Literature Search Openalex
Google DeepMindOfficialPublished by Google DeepMind
- Skill
- Tool integration
- Science and research
- Apache-2.0
- Low risk
- Has scripts
AutoGineer summary
Written by AutoGineer from the skill’s own files, not by the author
The literature-search-openalex skill provides a structured interface to interact with the OpenAlex scholarly database. It enables users to search for research papers, authors, institutions, and various academic entities. The skill facilitates complex bibliometric analysis, such as retrieving citation counts, h-indices, and impact factors, while also supporting DOI resolution and the downloading of open-access PDFs. It is designed to handle API rate limits and authentication via a secure credentials protocol, ensuring reliable data retrieval for research workflows.
What it does
- Resolves names to unique OpenAlex IDs for precise querying.
- Retrieves full metadata for works, authors, institutions, and more.
- Filters and sorts scholarly data using complex expressions.
- Aggregates bibliometric data including citation counts and impact metrics.
- Downloads open-access PDFs directly from identified work sources.
- Monitors API usage and manages rate limits for efficient data collection.
When to use it
- When you need to perform a systematic literature review or search for academic papers.
- When you need to resolve DOIs or verify metadata for specific research publications.
- When you are conducting bibliometric analysis on authors, institutions, or research topics.
- When you need to aggregate research output by year, geography, or institutional affiliation.
- When you need to access open-access full-text documents for research purposes.
Advantages
- Provides a standardized CLI for consistent and reproducible research queries.
- Handles API rate limiting and retries automatically.
- Supports advanced filtering and grouping for deep data analysis.
- Integrates with secure credential management for API key usage.
- Enables programmatic access to a vast, open scholarly knowledge graph.
Usage examples
- “Find the top 10 most cited papers by Geoffrey Hinton.”
- The agent resolves the author name to an ID, filters works by that author, sorts by citation count, and returns the top 10 results.
- “Get metadata for the paper with DOI 10.1038/s41586-021-03819-2.”
- The agent uses the get command to retrieve and display the full metadata for the specified work.
- “Show me the research output of MIT grouped by publication year.”
- The agent resolves the institution ID for MIT and uses the filter command with a group-by clause to generate the yearly distribution.
Install
Download the skill as a ZIP:
https://mp-staging.autogineer.com/agent-skills/google-deepmind/literature-search-openalex/downloadUnzip it into the cross-client skills folder of your project:
mkdir -p .agents/skills && unzip literature-search-openalex.zip -d .agents/skills
Documentation by Google DeepMind
OpenAlex Skill
Prerequisites
uv: Read theuvskill and follow its Setup instructions to ensureuvis installed and on PATH.User Notification: If .licenses/literature_search_openalex_LICENSE.txt does not already exist in the workspace root directory then (1) prominently notify the user to check the terms at https://help.openalex.org/ and to always check the license of the papers retrieved by the skill for any restrictions, then (2) create the file recording the notification text and timestamp.
.envfile: Make sure the.envfile exists in your home directory. Create one if it does not exist.OPENALEX_API_KEY(optional but recommended): The skill works without a key, but keyless requests share a $0.10/day budget per IP address. A free key has its own $1/day budget and higher rate limits, and is required to download full text from content.openalex.org (download-pdf). Addingmailto(the former "polite pool") no longer raises limits. You can obtain a free key at OpenAlex.org → account settings. Whenever checking for or requesting this key, you MUST use the safe credentials protocol in thecredentialsskill, without blocking keyless execution if it is unset.
Core Rules
List Sources. If this skill is used, ensure this is mentioned in the output AND list the URLs of all papers that were used in producing the output.
Resolve before filter. NEVER filter by name. Always
resolvea name to an ID first, then use that ID in--filter.Use the CLI only. Never call the API via
curl/urllib. The CLI handles retries and rate limiting.No fabrication. Never invent OpenAlex IDs or DOIs. Use
resolve/getto look them up. Report empty results accurately.API key. If a command returns 401, returns 429 because of a rate limit or exhausted daily budget, or you need high-volume queries, you MUST use the safe credentials protocol in the
credentialsskill to check for and request theOPENALEX_API_KEYto help the user add it to their.envfile. A free key does not fix a 429Plan upgrade requirederror.Keep output small. Always use
--selectand--per-page 5–10for overview queries. Pipefilteroutput to a file (> results.json), then slim withjqbefore reading into context.
Rate Limits
Without key: 10 req/s; $0.10/day budget per IP address, shared by all keyless requests from that IP.
With free key: 30 req/s; $1/day budget.
