snowballing, BibTeX export, and annual trend visualization.
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name
literature-search
description
Use this Skill when the user needs to search academic literature, collect papers for a systematic review, or find the latest research on any topic. Covers cross-database search via OpenAlex API, Semantic Scholar API, and arXiv API, with deduplication, citation snowballing, BibTeX export, and annual trend visualization.
TL;DR — Cross-database academic literature search using OpenAlex, Semantic Scholar,
and arXiv APIs. Includes deduplication, citation snowballing, BibTeX export, and
annual publication trend visualization.
1. Overview
What Problem Does This Skill Solve?
Academic literature search spans multiple databases, each with different coverage,
search syntax, and API quirks. Manually reconciling results leads to missed papers
and wasted hours. This Skill provides a unified, programmatic workflow that:
Queries three complementary databases in one pass
Deduplicates results by DOI and normalized title
Performs citation snowballing to find seminal upstream papers
Exports a clean BibTeX file ready for LaTeX / Zotero
Plots annual publication trends to reveal research momentum
Applicable Scenarios
Scenario
Recommended Entry Point
Systematic review / meta-analysis
search_openalex() + search_semantic_scholar()
Latest preprints on a narrow topic
search_arxiv()
Finding papers that cite a known key paper
get_citing_papers()
Weekly monitoring of new work
weekly_arxiv_monitor()
Exporting results to LaTeX / Zotero
export_bibtex()
Key Limitations
OpenAlex abstracts are stored as inverted indexes; reconstruction adds ~10 ms per paper.
OpenAlex (https://openalex.org) indexes 250 M+ works and is fully open.
Abstracts are stored as inverted indexes and must be reconstructed.
import requests
import pandas as pd
import time
import re
from typing importOptional
OPENALEX_BASE = "https://api.openalex.org/works"defreconstruct_abstract(inverted_index: dict) -> str:
"""Reconstruct abstract text from OpenAlex inverted index format."""ifnot inverted_index:
return""
max_pos = max(pos for positions in inverted_index.values() for pos in positions)
words = [""] * (max_pos + 1)
for word, positions in inverted_index.items():
for pos in positions:
words[pos] = word
return" ".join(words)
defsearch_openalex(
query: str,
max_results: int = 200,
from_year: Optional[int] = None,
to_year: Optional[int] = None,
email: str = "researcher@example.com",
) -> pd.DataFrame:
"""
Search OpenAlex for academic papers.
Args:
query: Free-text search query (supports Boolean: AND, OR, NOT).
max_results: Maximum number of results to return (hard cap: 10 000).
from_year: Filter papers published from this year onwards.
to_year: Filter papers published up to this year.
email: Polite-pool email — speeds up responses from OpenAlex.
Returns:
DataFrame with columns: doi, title, authors, year, venue,
citations, abstract, openalex_id, source.
"""
records = []
per_page = min(200, max_results)
page = 1
filter_parts = []
if from_year or to_year:
y_from = from_year or1900
y_to = to_year or2100
filter_parts.append(f"publication_year:{y_from}-{y_to}")
params = {
"search": query,
"per-page": per_page,
"mailto": email,
"select": (
"doi,title,authorships,publication_year,primary_location,""cited_by_count,abstract_inverted_index,id"
),
}
if filter_parts:
params["filter"] = ",".join(filter_parts)
whilelen(records) < max_results:
params["page"] = page
resp = requests.get(OPENALEX_BASE, params=params, timeout=30)
resp.raise_for_status()
data = resp.json()
results = data.get("results", [])
ifnot results:
breakfor r in results:
authors = [
a["author"]["display_name"]
for a in r.get("authorships", [])
if a.get("author")
]
loc = r.get("primary_location") or {}
src = loc.get("source") or {}
venue = src.get("display_name", "")
records.append({
"doi": (r.get("doi") or"").replace("https://doi.org/", ""),
"title": r.get("title", ""),
"authors": "; ".join(authors[:5]) + (" et al."iflen(authors) > 5else""),
"year": r.get("publication_year"),
"venue": venue,
"citations": r.get("cited_by_count", 0),
"abstract": reconstruct_abstract(r.get("abstract_inverted_index") or {}),
"openalex_id": r.get("id", ""),
"source": "openalex",
})
meta = data.get("meta", {})
iflen(records) >= max_results or page * per_page >= meta.get("count", 0):
break
page += 1
time.sleep(0.1)
return pd.DataFrame(records[:max_results])
3.2 Semantic Scholar Search
import os
from semanticscholar import SemanticScholar
defsearch_semantic_scholar(
query: str,
max_results: int = 100,
fields: list = None,
) -> pd.DataFrame:
"""
Search Semantic Scholar using the official Python client.
