| --- |
| language: |
| - en |
| license: cc0-1.0 |
| task_categories: |
| - feature-extraction |
| - text-classification |
| - question-answering |
| pretty_name: OpenAlex - Complete Academic Research Database |
| size_categories: |
| - 100M<n<1B |
| source_datasets: |
| - openalex |
| tags: |
| - academic |
| - research |
| - scholarly |
| - citations |
| - science |
| - open-access |
| - parquet |
| - bibliometrics |
| - scientometrics |
| dataset_info: |
| - config_name: topics |
| features: |
| - name: id |
| dtype: string |
| - name: display_name |
| dtype: string |
| - name: description |
| dtype: string |
| - name: keywords |
| dtype: string |
| - name: subfield_id |
| dtype: string |
| - name: subfield_name |
| dtype: string |
| - name: field_id |
| dtype: string |
| - name: field_name |
| dtype: string |
| - name: domain_id |
| dtype: string |
| - name: domain_name |
| dtype: string |
| - name: siblings |
| dtype: string |
| - name: works_count |
| dtype: int32 |
| - name: cited_by_count |
| dtype: int32 |
| - name: ids |
| dtype: string |
| - name: created_date |
| dtype: string |
| - name: updated_date |
| dtype: string |
| - config_name: publishers |
| features: |
| - name: id |
| dtype: string |
| - name: display_name |
| dtype: string |
| - name: alternate_titles |
| dtype: string |
| - name: hierarchy_level |
| dtype: int32 |
| - name: parent_publisher |
| dtype: string |
| - name: country_codes |
| dtype: string |
| - name: homepage_url |
| dtype: string |
| - name: works_count |
| dtype: int32 |
| - name: cited_by_count |
| dtype: int32 |
| - name: h_index |
| dtype: int32 |
| - name: i10_index |
| dtype: int32 |
| - name: lineage |
| dtype: string |
| - name: roles |
| dtype: string |
| - name: counts_by_year |
| dtype: string |
| - name: ids |
| dtype: string |
| - name: created_date |
| dtype: string |
| - name: updated_date |
| dtype: string |
| - config_name: funders |
| features: |
| - name: id |
| dtype: string |
| - name: display_name |
| dtype: string |
| - name: alternate_titles |
| dtype: string |
| - name: country_code |
| dtype: string |
| - name: description |
| dtype: string |
| - name: homepage_url |
| dtype: string |
| - name: works_count |
| dtype: int32 |
| - name: cited_by_count |
| dtype: int32 |
| - name: awards_count |
| dtype: int32 |
| - name: h_index |
| dtype: int32 |
| - name: i10_index |
| dtype: int32 |
| - name: roles |
| dtype: string |
| - name: counts_by_year |
| dtype: string |
| - name: ids |
| dtype: string |
| - name: created_date |
| dtype: string |
| - name: updated_date |
| dtype: string |
| - config_name: sources |
| features: |
| - name: id |
| dtype: string |
| - name: issn_l |
| dtype: string |
| - name: issn |
| dtype: string |
| - name: display_name |
| dtype: string |
| - name: type |
| dtype: string |
| - name: host_organization |
| dtype: string |
| - name: host_organization_name |
| dtype: string |
| - name: works_count |
| dtype: int32 |
| - name: cited_by_count |
| dtype: int32 |
| - name: is_oa |
| dtype: bool |
| - name: is_in_doaj |
| dtype: bool |
| - name: is_core |
| dtype: bool |
| - name: homepage_url |
| dtype: string |
| - name: country_code |
| dtype: string |
| - name: h_index |
| dtype: int32 |
| - name: i10_index |
| dtype: int32 |
| - name: apc_usd |
| dtype: int32 |
| - name: alternate_titles |
| dtype: string |
| - name: topics |
| dtype: string |
| - name: counts_by_year |
| dtype: string |
| - name: ids |
| dtype: string |
| - name: created_date |
| dtype: string |
| - name: updated_date |
| dtype: string |
| - config_name: institutions |
| features: |
| - name: id |
| dtype: string |
| - name: ror |
| dtype: string |
| - name: display_name |