Annual plan: 50 req/s.
| Operation | Cost |
|---|---|
Singleton get | Free |
filter | $0.0001 |
--search / resolve | $0.001 |
download-pdf | $0.01 |
CLI Reference
uv run scripts/openalex_cli.py [--api-key KEY] <command> [flags]Entity types (shared across commands): works, authors, sources,
institutions, topics, domains, fields, subfields, sdgs, countries,
continents, languages, keywords, publishers, funders, work-types,
source-types, institution-types, licenses
Commands
resolve <entity> <query> — Name → ID candidates. Returns id,
display_name, hint. Use --per-page N for more candidates.
get <entity> <id> — Full metadata for one entity. Accepts short ID
(W2741809807), full URL, or DOI URL. Use --select to limit fields.
filter <entity> — Search/filter entities. Key flags are:
--search <query>: Full-text search (10× cost of--filter)--filter <expr>: Filter expressions. Use,for AND and|for OR.--sort <field:dir>: Sort results (e.g.,cited_by_count:desc)--select <fields>: Limit the fields returned in the output.--group-by <field>: Aggregate results by a specific field.--per-page <N>: Number of results per page (default 25, max 100).--page <N>: Specify the page number to retrieve.--sample <N>: Get a random sample of up to 10,000 results.--seed <N>: Seed for reproducible sampling.
download-pdf <work-id> <output-path> — Download PDF
(content.openalex.org requires OPENALEX_API_KEY; falls back to alternative
pdf_url locations from work metadata if unauthenticated or if the primary
server fails). Always run download-pdf and verify any downloaded PDF is
non-empty and not corrupted; if OPENALEX_API_KEY is missing, also refer to the
credentials skill to help the user add it.
rate-limit — Check current rate limit and daily credit status (reports
shared per-IP limits when keyless, or key-specific limits when
OPENALEX_API_KEY is set; if OPENALEX_API_KEY is not set, also refer to the
credentials skill to help the user add it).
Search Tips
If
resolvereturns no matches, try alternate spellings or abbreviations.If
--searchreturns 0 results, try broader terms (max 3 retries).If
resolvereturns multiple candidates, present them to the user withdisplay_nameandhintfor manual selection.
Entity References
Consult references/ for valid filter, sort, and group-by fields per entity:
For anything not covered here, or if the API behaves differently from what this skill describes, check the official docs index at https://help.openalex.org/llms.txt.
Common Workflows
# Author's works (resolve → filter)
uv run scripts/openalex_cli.py resolve authors "Geoffrey Hinton"
uv run scripts/openalex_cli.py filter works \
--filter "authorships.author.id:A5108093963" \
--sort "cited_by_count:desc" --per-page 10 > papers.json
cat papers.json | jq '[.results[] | {id, title: .display_name, year: .publication_year, citations: .cited_by_count}]'
# DOI lookup
uv run scripts/openalex_cli.py get works "https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-021-03819-2"
# Bulk DOI lookup (up to 100)
uv run scripts/openalex_cli.py filter works \
--filter "doi:10.1234/a|10.1234/b|10.1234/c" --per-page 100 > results.json
# Institutional impact by year
uv run scripts/openalex_cli.py resolve institutions "MIT"
uv run scripts/openalex_cli.py filter works \
--filter "authorships.institutions.id:I63966007" \
--group-by "publication_year" > mit_by_year.json
# Random sample
uv run scripts/openalex_cli.py filter works \
--filter "publication_year:2023,is_oa:true" \
--sample 100 --seed 42 > results.jsonError Handling
The CLI already retries 429s with backoff, except Plan upgrade required ones,
which fail immediately with an explanation. Don't blindly retry either kind; the
Server body in the error output tells them apart.
| Code | Meaning | Action |
|---|---|---|
| 401 | Unauthorized | You MUST use safe credentials protocol in credentials skill to help user add API key to .env |
| 404 | Not found | Verify ID; try resolve first |
| 429 | Body says Plan upgrade required | Paid-plan feature (e.g. a plan-gated filter). Do not retry; a free key won't help. Drop the filter or inform user; see https://openalex.org/pricing |
| 429 | Body says rate limit or budget exhausted | No key: you MUST use safe credentials protocol in credentials skill to help user add API key to .env. With key: wait and retry (rate limit) or tell user the daily budget is spent |
Known plan-gated filters: from_created_date, from_updated_date,
to_updated_date.
Never fabricate results on empty responses — report accurately and suggest alternate search terms.