Args:
query: Natural-language query (semantic matching, not just keyword).
max_results: Maximum papers to return (anonymous limit: 100/5 min).
fields: Extra fields to fetch; defaults cover title, authors, year, etc.
Returns:
DataFrame with standardised columns matching search_openalex() output.
"""
api_key = os.getenv("SEMANTIC_SCHOLAR_API_KEY")
sch = SemanticScholar(api_key=api_key)
if fields isNone:
fields = [
"title", "authors", "year", "venue",
"citationCount", "abstract", "externalIds",
]
results = sch.search_paper(query, limit=max_results, fields=fields)
records = []
for paper in results:
authors = [a.name for a in (paper.authors or [])]
ext = paper.externalIds or {}
doi = ext.get("DOI", "")
records.append({
"doi": doi,
"title": paper.title or"",
"authors": "; ".join(authors[:5]) + (" et al."iflen(authors) > 5else""),
"year": paper.year,
"venue": paper.venue or"",
"citations": paper.citationCount or0,
"abstract": paper.abstract or"",
"openalex_id": "",
"source": "semantic_scholar",
})
return pd.DataFrame(records)
3.3 arXiv Search
import xml.etree.ElementTree as ET
ARXIV_BASE = "http://export.arxiv.org/api/query"
NS = "http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom"defsearch_arxiv(
query: str,
max_results: int = 50,
category: Optional[str] = None,
) -> pd.DataFrame:
"""
Search arXiv via its Atom/XML API.
Args:
query: Search terms (supports field prefixes: ti:, au:, abs:).
max_results: Maximum papers to return (hard cap per query: 2000).
category: Optional arXiv category, e.g. 'cs.LG', 'econ.EM', 'stat.ML'.
Returns:
DataFrame with standardised columns; doi uses 'arxiv:<id>' where no DOI exists.
"""if category:
query = f"({query}) AND cat:{category}"
start = 0
batch = min(100, max_results)
records = []
whilelen(records) < max_results:
params = {
"search_query": f"all:{query}",
"start": start,
"max_results": batch,
"sortBy": "relevance",
"sortOrder": "descending",
}
resp = requests.get(ARXIV_BASE, params=params, timeout=30)
resp.raise_for_status()
root = ET.fromstring(resp.text)
entries = root.findall(f"{{{NS}}}entry")
ifnot entries:
breakfor entry in entries:
arxiv_id = (entry.findtext(f"{{{NS}}}id") or"").split("/abs/")[-1]
title = (entry.findtext(f"{{{NS}}}title") or"").replace("\n", " ").strip()
abstract = (entry.findtext(f"{{{NS}}}summary") or"").replace("\n", " ").strip()
published = entry.findtext(f"{{{NS}}}published") or""
year = int(published[:4]) if published elseNone
authors = [
(a.findtext(f"{{{NS}}}name") or"")
for a in entry.findall(f"{{{NS}}}author")
]
doi = ""for link in entry.findall(f"{{{NS}}}link"):
if link.get("title") == "doi":
doi = link.get("href", "").replace("https://doi.org/", "")
records.append({
"doi": doi orf"arxiv:{arxiv_id}",
"title": title,
"authors": "; ".join(authors[:5]) + (" et al."iflen(authors) > 5else""),
"year": year,
"venue": "arXiv",
"citations": 0,
"abstract": abstract,
"openalex_id": "",
"source": "arxiv",
})
start += batch
time.sleep(0.4)
iflen(entries) < batch:
breakreturn pd.DataFrame(records[:max_results])
3.4 Deduplication
defnormalize_title(title: str) -> str:
"""Lowercase, strip punctuation, collapse whitespace."""
t = title.lower()
t = re.sub(r"[^a-z0-9 ]", "", t)
return re.sub(r"\s+", " ", t).strip()
defdeduplicate_results(*dfs: pd.DataFrame) -> pd.DataFrame:
"""
Merge multiple search result DataFrames and remove duplicates.