| dtype: string |
| - name: type |
| dtype: string |
| - name: country_code |
| dtype: string |
| - name: homepage_url |
| dtype: string |
| - name: image_url |
| dtype: string |
| - name: works_count |
| dtype: int32 |
| - name: cited_by_count |
| dtype: int32 |
| - name: h_index |
| dtype: int32 |
| - name: i10_index |
| dtype: int32 |
| - name: geo_city |
| dtype: string |
| - name: geo_region |
| dtype: string |
| - name: geo_country |
| dtype: string |
| - name: geo_latitude |
| dtype: float64 |
| - name: geo_longitude |
| dtype: float64 |
| - name: associated_institutions |
| dtype: string |
| - name: lineage |
| dtype: string |
| - name: topics |
| dtype: string |
| - name: counts_by_year |
| dtype: string |
| - name: roles |
| dtype: string |
| - name: ids |
| dtype: string |
| - name: created_date |
| dtype: string |
| - name: updated_date |
| dtype: string |
| - config_name: authors |
| features: |
| - name: id |
| dtype: string |
| - name: orcid |
| dtype: string |
| - name: display_name |
| dtype: string |
| - name: display_name_alternatives |
| dtype: string |
| - name: works_count |
| dtype: int32 |
| - name: cited_by_count |
| dtype: int32 |
| - name: h_index |
| dtype: int32 |
| - name: i10_index |
| dtype: int32 |
| - name: two_yr_mean_citedness |
| dtype: float64 |
| - name: affiliations |
| dtype: string |
| - name: last_known_institutions |
| dtype: string |
| - name: topics |
| dtype: string |
| - name: topic_share |
| dtype: string |
| - name: counts_by_year |
| dtype: string |
| - name: ids |
| dtype: string |
| - name: created_date |
| dtype: string |
| - name: updated_date |
| dtype: string |
| - config_name: works |
| features: |
| - name: id |
| dtype: string |
| - name: doi |
| dtype: string |
| - name: title |
| dtype: string |
| - name: publication_year |
| dtype: int32 |
| - name: publication_date |
| dtype: string |
| - name: type |
| dtype: string |
| - name: language |
| dtype: string |
| - name: is_retracted |
| dtype: bool |
| - name: is_paratext |
| dtype: bool |
| - name: cited_by_count |
| dtype: int32 |
| - name: fwci |
| dtype: float64 |
| - name: referenced_works_count |
| dtype: int32 |
| - name: authors_count |
| dtype: int32 |
| - name: locations_count |
| dtype: int32 |
| - name: is_oa |
| dtype: bool |
| - name: oa_status |
| dtype: string |
| - name: oa_url |
| dtype: string |
| - name: primary_location |
| dtype: string |
| - name: best_oa_location |
| dtype: string |
| - name: locations |
| dtype: string |
| - name: authorships |
| dtype: string |
| - name: biblio_volume |
| dtype: string |
| - name: biblio_issue |
| dtype: string |
| - name: biblio_first_page |
| dtype: string |
| - name: biblio_last_page |
| dtype: string |
| - name: primary_topic |
| dtype: string |
| - name: topics |
| dtype: string |
| - name: keywords |
| dtype: string |
| - name: referenced_works |
| dtype: string |
| - name: related_works |
| dtype: string |
| - name: abstract_inverted_index |
| dtype: string |
| - name: ids |
| dtype: string |
| - name: counts_by_year |
| dtype: string |
| - name: sustainable_development_goals |
| dtype: string |
| - name: indexed_in |
| dtype: string |
| - name: created_date |
| dtype: string |
| - name: updated_date |
| dtype: string |
| configs: |
| - config_name: topics |
| data_files: "data/topics/*.parquet" |
| - config_name: publishers |
| data_files: "data/publishers/*.parquet" |
| - config_name: funders |
| data_files: "data/funders/*.parquet" |
| - config_name: sources |
| data_files: "data/sources/*.parquet" |
| - config_name: institutions |
| data_files: "data/institutions/*.parquet" |
| - config_name: authors |
| data_files: "data/authors/*.parquet" |
