Do I need an API key?

No. OpenAlex is 100% free and open. No registration or API key is required.

How is OpenAlex different from Semantic Scholar?

OpenAlex provides a broader ecosystem view with entities for institutions, journals, funders, publishers, and concepts — not just papers and authors. It is ideal for bibliometric analysis, institutional benchmarking, and understanding the structure of the research system. Semantic Scholar excels at AI-powered recommendations and citation graph navigation.

What replaced Microsoft Academic Graph?

OpenAlex was created as the free, open-source successor to Microsoft Academic Graph (MAG), which was discontinued in 2022. OpenAlex now contains over 250 million works and continues to grow, fully funded by grants to ensure permanent public access.

Stanford OpenAlex MCP Connector for Claude

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Explore the global research landscape with open access to scholarly works, authors, institutions, and citation graphs.

16 tools Official Updated Oct 1, 2026 Official Vinkius Partner

More Details Connect to Claude

Connect to the OpenAlex API — the fully open catalog of the global research system.

What you can do

Works — Search and analyze 250M+ academic works (papers, books, datasets, patents)
Authors — Browse 90M+ researcher profiles with h-index, i10-index, and citation metrics
Institutions — Explore 100K+ universities, labs, and research organizations worldwide
Sources — Query 240K+ journals, conferences, and repositories with impact metrics
Concepts — Navigate the 65K+ scientific concept taxonomy from broad to specific
Funders — Discover which organizations fund specific research areas
Publishers — Analyze the academic publishing landscape
Topics — Explore hierarchical topic classifications across all of science
Open Access — Find freely available research papers

How it works

Subscribe to this server
No API key required — OpenAlex is 100% free and open
Start exploring the academic world from Claude, Cursor, or any MCP-compatible client

Who is this for?

Research Administrators — benchmark institutions, track funding landscapes
Bibliometricians — analyze publication trends, citation patterns, and research impact
Science Policy Makers — understand research funding and output by country and institution
Academic Librarians — explore journal metrics and open access availability

openalexacademic-researchbibliometricsinstitutionsjournalsopen-accessresearch-metrics

16 tools expose this connector's capabilities to your AI agent.

get_funder

Use this to understand which organizations fund specific research areas. Get funder details and funded research statistics

get_concept

Essential for understanding the structure of a research field. Get concept details with ancestors, related concepts, and trends

search_funders

Returns names, countries, grants counts, works funded, and citation impact. Essential for understanding research funding landscapes. Search funding organizations worldwide

search_works

Supports full-text search plus structured filters. Filter syntax examples: "publication_year:2024", "open_access.is_oa:true", "type:journal-article", "cited_by_count:>100". Sort options: "cited_by_count:desc", "publication_date:desc", "relevance_score:desc". Search 250M+ academic works by keyword or filter

get_author

Returns name, affiliations, paper count, citation count, h-index, i10-index, 2-year mean citedness, top research concepts, and publication trends by year. The definitive tool for assessing academic impact. Get author profile with h-index, citations, and impact metrics

get_author_works

Returns works with titles, DOIs, years, citation counts, open access status, and primary venues. Sort by "cited_by_count:desc" for most cited or "publication_date:desc" for most recent. Get all works by a specific author

get_institution

Get institution details with research metrics and collaborations

get_source

Essential for evaluating journal quality and coverage. Get journal or conference details with impact metrics

get_work

Accepts OpenAlex IDs (e.g. "W2741809807"), DOIs (e.g. "https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-021-03819-2"), PubMed IDs (e.g. "pmid:34845388"), or MAG IDs. Returns title, abstract, authors with institutions, concepts, citation count, open access status, and publication details. Get academic work details by OpenAlex ID, DOI, or PubMed ID

search_authors

Returns display name, ORCID, works count, citation count, h-index, i10-index, and last known institution. Filter examples: "cited_by_count:>10000", "works_count:>100", "last_known_institutions.country_code:US". Search 90M+ academic authors by name

search_concepts

Returns names, levels, descriptions, works counts, and citation counts. Search 65K+ scientific concepts in the knowledge hierarchy

search_institutions

Returns names, countries, types, works counts, citation counts, and homepages. Filter examples: "country_code:US", "type:education", "cited_by_count:>1000000". Search 100K+ research institutions worldwide

search_open_access

This is a specialized filter of the works endpoint that returns only papers with open access PDFs. Ideal for researchers who need freely accessible literature for reading, citation, or meta-analysis. Search only open access academic works

search_publishers

Returns names, countries, works counts, and citation counts. Useful for analyzing the publishing landscape. Search academic publishers

search_sources

Returns names, ISSNs, types, works counts, citation counts, and open access status. Filter examples: "type:journal", "is_oa:true", "cited_by_count:>100000". Search 240K+ academic journals, conferences, and repositories

search_topics

Returns topic names, descriptions, associated works and citations, plus the parent field and domain. Use this to map the landscape of a research area. Search topic classifications across all of science

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