Dedup priority:
1. Exact DOI match (excluding 'arxiv:*' pseudo-DOIs)
2. Normalized title match
Args:
*dfs: Any number of DataFrames returned by the search functions above.
Returns:
Single deduplicated DataFrame sorted by citations descending.
"""
combined = pd.concat(dfs, ignore_index=True)
combined["_norm_title"] = combined["title"].fillna("").apply(normalize_title)
seen_dois: set = set()
seen_titles: set = set()
keep_mask = []
for _, row in combined.iterrows():
doi = row["doi"]
nt = row["_norm_title"]
real_doi = bool(doi) andnot doi.startswith("arxiv:")
if real_doi and doi in seen_dois:
keep_mask.append(False)
elif nt and nt in seen_titles:
keep_mask.append(False)
else:
keep_mask.append(True)
if real_doi:
seen_dois.add(doi)
if nt:
seen_titles.add(nt)
result = combined[keep_mask].drop(columns=["_norm_title"])
return result.sort_values("citations", ascending=False).reset_index(drop=True)
3.5 BibTeX Export
defexport_bibtex(df: pd.DataFrame, output_path: str = "results.bib") -> str:
"""
Export search results to a BibTeX file.
Args:
df: DataFrame from deduplicate_results() or any search function.
output_path: File path for the .bib output.
Returns:
Full BibTeX string (also written to output_path).
"""
bibtex_entries = []
for _, row in df.iterrows():
authors_raw = row.get("authors", "")
year = row.get("year", "")
title = row.get("title", "Untitled")
venue = row.get("venue", "")
doi = row.get("doi", "")
first_author = (
authors_raw.split(";")[0].strip().split()[-1]
if authors_raw else"Unknown"
)
key = f"{first_author}{year}"
author_bib = authors_raw.replace("; ", " and ")
entry_lines = [
f"@article{{{key},",
f' title = {{{title}}},',
f' author = {{{author_bib}}},',
f' year = {{{year}}},',
]
if venue:
entry_lines.append(f' journal = {{{venue}}},')
if doi andnot doi.startswith("arxiv:"):
entry_lines.append(f' doi = {{{doi}}},')
entry_lines.append("}")
bibtex_entries.append("\n".join(entry_lines))
bib_content = "\n\n".join(bibtex_entries)
withopen(output_path, "w", encoding="utf-8") as f:
f.write(bib_content)
print(f"Exported {len(bibtex_entries)} entries to {output_path}")
return bib_content
3.6 Annual Trend Visualization
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
import matplotlib.ticker as mticker
defplot_annual_trend(
df: pd.DataFrame,
title: str = "Annual Publication Trend",
output_path: Optional[str] = None,
) -> plt.Figure:
"""
Plot a bar chart of paper counts by year.
Args:
df: Deduplicated results DataFrame.
title: Chart title.
output_path: If given, save figure here (PNG / PDF / SVG).
Returns:
Matplotlib Figure object.
"""
year_counts = (
df["year"]
.dropna()
.astype(int)
.value_counts()
.sort_index()
)
fig, ax = plt.subplots(figsize=(10, 4))
ax.bar(year_counts.index, year_counts.values, color="#4C72B0", edgecolor="white")
ax.set_xlabel("Year")
ax.set_ylabel("Papers")
ax.set_title(title)
ax.yaxis.set_major_locator(mticker.MaxNLocator(integer=True))
fig.tight_layout()
if output_path:
fig.savefig(output_path, dpi=150)
print(f"Saved trend chart to {output_path}")
return fig
3.7 Citation Snowballing
defget_citing_papers(
doi: str,
max_results: int = 100,
email: str = "researcher@example.com",
) -> pd.DataFrame:
"""
Find all papers that cite a given DOI using the OpenAlex citation filter.
Args:
doi: Seed paper DOI (without https://doi.org/ prefix).
max_results: Maximum citing papers to return.
email: Polite-pool email for OpenAlex.
Returns:
DataFrame of citing papers in the same format as search_openalex().