| - config_name: works |
| data_files: "data/works/*.parquet" |
| --- |
| |
| # OpenAlex: Complete Academic Research Database |
|
|
| The world's scholarly research catalog, converted to analysis-ready Parquet. 114.1M records across 7 entity types. |
|
|
| ## Table of Contents |
|
|
| - [What is this?](#what-is-this) |
| - [Quick start](#quick-start) |
| - [Entity overview](#entity-overview) |
| - [How entities connect](#how-entities-connect) |
| - [Schema reference](#schema-reference) |
| - [Working with abstracts](#working-with-abstracts) |
| - [Pipeline details](#pipeline-details) |
| - [Things to know](#things-to-know) |
| - [Attribution](#attribution) |
|
|
| ## What is this? |
|
|
| [OpenAlex](https://openalex.org) is a free, open catalog of the global research system: papers, authors, institutions, journals, topics, publishers, and funders. It's maintained by [OurResearch](https://ourresearch.org/) as the open replacement for the discontinued Microsoft Academic Graph. The index currently covers over 250 million scholarly works with full citation networks, authorship chains, institutional affiliations, and topic classifications. |
|
|
| This dataset is a straight conversion of the [OpenAlex snapshot](https://docs.openalex.org/download-all-data/openalex-snapshot) (2026-04) from gzipped JSON Lines into sharded, ZSTD-compressed Parquet. **114.1M total records** split into files of up to 1 million rows each. You can query it directly with DuckDB (no download needed), stream it with the `datasets` library, or pull specific entities with `huggingface_hub`. |
|
|
| ### File layout |
|
|
| ``` |
| data/ |
| works/ |
| works-00000.parquet scholarly works (~1M rows each) |
| works-00001.parquet |
| ... |
| authors/ |
| authors-00000.parquet researchers and their metrics |
| ... |
| sources/ |
| sources-00000.parquet journals, repositories, conferences |
| institutions/ |
| institutions-00000.parquet universities, labs, companies |
| topics/ |
| topics-00000.parquet research topic taxonomy |
| publishers/ |
| publishers-00000.parquet academic publishers |
| funders/ |
| funders-00000.parquet funding organizations |
| ``` |
|
|
| Nested fields (authorships, locations, topics, etc.) are stored as JSON strings. Use `json_extract()` in DuckDB or `json.loads()` in Python to work with them. |
|
|
| ## Quick start |
|
|
| ### DuckDB (no download required) |
|
|
| DuckDB can read Parquet files directly from Hugging Face. This is the fastest way to explore: |
|
|
| ```sql |
| -- Most-cited works of all time |
| SELECT id, title, publication_year, cited_by_count, doi, oa_status |
| FROM 'hf://datasets/open-index/open-alex/data/works/*.parquet' |
| WHERE cited_by_count > 1000 |
| ORDER BY cited_by_count DESC |
| LIMIT 20; |
| ``` |
|
|
| ```sql |
| -- Top authors by h-index |
| SELECT id, display_name, h_index, i10_index, works_count, cited_by_count |
| FROM 'hf://datasets/open-index/open-alex/data/authors/*.parquet' |
| ORDER BY h_index DESC |
| LIMIT 20; |
| ``` |
|
|
| ```sql |
| -- Open access rates by year |
| SELECT publication_year, |
| COUNT(*) as total, |
| SUM(CASE WHEN is_oa THEN 1 ELSE 0 END) as oa_count, |
| ROUND(100.0 * SUM(CASE WHEN is_oa THEN 1 ELSE 0 END) / COUNT(*), 1) as oa_pct |
| FROM 'hf://datasets/open-index/open-alex/data/works/*.parquet' |
| WHERE publication_year BETWEEN 2000 AND 2025 |
| GROUP BY publication_year |
| ORDER BY publication_year; |
| ``` |
|
|
| ```sql |
| -- Top institutions in a country |
| SELECT display_name, type, geo_city, works_count, cited_by_count, h_index |
| FROM 'hf://datasets/open-index/open-alex/data/institutions/*.parquet' |
| WHERE country_code = 'US' |
