---
name: openalex-db-d535e87d4ecc
description: Access the OpenAlex database (240M+ scholarly works) for bibliometric analysis, literature search, and citation tracking; use when you need to query works/authors/institutions/concepts without an API key.
license: MIT
author: AIPOCH
---
> **Source**: [https://github.com/aipoch/medical-research-skills](https://github.com/aipoch/medical-research-skills)

## When to Use

- You need to search scholarly **works** by keyword and filter by properties (e.g., open access, year, venue).
- You want to look up **authors** and analyze their publication output and citation impact.
- You need to retrieve and compare **institutions** (e.g., affiliation-based exploration or benchmarking).
- You want to explore **concepts/topics** and track trends across time.
- You need lightweight **bibliometric workflows** (citation tracking, publication trends) without managing API keys.

## Key Features

- Query OpenAlex entities: **works, authors, institutions, concepts**.
- Keyword search with **filtering** support.
- Designed for bibliometric tasks such as **citation tracking** and **trend exploration**.
- No API key required; supports providing an email for OpenAlex **Polite Pool** (higher rate limits).
- Simple Python client wrapper via `scripts/openalex_client.py`.

## Dependencies

- `requests` (version not pinned; install via `uv pip install requests`)

## Example Usage

```python
from scripts.openalex_client import OpenAlexClient

def main():
    # Provide an email to use OpenAlex "Polite Pool" (recommended for better rate limits)
    client = OpenAlexClient(email="user@example.com")

    # Search for open-access works related to CRISPR
    works = client.search_works(
        search="CRISPR",
        filter_params={"is_oa": "true"},
    )

    print(f"Found {len(works)} works")
    if works:
        first = works[0]
        # Field names depend on OpenAlex response schema
        print("First result:")
        print(f"  id: {first.get('id')}")
        print(f"  title: {first.get('title')}")
        print(f"  publication_year: {first.get('publication_year')}")
        print(f"  cited_by_count: {first.get('cited_by_count')}")

if __name__ == "__main__":
    main()
```

## Implementation Details

- **Client entry point:** `scripts/openalex_client.py` provides the main API wrapper (`OpenAlexClient`).
- **Polite Pool:** Supplying an `email` is recommended to receive higher rate limits from OpenAlex.
- **Search + filters:** Work queries accept a free-text `search` string plus `filter_params` (key/value pairs) that map to OpenAlex API filters (e.g., `{"is_oa": "true"}`).
- **Pagination and schema:** For supported filters, pagination behavior, and response fields, refer to `references/api_guide.md`.

---
Source attribution: aipoch
Original project: https://github.com/aipoch/medical-research-skills/blob/686e09dfdb45d9fa1a08664f06bb93769b3c9d91/scientific-skills/Evidence%20Insight/openalex-db/SKILL.md
License: MIT
License information: https://opensource.org/license/mit
Original upstream instructions; downloaded from Mega AI Hub.

## Upstream license notice

MIT License

Copyright (c) 2026 AIpoch

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy
of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal
in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights
to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell
copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is
furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all
copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR
IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY,
FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE
AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER
LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM,
OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE
SOFTWARE.



# Mega AI Hub resource metadata

Creator / publisher: aipoch
Original project: https://github.com/aipoch/medical-research-skills/blob/686e09dfdb45d9fa1a08664f06bb93769b3c9d91/scientific-skills/Evidence%20Insight/openalex-db/SKILL.md
Attribution basis: Source repository record

Fields of work: Data & Analytics, Education & Research
Roles: Data Analyst, Market Research Analyst, Researcher
Specialties: API
Tools: Openalex
Country applicability: Country not specified
Classification basis: Source catalog labels
Instruction SHA-256: 2700b3a5bcfec03eea71bf146afb02e576489dc89e2dc847ec623c893d2cbefa