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Literature Search Openalex

Google DeepMindOfficialPublished by Google DeepMind

  • Skill
  • Tool integration
  • Science and research
  • Apache-2.0
  • Low risk
  • Has scripts

From the author

Query the OpenAlex scholarly database for research papers, authors, institutions, topics, sources, publishers, funders, geo-locations, and keywords. Use when searching academic papers, resolving DOIs, downloading open-access PDFs, finding an author's publications, aggregating bibliometric data (citation counts, h-index, impact factor), exploring the research taxonomies, or performing DOI lookups.
— the description by Google DeepMind

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

  1. Download the skill as a ZIP:

    https://mp-staging.autogineer.com/agent-skills/google-deepmind/literature-search-openalex/download
  2. Unzip 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

  1. uv: Read the uv skill and follow its Setup instructions to ensure uv is installed and on PATH.

  2. 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.

  3. .env file: Make sure the .env file exists in your home directory. Create one if it does not exist.

  4. 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). Adding mailto (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 the credentials skill, without blocking keyless execution if it is unset.

Core Rules

  1. 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.

  2. Resolve before filter. NEVER filter by name. Always resolve a name to an ID first, then use that ID in --filter.

  3. Use the CLI only. Never call the API via curl/urllib. The CLI handles retries and rate limiting.

  4. No fabrication. Never invent OpenAlex IDs or DOIs. Use resolve/get to look them up. Report empty results accurately.

  5. 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 credentials skill to check for and request the OPENALEX_API_KEY to help the user add it to their .env file. A free key does not fix a 429 Plan upgrade required error.

  6. Keep output small. Always use --select and --per-page 5–10 for overview queries. Pipe filter output to a file (> results.json), then slim with jq before 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.

OperationCost
Singleton getFree
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 resolve returns no matches, try alternate spellings or abbreviations.

  • If --search returns 0 results, try broader terms (max 3 retries).

  • If resolve returns multiple candidates, present them to the user with display_name and hint for 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.json

Error 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.

CodeMeaningAction
401UnauthorizedYou MUST use safe credentials protocol in credentials skill to help user add API key to .env
404Not foundVerify ID; try resolve first
429Body says Plan upgrade requiredPaid-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
429Body says rate limit or budget exhaustedNo 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

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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

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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)
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