scholarly-metadata
OpenAlex
An open index of the global research landscape: about 480 million scholarly works linked to authors, institutions, and topics. You can explore it at openalex.org or query its API, which since February 2026 requires a free account key (with a substantial free daily allowance). Strong for broad literature mapping, works, authors, and institutional output in one place. Keyless access is now limited to a small daily demo quota.
Why it’s useful & how it works
OpenAlex is well suited for broad literature mapping: you can search across works, authors, institutions, journals, and topics all in one place, and follow links between them. Search the web interface at openalex.org to explore interactively, or use the API for programmatic access. Since February 2026 the API requires a free account key, which you can obtain in about thirty seconds at openalex.org/settings/api; the key comes with 100,000 free credits per day, enough for almost any research workflow. Without a key, only a small demo quota is available.
What’s inside
Approximately 477 million scholarly works indexed, making it one of the largest open literature indexes available, linked to authors, institutions, funding sources, and topics across all research fields.
API access
https://api.openalex.org/works/doi: <doi> ; filter/search params
An API key is required (usually free); see the endpoints above for where to get one.
What we measured
Our own probes, not the archive’s own claims. Re-run periodically; every reading below is dated.
Reachability
- Direct request
- Responded HTTP 200 666 ms
- Through a datacenter proxy
- Responded HTTP 200 566 ms
- API, direct
- Responded HTTP 200 389 ms
- API, through a proxy
- Responded HTTP 200 941 ms
Reachability measured 2026-08-22.
Access
Programmatic API access (a key may be required, see the API tag).