Querying

Sort

Use the sort parameter to order results by a property:

# Works sorted by citation count (highest first)
https://api.openalex.org/works?sort=cited_by_count:desc

# Sources in alphabetical order
https://api.openalex.org/sources?sort=display_name

Common sortable fields

Field	Description
`display_name`	Alphabetical order
`cited_by_count`	Number of citations
`works_count`	Number of works
`publication_date`	Publication date (works only)
`relevance_score`	Search relevance (requires search filter)

Sort direction

By default, sort is ascending. Append :desc for descending:

# Ascending (default)
https://api.openalex.org/works?sort=publication_date

# Descending
https://api.openalex.org/works?sort=publication_date:desc

Multiple sort keys

Sort by multiple properties using commas:

# Sort by year descending, then by relevance score
https://api.openalex.org/works?search=bioplastics&sort=publication_year:desc,relevance_score:desc

Note: Sorting by relevance_score requires an active search. An error is thrown otherwise.

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