| ORDER BY works_count DESC |
| LIMIT 20; |
| ``` |
|
|
| ```sql |
| -- Extract author affiliations from nested JSON |
| SELECT id, display_name, |
| json_extract_string(last_known_institutions, '$[0].display_name') as institution, |
| json_extract_string(last_known_institutions, '$[0].country_code') as country |
| FROM 'hf://datasets/open-index/open-alex/data/authors/*.parquet' |
| WHERE last_known_institutions IS NOT NULL |
| ORDER BY h_index DESC |
| LIMIT 20; |
| ``` |
|
|
| ```sql |
| -- Join works to their first author |
| SELECT w.title, w.publication_year, w.cited_by_count, a.display_name, a.h_index |
| FROM 'hf://datasets/open-index/open-alex/data/works/*.parquet' w, |
| 'hf://datasets/open-index/open-alex/data/authors/*.parquet' a |
| WHERE w.cited_by_count > 5000 |
| AND a.id = json_extract_string(w.authorships, '$[0].author.id') |
| ORDER BY w.cited_by_count DESC |
| LIMIT 20; |
| ``` |
|
|
| ```sql |
| -- Citation distribution percentiles |
| SELECT |
| percentile_disc(0.50) WITHIN GROUP (ORDER BY cited_by_count) AS p50, |
| percentile_disc(0.90) WITHIN GROUP (ORDER BY cited_by_count) AS p90, |
| percentile_disc(0.99) WITHIN GROUP (ORDER BY cited_by_count) AS p99, |
| AVG(cited_by_count) AS mean |
| FROM read_parquet('hf://datasets/open-index/open-alex/data/works/*.parquet'); |
| ``` |
|
|
| ### Python (datasets library) |
|
|
| ```python |
| from datasets import load_dataset |
| |
| # Stream works without downloading everything |
| ds = load_dataset("open-index/open-alex", "works", split="train", streaming=True) |
| for work in ds: |
| print(work["id"], work["title"], work["cited_by_count"]) |
| |
| # Load smaller entities into memory |
| authors = load_dataset("open-index/open-alex", "authors", split="train") |
| topics = load_dataset("open-index/open-alex", "topics", split="train") |
| ``` |
|
|
| ### Downloading specific entities |
|
|
| ```python |
| from huggingface_hub import snapshot_download |
| |
| # Just the small entities (~500 MB total) |
| snapshot_download( |
| "open-index/open-alex", |
| repo_type="dataset", |
| local_dir="./openalex/", |
| allow_patterns=["data/topics/*", "data/publishers/*", "data/funders/*", |
| "data/sources/*", "data/institutions/*"], |
| ) |
| |
| # For faster downloads: |
| # pip install huggingface_hub[hf_transfer] |
| # HF_HUB_ENABLE_HF_TRANSFER=1 |
| ``` |
|
|
| ## Entity overview |
|
|
| | Entity | Records | What's in it | |
| |---|---|---| |
| | **Topics** | 4.5K | Research topics with hierarchical classification (domain → field → subfield → topic) | |
| | **Publishers** | 10.7K | Academic publishers with hierarchy levels and country information | |
| | **Funders** | 32.4K | Research funding organizations with award counts and cross-references | |
| | **Sources** | 280.7K | Journals, repositories, conferences, and ebook platforms with ISSN, DOAJ status, and APC pricing | |
| | **Institutions** | 121.5K | Universities, research centers, companies, and government bodies with ROR IDs and geolocation | |
| | **Authors** | 113.6M | Researchers with ORCID IDs, h-index, affiliations, and publication statistics | |
| | **Works** | n/a | Scholarly works (articles, books, datasets) with citations, DOIs, topics, authorships, and open access status | |
|
|
| ## How entities connect |
|
|
| Works sit at the center. Everything else links through them. |
|
|
| ``` |
| +---------------+ |
| | Works | (central entity) |
| +-------+-------+ |
| +----------------+------------------+ |
| | | | |
| +------v------+ +-----v------+ +---------v--------+ |
| | Authorships | | Locations | | Referenced Works | |
| | (nested) | | (nested) | | (citations) | |
| +------+------+ +-----+------+ +------------------+ |
