Openalex Search
- 17 installs
- 869 repo stars
- Updated June 8, 2026
- beita6969/scienceclaw
OpenAlex Search is a skill that queries the OpenAlex open academic metadata API for works, authors, institutions, and concepts using curl.
About
Queries the OpenAlex open academic metadata API with plain curl commands to find works, authors, institutions, and concepts. A researcher uses it to look up papers, author profiles, institution output, and open citation data without an API key. It includes an explicit zero-hallucination rule so every reported detail comes from an actual API response.
- Queries OpenAlex academic metadata via plain curl commands
- Searches works, authors, institutions, and concepts, no API key
- Enforces a zero-hallucination rule so every result comes from a real API response
Openalex Search by the numbers
- 17 all-time installs (skills.sh)
- Ranked #1,286 of 2,065 Data Science & ML skills by installs in the Skillselion catalog
- Data as of Aug 2, 2026 (Skillselion catalog sync)
openalex-search capabilities & compatibility
Free; open API with no key, only a mailto param for faster rate limits
- Capabilities
- literature search · author lookup · citation lookup
- Use cases
- research · web search
- Runs
- Runs locally
- Pricing
- Free
What openalex-search says it does
Query the OpenAlex open academic metadata API for works, authors, institutions, and concepts.
No API key required. Add `mailto` parameter for polite pool (10x faster rate limit).
NEVER fabricate results from training data.
npx skills add https://github.com/beita6969/scienceclaw --skill openalex-searchAdd your badge
Show developers this skill is listed on Skillselion. Paste this into your README.
| Installs | 17 |
|---|---|
| repo stars | ★ 869 |
| Last updated | June 8, 2026 |
| Repository | beita6969/scienceclaw ↗ |
What it does
Look up academic works, authors, institutions, and concepts through the OpenAlex API using curl.
Who is it for?
Quick metadata lookups of authors, institutions, concepts, and open citation data
Skip if: Full-text paper access, biomedical-specific search, or preprint-focused search, per the docs
When should I use this skill?
You need author profiles, institution data, concept mapping, or open citation data
What you get
Metadata for works, authors, institutions, and concepts drawn only from real API responses.
- Metadata for works, authors, institutions, and concepts
By the numbers
- 250M+ works
- 90M+ authors
- 100K+ institutions
Files
OpenAlex Search Skill
Query the OpenAlex open academic metadata API for works, authors, institutions, and concepts.
When to Use
- "Find papers by this author"
- "What institution produces the most research in X?"
- "Show citation data for this paper"
- "Map concepts related to this topic"
- "Find open access papers on..."
When NOT to Use
- Full-text paper access (use semantic-scholar or direct PDF)
- Biomedical-specific search (use pubmed-search)
- Pre-print focused search (use arxiv-search)
- DOI resolution only (use crossref-search)
Setup
No API key required. Add mailto parameter for polite pool (10x faster rate limit).
API Base
https://api.openalex.orgCommon Commands
Search Works
curl -s "https://api.openalex.org/works?search=CRISPR+gene+editing&per_page=5&mailto=user@example.com"
# Filter by year + open access
curl -s "https://api.openalex.org/works?filter=publication_year:2024,open_access.is_oa:true&search=quantum+computing&per_page=10"
# Get specific work by DOI
curl -s "https://api.openalex.org/works/doi:10.1038/s41586-024-07000-0"Search Authors
curl -s "https://api.openalex.org/authors?search=Yoshua+Bengio&per_page=5"
# Get author profile by ID
curl -s "https://api.openalex.org/authors/A5023888391"Search Institutions
curl -s "https://api.openalex.org/institutions?search=MIT&per_page=5"
# Filter by country, sort by output
curl -s "https://api.openalex.org/institutions?filter=country_code:CN&sort=works_count:desc&per_page=10"Concepts
curl -s "https://api.openalex.org/concepts?search=machine+learning&per_page=5"Filtering and Sorting
# Multiple filters
curl -s "https://api.openalex.org/works?filter=publication_year:2023-2024,cited_by_count:>100&sort=cited_by_count:desc&per_page=10"
# Group by field
curl -s "https://api.openalex.org/works?filter=authorships.author.id:A5023888391&group_by=publication_year"Pagination
# Page-based (up to 10,000 results)
curl -s "https://api.openalex.org/works?search=climate&page=2&per_page=25"
# Cursor-based (unlimited)
curl -s "https://api.openalex.org/works?search=climate&per_page=100&cursor=*"Notes
- Free, open API with no key required
- Polite pool (mailto param): 100 req/sec vs 10 req/sec
- 250M+ works, 90M+ authors, 100K+ institutions
- Entity IDs: W (works), A (authors), I (institutions), C (concepts)
Zero-Hallucination Rule
NEVER fabricate results from training data. Every paper title, author, DOI, PMID, citation count, and metadata detail presented to the user MUST come from an actual API response in this conversation. If the API returns no results or partial data, report exactly what was returned. Do not "fill in" missing details from memory.
Related skills
Microsoft FoundryDeploy, evaluate, and continuously improve Microsoft Foundry agents from a single agent interface.490k1.3k
Ai Research ReproductionOrchestrate trustworthy, auditable reproduction of deep learning repositories directly from their READMEs.176k511Run TrainSafely execute selected deep learning training commands with standardized evidence capture.176k511Explore RunSafely run isolated exploratory experiments with clear recording and conservative selection before committing changes.176k511Paper Context ResolverFetch precise reproduction-critical details like dataset splits, preprocessing steps, or evaluation protocols from the original academic paper when the repo README leav141k511Repo Intake And PlanScan unfamiliar AI research repositories and receive a minimal, trustworthy reproduction target before investing significant time.140k511FAQ
Does it need an API key?
No API key is required. Adding a mailto parameter enables the polite pool at 100 req/sec instead of 10.
When should it not be used?
Not for full-text paper access, biomedical-specific search, preprint-focused search, or DOI-only resolution, per the docs.