"""return search_openalex(
query=f"cites:doi:{doi}",
max_results=max_results,
email=email,
)
3.8 Weekly arXiv Monitor
from datetime import datetime, timedelta
defweekly_arxiv_monitor(
keywords: list,
category: str,
days_back: int = 7,
output_csv: str = "weekly_arxiv.csv",
) -> pd.DataFrame:
"""
Monitor arXiv for new papers matching keywords, published in the last N days.
Args:
keywords: List of search terms (joined with OR).
category: arXiv category to filter, e.g. 'cs.LG', 'econ.EM'.
days_back: How many days back to search (default 7).
output_csv: Path to save results as CSV.
Returns:
DataFrame of matching papers published within the window.
"""
cutoff_year = (datetime.now() - timedelta(days=days_back)).year
query = " OR ".join(f'"{kw}"'for kw in keywords)
df = search_arxiv(query=query, max_results=200, category=category)
ifnot df.empty and"year"in df.columns:
df = df[df["year"] >= cutoff_year]
df.to_csv(output_csv, index=False, encoding="utf-8")
print(f"Weekly monitor: {len(df)} new papers -> {output_csv}")
return df
4. End-to-End Examples
Example 1 — Systematic Review on "LLM Hallucination"
# Step 1: search across all three databases
df_oa = search_openalex(
query="LLM hallucination factual accuracy",
max_results=300,
from_year=2020,
email="researcher@university.edu",
)
df_ss = search_semantic_scholar(
query="large language model hallucination",
max_results=100,
)
df_ax = search_arxiv(
query="hallucination large language model",
max_results=50,
category="cs.CL",
)
# Step 2: deduplicate
df_all = deduplicate_results(df_oa, df_ss, df_ax)
print(f"Total unique papers: {len(df_all)}")
# Step 3: citation snowballing on top-cited paper
top_doi = df_all.iloc[0]["doi"]
df_citing = get_citing_papers(doi=top_doi, max_results=50)
df_all = deduplicate_results(df_all, df_citing)
print(f"After snowballing: {len(df_all)}")
# Step 4: export
export_bibtex(df_all, output_path="hallucination_review.bib")
df_all.to_csv("hallucination_review.csv", index=False)
# Step 5: trend chart
fig = plot_annual_trend(
df_all,
title="Annual Papers on LLM Hallucination",
output_path="trend_hallucination.png",
)
Example 2 — Weekly arXiv Alert for Causal ML
# Run weekly (e.g. via cron or GitHub Actions schedule)
new_papers = weekly_arxiv_monitor(
keywords=["causal inference", "treatment effect", "counterfactual"],
category="stat.ML",
days_back=7,
output_csv="causal_ml_weekly.csv",
)
summary_lines = [
f"- [{row['title'][:80]}] ({row['year']}) -- {row['authors']}"for _, row in new_papers.head(10).iterrows()
]
print("This week's top causal ML papers:")
print("\n".join(summary_lines))
5. Common Errors and Troubleshooting
Error
Cause
Fix
429 Too Many Requests
Semantic Scholar rate limit hit
Add SEMANTIC_SCHOLAR_API_KEY; add time.sleep(1) between calls
abstract_inverted_index is None
Paper has no abstract in OpenAlex
reconstruct_abstract returns "" — filter with df[df.abstract != ""]
ET.ParseError
arXiv returned HTML error page
Retry after time.sleep(5); inspect resp.text
Empty DataFrame after dedup
All results are duplicates across sources
Normal for narrow queries; increase max_results per source
BibTeX key collision
Two authors with same surname + year
Append counter suffix: Smith2023a, Smith2023b
ModuleNotFoundError: semanticscholar
Package not installed
pip install semanticscholar
6. Performance Tips
Parallel queries: Run all three search_*() functions concurrently with
concurrent.futures.ThreadPoolExecutor to cut wall time by ~3x.
Caching: Pickle or Parquet the raw DataFrames after the first run so re-runs
during analysis skip all API calls.
OpenAlex cursor pagination: For queries exceeding 10 000 results, switch from
page=N to cursor=* pagination (see OpenAlex docs) to avoid result-count drift.
Abstract quality: Inverted-index reconstruction is ~100% faithful; only very old
papers (pre-2000) commonly have missing abstracts.
