Source object

These are the fields in a source object. When you use the API to get a single source or lists of sources, this is what's returned.

abbreviated_title

String: An abbreviated title obtained from the ISSN Centre.

abbreviated_title: "J. addict. med. ther. sci."

alternate_titles

Array: Alternate titles for this source, as obtained from the ISSN Centre and individual work records, like Crossref DOIs, that carry the source name as a string. These are commonly abbreviations or translations of the source's canonical name.

alternate_titles: [
   "ACRJ"
]

apc_prices

List: List of objects, each with price (Integer) and currency (String).

Article processing charge information, taken directly from DOAJ.

apc_prices: [
    {
        price: 3920,
        currency: "GBP"
    }
]

apc_usd

Integer: The source's article processing charge in US Dollars, if available from DOAJ.

The apc_usd value is calculated by taking the APC price (see apc_prices) with a currency of USD if it is available. If it's not available, we convert the first available value from apc_prices into USD, using recent exchange rates.

apc_usd: 5200

cited_by_count

Integer: The total number of Works that cite a Work hosted in this source.

cited_by_count: 133702 

country_code

String: The country that this source is associated with, represented as an ISO two-letter country code.

country_code: "GB" 

counts_by_year

List: works_count and cited_by_count for each of the last ten years, binned by year. To put it another way: each year, you can see how many new works this source started hosting, and how many times any work in this source got cited.

If the source was founded less than ten years ago, there will naturally be fewer than ten years in this list. Years with zero citations and zero works have been removed so you will need to add those in if you need them.

counts_by_year: [
    {
        year: 2021,
        works_count: 4338,
        cited_by_count: 127268
    },
    {
        year: 2020,
        works_count: 4363,
        cited_by_count: 119531
    },
    
    // and so forth
]

created_date

String: The date this Source object was created in the OpenAlex dataset, expressed as an ISO 8601 date string.

created_date: "2017-08-08"

display_name

String: The name of the source.

display_name: "PeerJ"

homepage_url

String: The starting page for navigating the contents of this source; the homepage for this source's website.

homepage_url: "http://www.peerj.com/" 

host_organization

String: The host organization for this source as an OpenAlex ID. This will be an Institution.id if the source is a repository, and a Publisher.id if the source is a journal, conference, or eBook platform (based on the type field).

id: "https://openalex.org/P4310320595"

host_organization_lineage

List: OpenAlex IDs — See Publisher.lineage. This will only be included if the host_organization is a publisher (and not if the host_organization is an institution).

host_organization_lineage: [
    "https://openalex.org/P4310321285",
    "https://openalex.org/P4310319900",
    "https://openalex.org/P4310319965"
]

host_organization_name

String: The display_name from the host_organization, shown for convenience.

host_organization_name: "Elsevier BV" 

id

String: The OpenAlex ID for this source.

id: "https://openalex.org/S1983995261"

ids

Object: All the external identifiers that we know about for this source. IDs are expressed as URIs whenever possible. Possible ID types:

• fatcat (String: this source's Fatcat ID)
• issn (List: a list of this source's ISSNs. Same as Source.issn)
• issn_l (String: this source's ISSN-L. Same as Source.issn_l)
• mag (Integer: this source's Microsoft Academic Graph ID)
• openalex (String: this source's OpenAlex ID. Same as Source.id)
• wikidata (String: this source's Wikidata ID)

Many sources are missing one or more ID types (either because we don't know the ID, or because it was never assigned). Keys for null IDs are not displayed.

Example

ids: {
    openalex: "https://openalex.org/S1983995261",
    issn_l: "2167-8359",
    issn: [
        "2167-8359"
    ],
    mag: 1983995261,
    fatcat: "https://fatcat.wiki/container/z3ijzhu7zzey3f7jwws7rzopoq",
    wikidata: "https://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q96326029"
}

is_core

Boolean: Whether this source is identified as a "core source" by CWTS, used in the Open Leiden Ranking of universities around the world. The list of core sources can be found here.

is_core: true 

is_in_doaj

Boolean: Whether this is a journal listed in the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ).

is_in_doaj: true 

is_oa

Boolean: Whether this is currently fully-open-access source. This could be true for a preprint repository where everything uploaded is free to read, or for a Gold or Diamond open access journal, where all newly published Works are available for free under an open license.

We say "currently" because the status of a source can change over time. It's common for journals to "flip" to Gold OA, after which they may make only future articles open or also open their back catalogs. It's entirely possible for a source to say is_oa: true, but for an article from last year to require a subscription.

is_oa: true 

issn

List: The ISSNs used by this source. Many publications have multiple ISSNs , so ISSN-L should be used when possible.

issn: ["2167-8359"]

issn_l

String: The ISSN-L identifying this source. This is the Canonical External ID for sources.

ISSN is a global and unique ID for serial publications. However, different media versions of a given publication (e.g., print and electronic) often have different ISSNs. This is why we can't have nice things. The ISSN-L or Linking ISSN solves the problem by designating a single canonical ISSN for all media versions of the title. It's usually the same as the print ISSN.

issn_l: "2167-8359"

societies

Array: Societies on whose behalf the source is published and maintained, obtained from our crowdsourced list. Thanks!

societies: [
    {
        "url": "http://www.counseling.org/",
        "organization": "American Counseling Association on behalf of the American College Counseling Association"
    }
]

summary_stats

Object: Citation metrics for this source

• 2yr_mean_citedness Float: The 2-year mean citedness for this source. Also known as impact factor. We use the year prior to the current year for the citations (the numerator) and the two years prior to that for the citation-receiving publications (the denominator).
• h_index Integer: The h-index for this source.
• i10_index Integer: The i-10 index for this source.

While the h-index and the i-10 index are normally author-level metrics, they can be calculated for any set of papers, so we include them for sources.

summary_stats: {
    2yr_mean_citedness: 1.5295340589458237,
    h_index: 105,
    i10_index: 5045
}

type

String: The type of source, which will be one of: journal, repository, conference, ebook platform, book series, metadata, or other.

type: "journal" 

updated_date

String: The last time anything in this Source object changed, expressed as an ISO 8601 date string. This date is updated for any change at all, including increases in various counts.

updated_date: "2022-01-02T00:00:00"

works_api_url

String: A URL that will get you a list of all this source's Works.

We express this as an API URL (instead of just listing the works themselves) because sometimes a source's publication list is too long to reasonably fit into a single Source object.

works_api_url: "https://api.openalex.org/works?filter=primary_location.source.id:S1983995261",

works_count

Integer: The number of Works this source hosts.

works_count: 20184 

x_concepts

x_concepts will be deprecated and removed soon. We will be replacing this functionality with Topics instead.

List: The Concepts most frequently applied to works hosted by this source. Each is represented as a dehydrated Concept object, with one additional attribute:

score (Float): The strength of association between this source and the listed concept, from 0-100.

x_concepts: [
    {
        id: "https://openalex.org/C86803240",
        wikidata: null,
        display_name: "Biology",
        level: 0,
        score: 86.7
    },
    {
        id: "https://openalex.org/C185592680",
        wikidata: null,
        display_name: "Chemistry",
        level: 0,
        score: 51.4
    },
    
    // and so forth
]

The DehydratedSource object

The DehydratedSource is stripped-down Source object, with most of its properties removed to save weight. Its only remaining properties are:

• display_name
• host_organization
• host_organization_lineage
• host_organization_name
• id
• is_core
• is_in_doaj
• is_oa
• issn
• issn_l
• type