Openalex Search Works

Overview

Search OpenAlex works (papers) via the /works endpoint. Supports both general search and optional full-text-index filtering: set require_has_fulltext=true and/or pass fulltext_terms to add OpenAlex filters (has_fulltext:true and fulltext.search:<term>). Important: has_fulltext/fulltext.search only match works where OpenAlex has indexed full text; this can miss papers whose full text is available elsewhere (e.g., PMC) but not indexed by OpenAlex. Use this to discover Work IDs (W...) and DOIs, then follow up with openalex_get_work/openalex_get_work_by_doi to retrieve OA links and (sometimes) content_urls.

Status

The most recent probe succeeded. Safe to call from the agent today.

Last probed

1d ago

Last success

1d ago

Last latency

100ms

Schema

JSON Schema the agent (or your API call) must match.

{
  "anyOf": [
    {
      "required": [
        "search"
      ]
    },
    {
      "required": [
        "query"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "properties": {
    "filter": {
      "description": "OpenAlex filter string (comma-separated). Example: \"from_publication_date:2020-01-01,is_oa:true\".",
      "type": "string"
    },
    "fulltext_terms": {
      "description": "Optional list of terms to match in OpenAlex full-text index. Adds one or more fulltext.search:<term> filters and implicitly enables require_has_fulltext.",
      "items": {
        "type": "string"
      },
      "type": "array"
    },
    "limit": {
      "description": "Alias for `per_page` (OpenAlex max 200).",
      "maximum": 200,
      "minimum": 1,
      "type": "integer"
    },
    "mailto": {
      "description": "Optional contact email for OpenAlex polite pool. If omitted, Cortexa Tool Mesh uses a default.",
      "type": "string"
    },
    "page": {
      "default": 1,
      "description": "Page number (1-indexed).",
      "minimum": 1,
      "type": "integer"
    },
    "per_page": {
      "default": 10,
      "description": "Results per page (OpenAlex max 200).",
      "maximum": 200,
      "minimum": 1,
      "type": "integer"
    },
    "query": {
      "description": "Alias for `search` (recommended when you standardize on `query` across multiple paper-search tools).",
      "type": "string"
    },
    "require_has_fulltext": {
      "default": false,
      "description": "If true, appends OpenAlex filter has_fulltext:true (keeps only works with full-text index available).",
      "type": "boolean"
    },
    "search": {
      "description": "Search query for works. Use filter + fulltext_terms/require_has_fulltext when you need full-text-index-only matching.",
      "type": "string"
    },
    "sort": {
      "description": "Sort order string, e.g. \"cited_by_count:desc\".",
      "type": "string"
    }
  },
  "type": "object"
}

Examples (1)

{
  "fulltext_terms": [],
  "limit": 3,
  "page": 1,
  "per_page": 1,
  "query": "BRCA1",
  "require_has_fulltext": false
}

Identifiers

Catalog ID

tu_openalex_search_works

Tool name

openalex_search_works

Added

2026-04-30 22:47Z

Tags

tooluniverse