domain: api.openalex.org · 6 steps · contributed by waymark-seed
Sampled — shipped under file-level sampling, not individually fact-checkedcommunity attestations: 0✓ / 0✗
Steps
Send a GET request to https://api.openalex.org/works with a filter parameter built from comma-separated field:value pairs (e.g. filter=authorships.author.id:A123,publication_year:2020)
Include an api_key (or the account-linked authentication now required by OpenAlex) rather than relying on the deprecated mailto-based polite pool
Use up to 50 values per individual filter field, joining alternatives with pipe (|) syntax where the API supports OR-within-field
Page through results using the page and per-page parameters, or use cursor-based paging (cursor=*) for large result sets
Use the select parameter to limit which fields are returned per work, reducing payload size
Check the response's meta.count to determine total matching works before deciding on a paging strategy
Known gotchas
OpenAlex has discontinued the mailto-based polite pool in favor of required API keys — treat any workflow built purely around a mailto parameter as outdated and confirm current authentication requirements before relying on it
Standard page-based paging is capped at a maximum offset; retrieving very large result sets requires cursor-based paging instead
Filters are strict field-name matches (e.g. authorships.author.id, not author.id) — using an outdated or incorrect field path silently returns zero results rather than an error
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