| | | |
| +------v------+ +---v------+ |
| | Authors | | Sources | journals, repos, conferences |
| +------+------+ +---+------+ |
| | | |
| +----------v------+ +---v--------+ |
| | Institutions | | Publishers | |
| +-----------------+ +------------+ |
| |
| Topics: domain > field > subfield > topic (4-level hierarchy) |
| Funders: linked to works through grants and awards |
| ``` |
|
|
| Authorships, locations, and topics are nested as JSON inside works. To join works with their authors, parse the `authorships` field. |
|
|
| ## Schema reference |
|
|
| ### Topics |
|
|
| Research topics with hierarchical classification (domain → field → subfield → topic). |
|
|
| | Column | Type | |
| |---|---| |
| | `id` | string | |
| | `display_name` | string | |
| | `description` | string | |
| | `keywords` | string | |
| | `subfield_id` | string | |
| | `subfield_name` | string | |
| | `field_id` | string | |
| | `field_name` | string | |
| | `domain_id` | string | |
| | `domain_name` | string | |
| | `siblings` | string | |
| | `works_count` | int32 | |
| | `cited_by_count` | int32 | |
| | `ids` | string | |
| | `created_date` | string | |
| | `updated_date` | string | |
|
|
| ### Publishers |
|
|
| Academic publishers with hierarchy levels and country information. |
|
|
| | Column | Type | |
| |---|---| |
| | `id` | string | |
| | `display_name` | string | |
| | `alternate_titles` | string | |
| | `hierarchy_level` | int32 | |
| | `parent_publisher` | string | |
| | `country_codes` | string | |
| | `homepage_url` | string | |
| | `works_count` | int32 | |
| | `cited_by_count` | int32 | |
| | `h_index` | int32 | |
| | `i10_index` | int32 | |
| | `lineage` | string | |
| | `roles` | string | |
| | `counts_by_year` | string | |
| | `ids` | string | |
| | `created_date` | string | |
| | `updated_date` | string | |
|
|
| **Data completeness** (fields below 100%): |
|
|
| | Field | Fill rate | Est. records | |
| |---|---|---| |
| | `alternate_titles` | 10.0% | 1.1K | |
| | `parent_publisher` | 0.0% | 0 | |
| | `country_codes` | 90.0% | 9.6K | |
| | `homepage_url` | 80.0% | 8.6K | |
| | `counts_by_year` | 90.0% | 9.6K | |
|
|
| ### Funders |
|
|
| Research funding organizations with award counts and cross-references. |
|
|
| | Column | Type | |
| |---|---| |
| | `id` | string | |
| | `display_name` | string | |
| | `alternate_titles` | string | |
| | `country_code` | string | |
| | `description` | string | |
| | `homepage_url` | string | |
| | `works_count` | int32 | |
| | `cited_by_count` | int32 | |
| | `awards_count` | int32 | |
| | `h_index` | int32 | |
| | `i10_index` | int32 | |
| | `roles` | string | |
| | `counts_by_year` | string | |
| | `ids` | string | |
| | `created_date` | string | |
| | `updated_date` | string | |
|
|
| **Data completeness** (fields below 100%): |
|
|
| | Field | Fill rate | Est. records | |
| |---|---|---| |
| | `alternate_titles` | 87.5% | 28.4K | |
| | `description` | 56.2% | 18.2K | |
| | `homepage_url` | 53.1% | 17.2K | |
|
|
| ### Sources |
|
|
| Journals, repositories, conferences, and ebook platforms with ISSN, DOAJ status, and APC pricing. |
|
|
| | Column | Type | |
| |---|---| |
| | `id` | string | |
| | `issn_l` | string | |
| | `issn` | string | |
| | `display_name` | string | |
| | `type` | string | |
| | `host_organization` | string | |
| | `host_organization_name` | string | |
| | `works_count` | int32 | |
| | `cited_by_count` | int32 | |
| | `is_oa` | bool | |
| | `is_in_doaj` | bool | |
| | `is_core` | bool | |
| | `homepage_url` | string | |
| | `country_code` | string | |
| | `h_index` | int32 | |
| | `i10_index` | int32 | |
| | `apc_usd` | int32 | |
| | `alternate_titles` | string | |
