---
name: semantic-scholar
description: "Search Semantic Scholar for academic papers across all disciplines with citation graph analysis. Use when: (1) finding papers across disciplines, (2) citation/reference graph traversal, (3) author search, (4) paper recommendations, (5) large-scale bibliometric analysis. NOT for: specific database access (use pubmed for biomedical, arxiv for preprints)."
metadata: { "openclaw": { "emoji": "🎓", "requires": { "bins": ["curl"] }, "primaryEnv": "S2_API_KEY" } }
---

# Semantic Scholar Search

Search 200M+ papers across all disciplines with citation graph, author profiles,
and recommendations via the Semantic Scholar API.

## Authentication

```bash
curl -s -H "x-api-key: ${S2_API_KEY}" "https://api.semanticscholar.org/graph/v1/paper/search?query=example"
```

## Paper Search

```bash
curl -s "https://api.semanticscholar.org/graph/v1/paper/search?query=machine+learning+drug+discovery&limit=5&fields=title,authors,year,abstract,citationCount,url"
```

Parameters: `query=` (required), `limit=` (max 100), `offset=`, `fields=`,
`year=` (e.g. `2020-2024`), `fieldsOfStudy=` (e.g. `Computer Science`, `Medicine`),
`openAccessPdf`, `minCitationCount=`.

**Bulk search** (up to 10M results, token-based pagination):
```bash
curl -s "https://api.semanticscholar.org/graph/v1/paper/search/bulk?query=CRISPR+gene+editing&fields=title,year,citationCount"
```

## Paper Lookup by Identifier

```bash
# DOI
curl -s "https://api.semanticscholar.org/graph/v1/paper/DOI:10.1038/s41586-021-03819-2?fields=title,abstract,authors,year,citationCount"
# arXiv ID
curl -s "https://api.semanticscholar.org/graph/v1/paper/ARXIV:2301.07041?fields=title,abstract,year"
# PubMed ID
curl -s "https://api.semanticscholar.org/graph/v1/paper/PMID:34265844?fields=title,abstract,year"
```

## Citation Graph

```bash
# Papers that cite a given paper
curl -s "https://api.semanticscholar.org/graph/v1/paper/ARXIV:2301.07041/citations?fields=title,year,citationCount&limit=20"
# Papers cited by a given paper
curl -s "https://api.semanticscholar.org/graph/v1/paper/ARXIV:2301.07041/references?fields=title,year,citationCount&limit=20"
```

## Author Search

```bash
# Search by name
curl -s "https://api.semanticscholar.org/graph/v1/author/search?query=yann+lecun&fields=name,hIndex,paperCount,citationCount"
# Author papers
curl -s "https://api.semanticscholar.org/graph/v1/author/1688681/papers?fields=title,year,citationCount&limit=20"
```

## Recommendations

```bash
# Single-paper
curl -s "https://api.semanticscholar.org/recommendations/v1/papers/forpaper/ARXIV:2301.07041?fields=title,year,citationCount&limit=10"
# Multi-paper (POST)
curl -s -X POST "https://api.semanticscholar.org/recommendations/v1/papers/" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"positivePaperIds": ["ARXIV:2301.07041", "ARXIV:2302.13971"], "negativePaperIds": []}'
```

## Available Fields

**Paper**: `paperId`, `title`, `abstract`, `year`, `venue`, `citationCount`,
`referenceCount`, `influentialCitationCount`, `isOpenAccess`, `openAccessPdf`,
`fieldsOfStudy`, `publicationTypes`, `publicationDate`, `journal`, `url`,
`externalIds`, `tldr`

**Nested**: `authors.name`, `authors.authorId`, `citations.title`, `references.title`

## Rate Limits

- Without API key: 100 requests per 5 minutes
- With API key: 1/sec sustained, 10/sec burst
- Register free at: https://www.semanticscholar.org/product/api#api-key
- HTTP 429 on rate limit; back off and retry

## Ready-to-Use Query Templates

### Find recent high-impact papers on a topic
```bash
curl -s "https://api.semanticscholar.org/graph/v1/paper/search?\
query=YOUR+TOPIC&limit=10&year=2023-2025&minCitationCount=10&\
fields=title,authors,year,citationCount,influentialCitationCount,tldr,venue,isOpenAccess,openAccessPdf,externalIds" \
| python3 -c "
import sys, json
data = json.load(sys.stdin)
print(f'Found {data[\"total\"]} papers')
for i, p in enumerate(data['data']):
    authors = ', '.join(a['name'] for a in (p.get('authors') or [])[:3])
    tldr = (p.get('tldr') or {}).get('text', 'N/A')[:120]
    doi = (p.get('externalIds') or {}).get('DOI', 'N/A')
    print(f'[{i+1}] {p[\"title\"]}')
    print(f'    {authors} ({p.get(\"year\")}) {p.get(\"venue\",\"\")}  Cited:{p[\"citationCount\"]}')
    print(f'    TLDR: {tldr}')
    print(f'    DOI: {doi}')
    print()
"
```

### Build citation graph for a paper
```bash
PAPER_ID="DOI:10.1038/s41586-021-03819-2"  # or ARXIV:2301.07041 or S2 ID
# Who cites this?
curl -s "https://api.semanticscholar.org/graph/v1/paper/${PAPER_ID}/citations?\
fields=title,year,citationCount,venue&limit=20" | python3 -c "
import sys,json; data=json.load(sys.stdin)
print(f'{len(data[\"data\"])} citing papers:')
for c in sorted(data['data'], key=lambda x: x['citingPaper'].get('citationCount',0), reverse=True)[:10]:
    p=c['citingPaper']
    print(f'  [{p.get(\"year\",\"?\")}] {p[\"title\"][:80]} (cited:{p.get(\"citationCount\",0)})')
"
```

### Find open access PDF for a paper
```bash
curl -s "https://api.semanticscholar.org/graph/v1/paper/DOI:10.xxxx/xxxxx?\
fields=title,isOpenAccess,openAccessPdf" | python3 -c "
import sys,json; p=json.load(sys.stdin)
pdf = p.get('openAccessPdf',{})
if pdf: print(f'OA PDF: {pdf[\"url\"]}')
else: print('No open access PDF available')
"
```

## Best Practices

1. Always specify `fields=` to reduce response size.
2. Use `minCitationCount` to filter low-impact results.
3. Use external IDs (DOI, ARXIV, PMID) for precise lookups.
4. Chain citation/reference lookups to build citation graphs.
5. Use `tldr` field for AI-generated paper summaries.
6. Use `influentialCitationCount` to identify high-impact papers.
7. **Prefer Semantic Scholar over CrossRef** for paper discovery searches.
8. Combine with OpenAlex for broader coverage and OA link discovery.
9. **NEVER fabricate results.** Every paper detail must come from an actual API response. If the API returns no results, report that honestly.
10. **Self-check before responding:** Did this paper title, DOI, author list, and citation count ALL come from an S2 API call in this conversation?


---
Source attribution: beita6969
Original project: https://github.com/beita6969/ScienceClaw/blob/e925f732c7ca435f557e88075bc47a58f1e984f1/skills/semantic-scholar/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/semantic-scholar/SKILL.md
Attribution basis: Source repository record

Fields of work: Data & Analytics, Education & Research
Roles: Academic Writer, Data Scientist, Researcher
Specialties: API
Tools: Semantic Scholar Api
Country applicability: Country not specified
Classification basis: Source catalog labels
Instruction SHA-256: f7c833ba6746480ce010a9ebeb3a385a9c207c26cba8e69c6ec5ad64c7650122