`openalex-api`¶

Turns bibliometric questions into reproducible OpenAlex REST pulls (works, authors, institutions, sources, concepts, topics, funders, publishers) through a bundled scripts/query_openalex.py that builds filter-safe URLs, handles cursor pagination, and writes JSON/JSONL. Keep the raw export before cleaning, use repeated --filter flags for AND logic, and validate IDs, dates, citation counts and authorships before analysis.

Pack: Barrios Skills (John Manuel Barrios)

Category: literature

Field: general

License:

MIT (repo LICENSE, "Copyright (c) 2026 John Barrios"). The vendored third-party skills keep their own terms: the Anthropic document skills say "Proprietary. LICENSE.txt has complete terms", and the K-Dense skills carry per-library licence lines.

Updated: 2026-05-26

Stages: literature-discovery

↗ view SKILL.md on source · GitHub stars

Barrios Skills — John Barrios's curated workflow for economists and accountants. Prioritize reproducible empirical work, clear identification language, and journal-ready output.

OpenAlex API¶

Overview¶

Use this skill to turn research questions into reliable OpenAlex API queries and structured outputs. Prefer scripts/query_openalex.py for repeatable retrieval, pagination, and filter-safe URL construction.

Workflow¶

Define the target entity: works, authors, institutions, sources, concepts, topics, funders, or publishers.
Define retrieval scope: exact ID lookup, search, or filtered dataset pull.
Build query parameters with scripts/query_openalex.py instead of handcrafting URLs.
Retrieve data to JSON/JSONL and keep the raw export before downstream cleaning.
Validate key fields (IDs, dates, citation counts, authorships) before analysis.

Query Rules¶

Use repeated --filter flags for AND logic.
Use OpenAlex pipe syntax (for example value1|value2) inside one filter for OR logic.
Use --select to reduce payload size for large pulls.
Use --cursor '*' for deep paging beyond basic page limits.
Include --mailto you@domain.edu for polite-pool style identification.
Use OPENALEX_API_KEY or --api-key when available for higher-rate access.

Common Commands¶

Bash

## Fetch one work by OpenAlex ID
python3 scripts/query_openalex.py works --entity-id W2741809807 --select "id,display_name,publication_year,cited_by_count"

## Search works and save first 200 records
python3 scripts/query_openalex.py works \
  --search "political polarization" \
  --filter "from_publication_date:2020-01-01" \
  --sort "cited_by_count:desc" \
  --per-page 100 \
  --pages 2 \
  --output polarization_works.json

## Cursor-paginate author records to JSONL
python3 scripts/query_openalex.py authors \
  --filter "last_known_institutions.country_code:US" \
  --cursor "*" \
  --max-results 500 \
  --format jsonl \
  --output us_authors.jsonl

Output Guidance¶

Prefer JSON for full response bundles and JSONL for row-wise pipelines.
Keep original IDs (id, ids.openalex, DOI fields) unchanged in exports.
When reporting findings, cite exact query parameters used to ensure reproducibility.

Resources¶

Use scripts/query_openalex.py for all API calls.
Use references/openalex-query-patterns.md for entity routing, filter templates, and reusable query patterns.

openalex-api¶