---
name: openalex-search-d358b3d9b0cd
description: "Open academic metadata via OpenAlex API. Use when: user needs author profiles, institution data, concept mapping, or open citation data. NOT for: full-text search or downloading papers."
metadata: { "openclaw": { "emoji": "📚", "requires": { "bins": ["curl"] } } }
---

# 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.org
```

## Common Commands

### Search Works

```bash
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

```bash
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

```bash
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

```bash
curl -s "https://api.openalex.org/concepts?search=machine+learning&per_page=5"
```

### Filtering and Sorting

```bash
# 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

```bash
# 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.


---
Source attribution: beita6969
Original project: https://github.com/beita6969/ScienceClaw/blob/e925f732c7ca435f557e88075bc47a58f1e984f1/skills/openalex-search/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) 2025 Peter Steinberger

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: beita6969
Original project: https://github.com/beita6969/ScienceClaw/blob/e925f732c7ca435f557e88075bc47a58f1e984f1/skills/openalex-search/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 Api
Country applicability: Country not specified
Classification basis: Source catalog labels
Instruction SHA-256: 1de1ba9b088d6c62c5f4cfbdd6396e26c71b1820aad7da5f1345c6e61938d6c7