Quickstart

Let’s use the OpenAlex API to find journal articles published by authors at Stanford University between 2010 and 2020. No login or API key required for basic queries.

Tip: Install a JSON viewer extension like JSONVue to make API responses easier to read in your browser.

1. Find an institution

Search for Stanford University using the institutions endpoint:

https://api.openalex.org/institutions?search=stanford

The first result has the ID we need:

{
  "id": "https://openalex.org/I97018004",
  "ror": "https://ror.org/00f54p054",
  "display_name": "Stanford University",
  "country_code": "US",
  "type": "education"
}

2. Get a single entity

Fetch the full institution record by ID:

https://api.openalex.org/institutions/I97018004

This works for any entity type—works, authors, sources, etc.

3. Find works from Stanford

Filter works to show those with at least one Stanford author:

https://api.openalex.org/works?filter=institutions.id:I97018004

4. Filter by year and sort

Narrow to 2010-2020 and sort newest first:

https://api.openalex.org/works?filter=institutions.id:I97018004,publication_year:2010-2020&sort=publication_date:desc

5. Group by year

Get counts per year:

https://api.openalex.org/works?filter=institutions.id:I97018004,publication_year:2010-2020&group_by=publication_year

Response:

[
  { "key": "2020", "key_display_name": "2020", "count": 18627 },
  { "key": "2019", "key_display_name": "2019", "count": 15933 },
  { "key": "2017", "key_display_name": "2017", "count": 14789 }
]

6. Semantic search (optional)

Find conceptually related works using AI:

https://api.openalex.org/works?search.semantic=machine+learning+in+healthcare&api_key=YOUR_KEY

This finds papers about “AI-driven diagnosis” even if they don’t use the exact words “machine learning.”

Note: Semantic search requires an API key. Basic filtering and searching is free.

7. Download full text (optional)

For works with available content:

https://content.openalex.org/works/W3038568908.pdf?api_key=YOUR_KEY

https://content.openalex.org/works/W3038568908.grobid-xml?api_key=YOUR_KEY

Check the has_content.pdf filter to find downloadable works.

Next steps

• Works — Journal articles, books, datasets, theses
• Authors — Researchers and their publications
• Filtering — Narrow results with 150+ filter options
• Recipes — Common API patterns and examples

All data is CC0 licensed — free to access and share.