alterlab-openalex

OpenAlex Database

Overview

OpenAlex is a comprehensive open catalog of 240M+ scholarly works, authors, institutions, topics, sources, publishers, and funders. This skill provides tools and workflows for querying the OpenAlex API to search literature, analyze research output, track citations, and conduct bibliometric studies.

Quick Start

Basic Setup

OpenAlex now runs on a credit model (see "Rate Limits & Cost" below). It still works with no credentials, but a free API key raises the daily free allowance from $0.01 to $1 — get one at openalex.org/settings/api and pass it to the client:

from scripts.openalex_client import OpenAlexClient

# Recommended: free API key (raises free allowance to $1/day)
client = OpenAlexClient(api_key="YOUR_KEY")

# Keyless still works (lower $0.01/day allowance); mailto is optional/harmless
client = OpenAlexClient(email="[email protected]")

Installation Requirements

Install required package using uv:

uv pip install requests

Core Capabilities

1. Search for Papers

Use for: Finding papers by title, abstract, or topic

# Simple search
results = client.search_works(
    search="machine learning",
    per_page=100
)

# Search with filters
results = client.search_works(
    search="CRISPR gene editing",
    filter_params={
        "publication_year": ">2020",
        "is_oa": "true"
    },
    sort="cited_by_count:desc"
)

2. Find Works by Author

Use for: Getting all publications by a specific researcher

Use the two-step pattern (entity name → ID → works):

from scripts.query_helpers import find_author_works

works = find_author_works(
    author_name="Jennifer Doudna",
    client=client,
    limit=100
)

Manual two-step approach:

# Step 1: Get author ID
author_response = client._make_request(
    '/authors',
    params={'search': 'Jennifer Doudna', 'per-page': 1}
)
author_id = author_response['results'][0]['id'].split('/')[-1]

# Step 2: Get works
works = client.search_works(
    filter_params={"authorships.author.id": author_id}
)