Search authors
The best way to search for authors is to use the
search query parameter, which searches the display_name field in a flexible way. Example:Searching without a middle initial returns names with and without middle initials. So a search for "John Smith" will also return "John W. Smith".
Names with diacritics are flexible as well. So a search for David Tarrago can return David Tarragó, and a search for David Tarragó can return David Tarrago. When searching with a diacritic, diacritic versions of the names are prioritized in order to honor the original form of the author's name. Read more about our handling of diacritics here.
You can read more in the search page in the API Guide. It will show you how relevance score is calculated, how words are stemmed to improve search results, and how to do complex boolean searches.
You can also use search as a filter, by appending
.search to the end of the property you are filtering for:- Get authors with the name "john smith" in the display_name:
https://api.openalex.org/authors?filter=display\_name.search:john smith
When searching for authors, there is no difference when using the
search parameter or the filter display_name.search, since display_name is the only field searched when finding authors.Search filter | Field that is searched |
|---|---|
You can autocomplete authors to create a very fast type-ahead style search function:
- Autocomplete authors with "ronald sw" in the display name:
https://api.openalex.org/autocomplete/authors?q=ronald sw
This returns a list of authors with their most cited work title as the hint:
{
"results": [
{
"id": "https://openalex.org/A2295942430",
"display_name": "Ronald Swanstrom",
"hint": "Identification and characterization of transmitted and early founder virus envelopes in primary HIV-1 infection (2008)",
"cited_by_count": 12287,
"works_count": 235,
"entity_type": "author",
"external_id": "https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7777-0773"
},
...
]
}
The author hint is set to the author's most highly cited work by default. You can change that by adding the parameter
author_hint which accepts values highly_cited_work (default) or institution. When set to institution, the hint displays the author's last known institution in format <display_name>, <country_code>.- Autocomplete authors with the hint set to the author's last known institution
https://api.openalex.org/autocomplete/authors?q=carl%20s\&author\_hint=institution
Last modified 4d ago