| | `topics` | string | |
| | `counts_by_year` | string | |
| | `ids` | string | |
| | `created_date` | string | |
| | `updated_date` | string | |
|
|
| **Data completeness** (fields below 100%): |
|
|
| | Field | Fill rate | Est. records | |
| |---|---|---| |
| | `issn_l` | 61.4% | 172.4K | |
| | `issn` | 61.4% | 172.4K | |
| | `host_organization` | 25.7% | 72.2K | |
| | `host_organization_name` | 25.4% | 71.2K | |
| | `homepage_url` | 26.4% | 74.2K | |
| | `country_code` | 42.5% | 119.3K | |
| | `apc_usd` | 3.2% | 9.0K | |
| | `alternate_titles` | 23.2% | 65.2K | |
| | `topics` | 92.9% | 260.6K | |
| | `counts_by_year` | 93.2% | 261.6K | |
| | `created_date` | 93.2% | 261.6K | |
|
|
| ### Institutions |
|
|
| Universities, research centers, companies, and government bodies with ROR IDs and geolocation. |
|
|
| | Column | Type | |
| |---|---| |
| | `id` | string | |
| | `ror` | string | |
| | `display_name` | string | |
| | `type` | string | |
| | `country_code` | string | |
| | `homepage_url` | string | |
| | `image_url` | string | |
| | `works_count` | int32 | |
| | `cited_by_count` | int32 | |
| | `h_index` | int32 | |
| | `i10_index` | int32 | |
| | `geo_city` | string | |
| | `geo_region` | string | |
| | `geo_country` | string | |
| | `geo_latitude` | float64 | |
| | `geo_longitude` | float64 | |
| | `associated_institutions` | string | |
| | `lineage` | string | |
| | `topics` | string | |
| | `counts_by_year` | string | |
| | `roles` | string | |
| | `ids` | string | |
| | `created_date` | string | |
| | `updated_date` | string | |
|
|
| **Data completeness** (fields below 100%): |
|
|
| | Field | Fill rate | Est. records | |
| |---|---|---| |
| | `country_code` | 94.2% | 114.5K | |
| | `homepage_url` | 99.2% | 120.5K | |
| | `image_url` | 10.7% | 13.1K | |
| | `geo_region` | 38.0% | 46.2K | |
| | `associated_institutions` | 32.2% | 39.2K | |
| | `topics` | 88.4% | 107.5K | |
| | `counts_by_year` | 86.8% | 105.4K | |
|
|
| ### Authors |
|
|
| Researchers with ORCID IDs, h-index, affiliations, and publication statistics. |
|
|
| | Column | Type | |
| |---|---| |
| | `id` | string | |
| | `orcid` | string | |
| | `display_name` | string | |
| | `display_name_alternatives` | string | |
| | `works_count` | int32 | |
| | `cited_by_count` | int32 | |
| | `h_index` | int32 | |
| | `i10_index` | int32 | |
| | `two_yr_mean_citedness` | float64 | |
| | `affiliations` | string | |
| | `last_known_institutions` | string | |
| | `topics` | string | |
| | `topic_share` | string | |
| | `counts_by_year` | string | |
| | `ids` | string | |
| | `created_date` | string | |
| | `updated_date` | string | |
|
|
| **Data completeness** (fields below 100%): |
|
|
| | Field | Fill rate | Est. records | |
| |---|---|---| |
| | `orcid` | 7.1% | 8.0M | |
| | `affiliations` | 44.5% | 50.6M | |
| | `last_known_institutions` | 39.4% | 44.7M | |
| | `topics` | 97.2% | 110.5M | |
| | `topic_share` | 97.2% | 110.5M | |
| | `counts_by_year` | 99.6% | 113.2M | |
|
|
| ### Works |
|
|
| Scholarly works (articles, books, datasets) with citations, DOIs, topics, authorships, and open access status. |
|
|
| | Column | Type | |
| |---|---| |
| | `id` | string | |
| | `doi` | string | |
| | `title` | string | |
| | `publication_year` | int32 | |
| | `publication_date` | string | |
| | `type` | string | |
| | `language` | string | |
| | `is_retracted` | bool | |
| | `is_paratext` | bool | |
| | `cited_by_count` | int32 | |
| | `fwci` | float64 | |
| | `referenced_works_count` | int32 | |
| | `authors_count` | int32 | |
| | `locations_count` | int32 | |
| | `is_oa` | bool | |
| | `oa_status` | string | |
| | `oa_url` | string | |
| | `pr |
