OpenAlex
The open alternative to Scopus and Web of Science. Free, comprehensive, and great for analytics.
OVERVIEW
What is OpenAlex?
OpenAlex is a free, open scholarly knowledge graph maintained by the nonprofit OurResearch, built as an open replacement for the discontinued Microsoft Academic Graph. It catalogs more than 250 million scholarly works along with authors, institutions, sources, publishers, and funders, with all data freely available via API and bulk download. The dataset includes citation links, author affiliations, topical concepts, and open access status, making it ideal for analytics. Bibliometric researchers, librarians, and developers building scholarly tools rely on OpenAlex as their primary open data source.
KEY FEATURES
What OpenAlex does well
Open Data Movement
Free, open scholarly data. The open replacement for Microsoft Academic Graph.
Knowledge Graph
Connects works, authors, institutions, sources, and concepts.
Powerful Free API
Generous rate limits. Perfect for bibliometric research and tool building.
Bulk Data Available
Download the entire dataset for offline analysis and replication.
Citation Network
Forward and backward citation links for 250M+ scholarly works.
Research Analytics
Used by funders, librarians, and bibliometricians for analysis.
Subjects Covered
Media included
Document and content types you can find in OpenAlex.
- Journal articles
- Conference papers
- Books / book chapters
- Theses & dissertations
- Preprints
- Reports / white papers
- Datasets
TOP TOOL COMPARISONS
OpenAlex Alternatives
| Tool | Coverage | Subjects Covered | Open Access / Pricing | Citation Features | One-line Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| OpenAlex | 250,000,000 | Multidisciplinary | Yes · Free | Citation network with full API access | The open alternative to Scopus and Web of Science. Free, comprehensive, and great for analytics. |
 Semantic Scholar | 200,000,000 | Multidisciplinary | Yes · Free | Influential citations, citation graph, TLDR context | Free AI-powered discovery tool. Excellent for finding influential papers and TLDR summaries. |
 Google Scholar | 389,000,000 | Multidisciplinary | Yes · Free | Cited by counts, h-index, i10-index, related articles | Fastest free starting point for any topic. Great for discovery, weak for systematic literature searches. |
 BASE | 400,000,000 | Multidisciplinary | Yes · Free | None (metadata search only) | One of the largest open-access search engines. Ideal for finding free full-text papers across repositories. |
 Scopus | 102,600,000 | Multidisciplinary | No · Paid | Citation tracking, h-index, CiteScore, cited reference search | Gold-standard subscription database for citation analysis and research evaluation across all sciences. |
 Web of Science | 240,000,000 | Multidisciplinary | No · Paid | Citation index, Journal Impact Factor, cited reference search | Best for systematic reviews and bibliometric research with deep historical citation coverage back to 1900. |
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