Literature Search Openalex
Query and filter scholarly works and authors through the OpenAlex API when validating technical or scientific assumptions.
Overview
Literature Search OpenAlex is an agent skill for the Idea phase that structures OpenAlex API queries to find and filter academic authors, works, and affiliations for research-backed decisions.
Install
npx skills add https://github.com/google-deepmind/science-skills --skill literature-search-openalexWhat is this skill?
- OpenAlex entity model for authors, works, institutions, and bibliographic filters
- Sort, group_by, and filter fields for cited_by_count, ORCID, affiliations, and date ranges
- Supports systematic discovery instead of one-off web search snippets
- Fits agent-driven literature reviews tied to product or ML decisions
- Reference-oriented field tables for precise API queries
Adoption & trust: 691 installs on skills.sh; 1.7k GitHub stars; 2/3 security scanners passed (skills.sh audits).
What problem does it solve?
You need credible papers and citation signals for an idea, but generic web search gives noisy summaries and no reproducible filters.
Who is it for?
Builders validating scientific, ML, or health-adjacent claims who want programmatic literature discovery inside the agent.
Skip if: Purely commercial competitor teardowns with no scholarly sources—use audience and competitor research skills instead.
When should I use this skill?
You need scholarly works, author metrics, or affiliation filters from OpenAlex during product or model research.
What do I get? / Deliverables
You get repeatable OpenAlex query patterns and field-aware filters your agent can run to build a citable reading list before scope or build.
- Filtered work and author result sets
- Reproducible query parameters for follow-up sessions
Recommended Skills
Journey fit
Literature search belongs at the start of the journey when you are still gathering evidence, not after you have shipped. Research subphase is where citation-backed discovery reduces blind spots before you scope or prototype.
How it compares
Structured OpenAlex API skill, not a generic “search the web” browser integration.
Common Questions / FAQ
Who is literature-search-openalex for?
Solo builders and small teams who need academic literature retrieval via OpenAlex while planning features, models, or research-heavy products.
When should I use literature-search-openalex?
In the Idea research phase when gathering prior art, citation counts, author track records, or institution-linked works before you validate scope.
Is literature-search-openalex safe to install?
It guides API-style research queries; review the Security Audits panel on this page and avoid sending secrets in query logs when using networked agents.
SKILL.md
READMESKILL.md - Literature Search Openalex
# Authors Reference Authors are people who create works. ## Top-level | Field | Sort | Group_by | Filter | | -------------------------------------- | :--: | :------: | :----: | | `block_key` | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | | `cited_by_count` | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | | `display_name` | ✓ | | ✓ | | `from_created_date` | ✓ | | ✓ | | `has_orcid` | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | | `id` | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | | `openalex` | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | | `openalex_id` | | ✓ | ✓ | | `orcid` | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | | `scopus` | | ✓ | ✓ | | `to_created_date` | ✓ | | ✓ | | `to_updated_date` | ✓ | | ✓ | | `works_count` | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ## Affiliations | Field | Sort | Group_by | Filter | | --------------------------------------- | :--: | :------: | :----: | | `affiliations.institution.country_code` | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | | `affiliations.institution.id` | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | | `affiliations.institution.lineage` | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | | `affiliations.institution.ror` | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | | `affiliations.institution.type` | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ## Ids | Field | Sort | Group_by | Filter | | -------------- | :--: | :------: | :----: | | `ids.openalex` | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ## Last Known Institutions | Field | Sort | Group_by | Filter | | ----------------------------------------- | :--: | :------: | :----: | | `last_known_institutions.continent` | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | | `last_known_institutions.country_code` | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | | `last_known_institutions.id` | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | | `last_known_institutions.is_global_south` | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | | `last_known_institutions.lineage` | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | | `last_known_institutions.ror` | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | | `last_known_institutions.type` | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ## Parsed Longest Name | Field | Sort | Group_by | Filter | | ---------------------------- | :--: | :------: | :----: | | `parsed_longest_name.first` | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | | `parsed_longest_name.last` | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | | `parsed_longest_name.middle` | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | | `parsed_longest_name.suffix` | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ## Summary Stats | Field | Sort | Group_by | Filter | | ---------------------------------- | :--: | :------: | :----: | | `summary_stats.2yr_mean_citedness` | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | | `summary_stats.h_index` | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | | `summary_stats.i10_index` | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ## Topic Share | Field | Sort | Group_by | Filter | | ---------------- | :--: | :------: | :----: | | `topic_share.id` | | ✓ | ✓ | ## Topics | Field | Sort | Group_by | Filter | | ----------- | :--: | :------: | :----: | | `topics.id` | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | # Geo and Language Reference Geographic (Continents, Countries) and Language entity types for filtering and grouping scholarly output by location or language. ## Continents | Field | Sort | Group_by | Filter | | -------------------------------------- | :--: | :------: | :----: | | `cited_by_count` | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | | `display_name` | ✓ | | ✓ | | `from_created_date`