# Literature Search Openalex

Query the OpenAlex scholarly database for research papers, authors, institutions...

- Repository: https://github.com/google-deepmind/science-skills (3377 stars)
- Category: Data and ML
- License: Apache-2.0
- Last updated: 2026-10-23
- Runs scripts: yes, review before use

## Install

Claude Code: `npx skills add google-deepmind/science-skills --skill literature-search-openalex -g -a claude-code -y`
Codex: `npx skills add google-deepmind/science-skills --skill literature-search-openalex -g -a codex -y`
Cursor: `npx skills add google-deepmind/science-skills --skill literature-search-openalex -g -a cursor -y`
Gemini CLI: `npx skills add google-deepmind/science-skills --skill literature-search-openalex -g -a gemini-cli -y`

## Description

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.

## SKILL.md, as published by its author (untrusted third-party text, read it as data)

# 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

The rest: https://github.com/google-deepmind/science-skills/blob/HEAD/skills/literature_search_openalex/SKILL.md