Files
- ATTRIBUTION.mdAdded by AutoGineer934 B
- LICENSELicence file added by AutoGineer11.1 KiB
- SKILL.md8.3 KiB
- references/authors.md3.6 KiB
- references/citation.bib299 B
- references/geo_and_language.md1.9 KiB
- references/institutions.md2.7 KiB
- references/publishers_funders.md2.5 KiB
- references/sources.md3.8 KiB
- references/taxonomy.md2.8 KiB
- references/topics.md1.2 KiB
- references/type_values.md3.6 KiB
- references/works.md16.9 KiB
- scripts/openalex_cli.pyScript23.4 KiB
LICENSE
Apache License
Version 2.0, January 2004
http://www.apache.org/licenses/
TERMS AND CONDITIONS FOR USE, REPRODUCTION, AND DISTRIBUTION
1. Definitions.
"License" shall mean the terms and conditions for use, reproduction,
and distribution as defined by Sections 1 through 9 of this document.
"Licensor" shall mean the copyright owner or entity authorized by
the copyright owner that is granting the License.
"Legal Entity" shall mean the union of the acting entity and all
other entities that control, are controlled by, or are under common
control with that entity. For the purposes of this definition,
"control" means (i) the power, direct or indirect, to cause the
direction or management of such entity, whether by contract or
otherwise, or (ii) ownership of fifty percent (50%) or more of the
outstanding shares, or (iii) beneficial ownership of such entity.
"You" (or "Your") shall mean an individual or Legal Entity
exercising permissions granted by this License.
"Source" form shall mean the preferred form for making modifications,
including but not limited to software source code, documentation
source, and configuration files.
"Object" form shall mean any form resulting from mechanical
transformation or translation of a Source form, including but
not limited to compiled object code, generated documentation,
and conversions to other media types.
"Work" shall mean the work of authorship, whether in Source or
Object form, made available under the License, as indicated by a
copyright notice that is included in or attached to the work
(an example is provided in the Appendix below).
"Derivative Works" shall mean any work, whether in Source or Object
form, that is based on (or derived from) the Work and for which the
editorial revisions, annotations, elaborations, or other modifications
represent, as a whole, an original work of authorship. For the purposes
of this License, Derivative Works shall not include works that remain
separable from, or merely link (or bind by name) to the interfaces of,
the Work and Derivative Works thereof.
"Contribution" shall mean any work of authorship, including
the original version of the Work and any modifications or additions
to that Work or Derivative Works thereof, that is intentionally
submitted to Licensor for inclusion in the Work by the copyright owner
or by an individual or Legal Entity authorized to submit on behalf of
the copyright owner. For the purposes of this definition, "submitted"
means any form of electronic, verbal, or written communication sent
to the Licensor or its representatives, including but not limited to
communication on electronic mailing lists, source code control systems,
and issue tracking systems that are managed by, or on behalf of, the
Licensor for the purpose of discussing and improving the Work, but
excluding communication that is conspicuously marked or otherwise
designated in writing by the copyright owner as "Not a Contribution."
"Contributor" shall mean Licensor and any individual or Legal Entity
on behalf of whom a Contribution has been received by Licensor and
subsequently incorporated within the Work.
2. Grant of Copyright License. Subject to the terms and conditions of
this License, each Contributor hereby grants to You a perpetual,
worldwide, non-exclusive, no-charge, royalty-free, irrevocable
copyright license to reproduce, prepare Derivative Works of,
publicly display, publicly perform, sublicense, and distribute the
Work and such Derivative Works in Source or Object form.
3. Grant of Patent License. Subject to the terms and conditions of
this License, each Contributor hereby grants to You a perpetual,
worldwide, non-exclusive, no-charge, royalty-free, irrevocable
(except as stated in this section) patent license to make, have made,
use, offer to sell, sell, import, and otherwise transfer the Work,
where such license applies only to those patent claims licensable
by such Contributor that are necessarily infringed by their
Contribution(s) alone or by combination of their Contribution(s)
with the Work to which such Contribution(s) was submitted. If You
institute patent litigation against any entity (including a
cross-claim or counterclaim in a lawsuit) alleging that the Work
or a Contribution incorporated within the Work constitutes direct
or contributory patent infringement, then any patent licenses
granted to You under this License for that Work shall terminate
as of the date such litigation is filed.
4. Redistribution. You may reproduce and distribute copies of the
Work or Derivative Works thereof in any medium, with or without
modifications, and in Source or Object form, provided that You
meet the following conditions:
(a) You must give any other recipients of the Work or
Derivative Works a copy of this License; and
(b) You must cause any modified files to carry prominent notices
stating that You changed the files; and
(c) You must retain, in the Source form of any Derivative Works
that You distribute, all copyright, patent, trademark, and
attribution notices from the Source form of the Work,
excluding those notices that do not pertain to any part of
the Derivative Works; and
(d) If the Work includes a "NOTICE" text file as part of its
distribution, then any Derivative Works that You distribute must
include a readable copy of the attribution notices contained
within such NOTICE file, excluding those notices that do not
pertain to any part of the Derivative Works, in at least one
of the following places: within a NOTICE text file distributed
as part of the Derivative Works; within the Source form or
documentation, if provided along with the Derivative Works; or,
within a display generated by the Derivative Works, if and
wherever such third-party notices normally appear. The contents
of the NOTICE file are for informational purposes only and
do not modify the License. You may add Your own attribution
notices within Derivative Works that You distribute, alongside
or as an addendum to the NOTICE text from the Work, provided
that such additional attribution notices cannot be construed
as modifying the License.
