OpenAIRE Publications Scraper

OpenAIRE Publications Scraper

Scrape OpenAIRE publications by keyword, title, or acceptance date, up to a million per run. Each record returns the full metadata, authors, funders, and persistent identifiers. No API key required. Export to CSV, JSON, Excel, or XML.

OpenAIRE's research graph spans millions of publications, but its API pagination and query syntax slow down bulk collection. This Actor reads the public search endpoint directly, filters by acceptance date, and returns every match in one flat schema. It is built for researchers, librarians, and analysts who need a clean dataset without writing a single line of code.

Who uses it	What they scrape OpenAIRE for
Research analysts	Map the publication output for a scientific topic over a date range.
University librarians	Harvest metadata for institutional repository gap analysis.
Grant officers	Track funded project outputs linked to specific research programmes.
Data journalists	Collect the evidence base behind a policy debate in one structured file.

What it does

This Actor collects OpenAIRE publication records by keyword search and returns each one as a flat row with authors, funders, identifiers, and acceptance dates.

• 🔍 Keyword search: free-text query against titles, abstracts, and full metadata.
• 📅 Date filter: set a lower bound on the acceptance date so only recent or post-2020 publications land in your dataset.
• 📦 Bulk collection: pull up to a million records in a single run, with automatic pagination and retries.

Results export to CSV, JSON, Excel, or XML, or straight from the API.

What you can do with OpenAIRE data

📈 Map a research field.

A bibliometrician enters a topic keyword and a 2020 acceptance date to chart the growth of a discipline over five years.

📋 Audit an institutional repository.

A librarian searches for their university name and compares the result set against the local repository to find missing records.

💰 Verify funded outputs.

A grant officer queries a project acronym and collects every linked publication for a progress report to the funding body.

📰 Build a news evidence base.

A journalist scrapes publications on a health intervention and filters by the last two years to fact-check a policy claim.

Why choose this scraper

	What you get
Flat row per publication	One publication equals one row, no nested JSON to unpack.
Full author list	Every author name and affiliation the OpenAIRE graph holds.
Funder information	Funding agency, grant ID, and project acronym when available.
Persistent identifiers	DOI, Handle, and OpenAIRE ID included for deduplication.
Date-bounded runs	Collect only publications accepted after a chosen date.

How it compares

No other Store actor targets OpenAIRE the same way, so the honest comparison is with the alternatives teams actually weigh.

	OpenAIRE Publications Scraper	Build it in-house	By hand
Setup	Run it now, zero config	Days of engineering	None, but hours per pull
When OpenAIRE changes	Maintained for you	You fix it	You re-learn the page
Proxies, retries, anti-bot	Built in	Your problem	Browser only
Output	Fixed JSON schema, CSV/Excel export	Whatever you build	Copy-paste
Cost	Pay per result	Engineering time	Analyst hours

Configure the run

Drive the Actor from a keyword query and an optional acceptance-date lower bound; filters run server-side so only matching publications reach your dataset. The Input tab lists every parameter.

A first run with the defaults:

{
 "maxItems": 10
}

A larger pull:

{
 "maxItems": 200
}

Pricing

Pay-per-result: $0.0085 per result collected. You pay only for the results written to your dataset.

Results collected	Approximate cost
100 results	$0.85
1,000 results	$8.50
10,000 results	$85.00

New Apify accounts start with $5 in free credit.

Free users

Free-plan runs return up to 10 results as a preview. Upgrade your Apify plan to collect up to 1,000,000 results per run.

Run it

1. Create a free Apify account with $5 in credit.
2. Open the OpenAIRE Publications Scraper.
3. Set your inputs and any filters, then click Start.
4. Export the results as CSV, Excel, JSON, or XML from the Dataset tab.

Run it programmatically through the Apify API (run-sync-get-dataset-items) or the ApifyClient for JavaScript and Python.

Use with AI agents (MCP)

Give an AI agent live access to OpenAIRE through the Model Context Protocol. Add the Actor to Claude, Cursor, or any MCP client:

claude mcp add --transport http apify "https://mcp.apify.com?tools=parseforge/openaire-publications-scraper"

Then prompt it in plain language to run the scraper and read back the results.

Troubleshooting

Why am I getting no results?

Check your query spelling and try broader keywords. If you set a From Date Accepted, try removing it to see if older publications exist.

Why is the run slow?

OpenAIRE's search endpoint can be rate-limited on very large queries. Reduce the maxItems or add a date filter to narrow the result set.

Some fields are empty in my dataset.

OpenAIRE only returns metadata that the publisher or repository has deposited. Missing abstracts or funder info are gaps in the source, not the Actor.

The Actor stopped before reaching maxItems.

The OpenAIRE API may return fewer results than requested if the query matches a smaller set. The run completes with whatever was found.

Can I search in languages other than English?

Yes. The query field passes your text directly to OpenAIRE's search, which indexes publications in many languages.

FAQ

Question	Answer
Do I need an OpenAIRE API key?	No. The Actor reads the public search interface, so no registration or key is required.
What output formats are supported?	You can export your dataset to CSV, JSON, Excel, or XML from the Apify platform.
Can I filter by publication date?	Yes. Set the From Date Accepted field to a YYYY-MM-DD value and only publications accepted on or after that date will be collected.
How many publications can I scrape in one run?	You can set the maximum up to one million. The Actor handles pagination automatically.
Does it return the full author list?	Yes. Every author name and their affiliation, as recorded in the OpenAIRE graph, is included in the row.
Can I search for a specific title?	Yes. Enter the exact title or a fragment in the query field and the Actor will match it against the OpenAIRE index.
Is the funder information included?	Yes. When OpenAIRE holds funding data, the row includes the funding agency, grant identifier, and project acronym.
Does it return the abstract?	The Actor returns the metadata that OpenAIRE provides, which typically includes the abstract when it is openly available.
Can I run this on a schedule?	Yes. Apify's scheduler lets you run the Actor daily, weekly, or on any cron expression to track new publications.
What is the OpenAIRE ID?	It is a persistent identifier assigned by the OpenAIRE graph. The Actor includes it so you can deduplicate records across runs.

Related actors

Browse the full ParseForge collection for more scrapers.

🆘 Need help? Email parseforge@protonmail.com with your run ID, your input, and what you expected.

⚠️ Disclaimer. This Actor is unofficial and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by OpenAIRE A.M.K.E. It collects only publicly available data. You are responsible for using the collected data in compliance with the source's terms of service and applicable data-protection laws, including GDPR, CCPA, and PIPL. Do not use it to collect personal data unlawfully.