# OpenAlex MCP > OpenAlex connects your AI agent to 250M+ scholarly works, giving you a free alternative to expensive database platforms like Scopus or Web of Science. Search papers, map institutional research output, and track author impact using open bibliometric data. It’s the world’s largest catalog for tracking academic knowledge. ## Overview - **Category:** the-unthinkable - **Price:** Free - **Tags:** bibliometrics, academic-research, citation-analysis, open-access, research-trends, data-discovery ## Description This MCP lets your agent access a comprehensive, freely licensed library of over 250 million scholarly works. Instead of piecing together research insights from multiple paid services, you can ask one question and get answers derived from deep bibliometric data. You can quickly find details on any paper using its OpenAlex ID or DOI. It also helps map out the impact of entire institutions, showing which universities or labs are leading research in specific fields globally. Want to know what topics the scientific community is focusing on right now? The system tracks global trends and lets you profile individual researchers, providing metrics like total citations and h-index scores. When your agent processes this data through Vinkius, it brings together complex scholarly information into clear, usable insights for anyone in research or academia. ## Tools ### get_openalex_work Retrieves all available details for a specific academic paper using its OpenAlex ID or DOI. ### search_openalex_authors Finds researchers and returns their total works count, citation metrics, h-index score, and affiliations. ### search_openalex_institutions Maps research institutions globally, showing their publication counts, country code, and top research areas. ### search_openalex_works Searches the entire database of 250M+ works, returning titles, authors, citation counts, and open access status. ### get_openalex_trending_topics Identifies and reports on the most researched scientific topics and concepts globally right now. ## Prompt Examples **Prompt:** ``` Which institutions publish the most research on quantum computing worldwide? ``` **Response:** ``` Top institutions for quantum computing: MIT (2,400+ works, 180K citations), Stanford University (1,800+ works), University of Waterloo (1,500+ works), ETH Zurich (1,200+ works), and Google DeepMind (800+ works). Each result includes citation metrics, country code, and top research concepts. ``` **Prompt:** ``` Search for Geoffrey Hinton and show me his publication metrics and affiliations. ``` **Response:** ``` Found: Geoffrey Hinton — University of Toronto / Google Brain. Works: 650+, Citations: 750,000+, h-index: 183. Top concepts: Machine Learning, Neural Networks, Deep Learning, Artificial Intelligence. His most cited work: 'ImageNet Classification with Deep Convolutional Neural Networks' (2012) with 120,000+ citations. ``` **Prompt:** ``` What are the most researched scientific topics globally right now? ``` **Response:** ``` Top 5 research topics by published works: 1) Medicine (45M+ works, 1.2B citations), 2) Biology (35M+ works), 3) Chemistry (30M+ works), 4) Computer Science (20M+ works), 5) Physics (18M+ works). At the granular level, trending sub-topics include: Large Language Models, mRNA therapeutics, CRISPR applications, and climate modeling. ``` ## Capabilities ### Search specific academic works Get full metadata details on any single paper using its unique OpenAlex ID or DOI. ### Profile researchers' impact Find authors worldwide and review their total publication counts, citation metrics, h-index scores, and current affiliations. ### Map institutional research output Explore the collective body of work for universities, hospitals, or labs, seeing where they publish and their global focus areas. ### Identify emerging scientific topics Discover the most researched concepts globally by viewing topics ranked by the total number of published works. ### Verify open access status Determine instantly if a scholarly work is open access (green, gold, hybrid, or bronze) for full-text availability assessment. ## Use Cases ### Evaluating institutional research capacity A university administrator needs to fund a new department. They ask their agent to run the search_openalex_institutions tool for 'Biotechnology.' The resulting metrics provide citation counts, publication totals, and top concepts, allowing them to justify funding based on hard data. ### Assessing an author's reputation A hiring committee reviews a candidate. They ask their agent to search_openalex_authors for the name. The result immediately shows the person’s h-index and total citations, giving instant insight into their global academic standing. ### Researching a new field of study A scientific journalist wants to write an article on AI ethics. They use get_openalex_trending_topics to identify the top five emerging concepts, ensuring their article covers what the academic world is most focused on right now. ### Comparing competing papers A student has two candidate papers for a thesis. They use get_openalex_work with both DOIs to pull comprehensive metadata, compare citation counts, and check the open access status before starting their literature review. ## Benefits - Instantly check open access status. When you search for papers, the tool tells you if the full text is available (green, gold, hybrid, or bronze), saving time on manual checks. - Track author impact effortlessly. The MCP gives researchers their total citation count and h-index score with a single query, letting them prove scholarly impact quickly. - Map global research power. Need to know which universities lead in biomedicine? Use the institution search tool to see publication counts and top concepts for any country or lab. - Identify market gaps. Instead of guessing where science is going, check global research trends to find the most studied topics—like Large Language Models or CRISPR applications. - Deep dive into papers. If you have a DOI, use the dedicated tool to pull every piece of metadata on that paper, including its reconstructed abstract and all authors' affiliations. ## How It Works The bottom line is that your agent gets highly specialized academic data without needing to manually query multiple databases. 1. Subscribe to this MCP and provide your free OpenAlex API key. 2. Your AI client sends a request—for instance, asking about the top institutions in genetics. 3. The MCP executes the search across 250M+ records and returns structured data containing publication counts, citation metrics, and research concepts. ## Frequently Asked Questions **How do I find papers on OpenAlex using only a DOI?** You use the get_openalex_work tool. Simply input the Digital Object Identifier (DOI), and the MCP will return all metadata for that specific academic paper. **Does OpenAlex help me see what research topics are popular?** Yes, run the get_openalex_trending_topics tool. This function identifies the most researched scientific concepts globally by showing you how many works have been published in each area. **Can I use OpenAlex to check if a paper is open access?** Yes, when searching for works using search_openalex_works, the tool returns the open access status (green, gold, hybrid, bronze) for immediate assessment. **What metrics does OpenAlex provide for authors?** The search_openalex_authors tool provides a full profile including total works count, cumulative citation counts, and the important h-index metric. **Is OpenAlex better than Scopus for academic analysis?** OpenAlex is an open-source alternative to expensive platforms. It gives you access to comparable bibliometric data—like institutional output and citation metrics—without the high subscription cost.