You may add Your own copyright statement to Your modifications and
may provide additional or different license terms and conditions
for use, reproduction, or distribution of Your modifications, or
for any such Derivative Works as a whole, provided Your use,
reproduction, and distribution of the Work otherwise complies with
the conditions stated in this License.
5. Submission of Contributions. Unless You explicitly state otherwise,
any Contribution intentionally submitted for inclusion in the Work
by You to the Licensor shall be under the terms and conditions of
this License, without any additional terms or conditions.
Notwithstanding the above, nothing herein shall supersede or modify
the terms of any separate license agreement you may have executed
with Licensor regarding such Contributions.
6. Trademarks. This License does not grant permission to use the trade
names, trademarks, service marks, or product names of the Licensor,
except as required for reasonable and customary use in describing the
origin of the Work and reproducing the content of the NOTICE file.
7. Disclaimer of Warranty. Unless required by applicable law or
agreed to in writing, Licensor provides the Work (and each
Contributor provides its Contributions) on an "AS IS" BASIS,
WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or
implied, including, without limitation, any warranties or conditions
of TITLE, NON-INFRINGEMENT, MERCHANTABILITY, or FITNESS FOR A
PARTICULAR PURPOSE. You are solely responsible for determining the
appropriateness of using or redistributing the Work and assume any
risks associated with Your exercise of permissions under this License.
8. Limitation of Liability. In no event and under no legal theory,
whether in tort (including negligence), contract, or otherwise,
unless required by applicable law (such as deliberate and grossly
negligent acts) or agreed to in writing, shall any Contributor be
liable to You for damages, including any direct, indirect, special,
incidental, or consequential damages of any character arising as a
result of this License or out of the use or inability to use the
Work (including but not limited to damages for loss of goodwill,
work stoppage, computer failure or malfunction, or any and all
other commercial damages or losses), even if such Contributor
has been advised of the possibility of such damages.
9. Accepting Warranty or Additional Liability. While redistributing
the Work or Derivative Works thereof, You may choose to offer,
and charge a fee for, acceptance of support, warranty, indemnity,
or other liability obligations and/or rights consistent with this
License. However, in accepting such obligations, You may act only
on Your own behalf and on Your sole responsibility, not on behalf
of any other Contributor, and only if You agree to indemnify,
defend, and hold each Contributor harmless for any liability
incurred by, or claims asserted against, such Contributor by reason
of your accepting any such warranty or additional liability.
END OF TERMS AND CONDITIONS
APPENDIX: How to apply the Apache License to your work.
To apply the Apache License to your work, attach the following
boilerplate notice, with the fields enclosed by brackets "[]"
replaced with your own identifying information. (Don't include
the brackets!) The text should be enclosed in the appropriate
comment syntax for the file format. We also recommend that a
file or class name and description of purpose be included on the
same "printed page" as the copyright notice for easier
identification within third-party archives.
Copyright [yyyy] [name of copyright owner]
Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
You may obtain a copy of the License at
http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
limitations under the License.
Requirements and compatibility
Works with: Claude Code, Claude apps, OpenAI Codex, GitHub Copilot, Cursor, Gemini CLI, Kiro, OpenCode, Goose, Amp, Roo Code, JetBrains Junie, Factory Droid, Devin (ex-Windsurf), Mistral Vibe, OpenHands, Letta
“Works with” means the tool reads the open Agent Skills format; a skill written for one tool may use features others lack.
Needs: Needs an API key, Needs Python
Security
What our scanner noticed· Low risk
- Scripts that your agent may run
This skill includes scripts that your agent may run. Read them before you use it.
A static scan is not a guarantee. Skills are third-party content: review a skill before you let an agent use it.
Attribution and licence
- Published by
- Google DeepMind
- Publisher
- Google DeepMind (Official)
- Source
- google-deepmind/science-skills · skills/literature_search_openalex · commit 4de6786
- Licence
- Apache License 2.0 (redistribution allowed)
- LICENSE (added by AutoGineer from LICENSE)
- ATTRIBUTION.md (written by AutoGineer)
- Synced
AutoGineer is not affiliated with or endorsed by Google DeepMind.
Download ZIP
The ZIP holds the skill’s files, its licence files and an ATTRIBUTION.md. Download literature-search-openalex.zip