OpenAlex
OpenAlex is a free, open catalogue of the global research ecosystem, indexing millions of scholarly works, authors, institutions, and journals. It provides comprehensive metadata, citation links, and metrics for exploring research impact and connections. Ideal for discovering, analysing, and integrating academic data. You can watch this video to learn more about OpenAlex.
| Entity Type | Metric / Field | Description | Example |
|---|---|---|---|
| Work | cited_by_count | Number of works that cite this one. | 152 |
| publication_year | Year published. | 2021 | |
| is_oa / oa_status | Open access availability and type. | True / Gold | |
| concepts | Associated research topics. | Machine Learning | |
| authorships | Authors and affiliations. | Jane Doe (MIT) | |
| referenced_works_count | Number of works cited by this article. | 35 | |
| type | Publication type. | Journal Article | |
| Author | works_count | Total number of authored works. | 45 |
| cited_by_count | Total citations across all works. | 2,450 | |
| h_index | Author’s h-index (impact measure). | 21 | |
| last_known_institution | Current affiliation. | University of Cape Town | |
| Institution | works_count | Total affiliated works. | 15,200 |
| cited_by_count | Total citations of affiliated works. | 320,000 | |
| authors_count | Unique affiliated authors. | 1,280 | |
| sources_count | Distinct journals/sources represented. | 450 | |
| Source (Journal) | works_count | Total number of published works. | 12,500 |
| cited_by_count | Citations to all published works. | 185,000 | |
| publisher | Name of publisher. | Elsevier | |
| avg_citations_per_work | Derived metric (citations ÷ works). | 14.8 | |
| Concept (Field) | works_count | Number of works in this concept. | 89,400 |
| cited_by_count | Total citations across works. | 1,250,000 | |
| level | Hierarchy level (0 = broad, 5 = narrow). | 2 | |
| ancestors / descendants | Broader and narrower topics. | Computer Science → AI |
