scholarly-metadata
OpenAIRE Graph
A European open-science knowledge graph that links hundreds of millions of research products, publications, datasets, software, and funding records. You can query it through its API or browse the Explore portal on the web. It is a good choice for tracing the connections between a paper and its underlying data, software, or grant, though the service is mid-migration to a new graph API in 2026 and its older search endpoints are being phased out.
Why it’s useful & how it works
OpenAIRE is the right resource when you need to trace the connections between a paper and its underlying data, software, or grant funding, particularly within European research. It aggregates metadata from thousands of repositories, Crossref, DataCite, ORCID, and national CRIS systems, then links the records into a unified knowledge graph. You can explore it interactively through the Explore portal or query it via the API. As of 2026 OpenAIRE is actively migrating to a new graph API, so the most current endpoint is under graph.openaire.eu rather than the older search service.
What’s inside
Approximately 345 million research products as of March 2026, including around 215 million publications, 95 million datasets, and 800,000 software records, linked by more than 7 billion relationships and connected to 4 million grants from 368 funders.
API access
NEW https://api.openaire.eu/graph/ ... ; legacy https://api.openaire.eu/search/publications?doi= <doi>&format=json (deprecating)
What we measured
Our own probes, not the archive’s own claims. Re-run periodically; every reading below is dated.
Reachability
- Direct request
- Blocked HTTP 403 4.7 s
- Through a datacenter proxy
- Timed out 22.7 s (This operation was aborted)
- API, direct
- Responded HTTP 200 550 ms
- API, through a proxy
- Responded HTTP 200 909 ms
Did a real search return anything?
Returned results · 10 results for the sample query · median 1.6 s · stable across runs
Benchmark coverage
Found 8 of 8 test items (100%) in the Academic papers cluster. Median response 429 ms.
By how well known the item is: 3/3 well-known, 3/3 mid, 2/2 obscure .
Reachability measured 2026-08-22. Search checked 2026-08-22. Benchmark run 2026-08-22.
Access
Programmatic API access (a key may be required, see the API tag).