Get a single author

Retrieve a single author by OpenAlex ID or ORCID.

GET /authors/{id}

Get a single author

cURL

curl --request GET \
  --url 'https://api.openalex.org/authors/{id}?api_key='

import requests

url = "https://api.openalex.org/authors/{id}?api_key="

response = requests.get(url)

print(response.text)

const options = {method: 'GET'};

fetch('https://api.openalex.org/authors/{id}?api_key=', options)
  .then(res => res.json())
  .then(res => console.log(res))
  .catch(err => console.error(err));

<?php

$curl = curl_init();

curl_setopt_array($curl, [
  CURLOPT_URL => "https://api.openalex.org/authors/{id}?api_key=",
  CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER => true,
  CURLOPT_ENCODING => "",
  CURLOPT_MAXREDIRS => 10,
  CURLOPT_TIMEOUT => 30,
  CURLOPT_HTTP_VERSION => CURL_HTTP_VERSION_1_1,
  CURLOPT_CUSTOMREQUEST => "GET",
]);

$response = curl_exec($curl);
$err = curl_error($curl);

curl_close($curl);

if ($err) {
  echo "cURL Error #:" . $err;
} else {
  echo $response;
}

package main

import (
	"fmt"
	"net/http"
	"io"
)

func main() {

	url := "https://api.openalex.org/authors/{id}?api_key="

	req, _ := http.NewRequest("GET", url, nil)

	res, _ := http.DefaultClient.Do(req)

	defer res.Body.Close()
	body, _ := io.ReadAll(res.Body)

	fmt.Println(string(body))

}

HttpResponse<String> response = Unirest.get("https://api.openalex.org/authors/{id}?api_key=")
  .asString();

require 'uri'
require 'net/http'

url = URI("https://api.openalex.org/authors/{id}?api_key=")

http = Net::HTTP.new(url.host, url.port)
http.use_ssl = true

request = Net::HTTP::Get.new(url)

response = http.request(request)
puts response.read_body

200

{
  "id": "https://openalex.org/A5023888391",
  "orcid": "<string>",
  "display_name": "<string>",
  "display_name_alternatives": [
    "<string>"
  ],
  "longest_name": "<string>",
  "parsed_longest_name": {
    "first": "<string>",
    "middle": "<string>",
    "last": "<string>",
    "suffix": "<string>",
    "nickname": "<string>"
  },
  "works_count": 123,
  "cited_by_count": 123,
  "summary_stats": {
    "2yr_mean_citedness": 123,
    "h_index": 123,
    "i10_index": 123
  },
  "affiliations": [
    {
      "institution": {
        "id": "<string>",
        "display_name": "<string>",
        "ror": "<string>",
        "country_code": "<string>",
        "type": "<string>",
        "lineage": [
          "<string>"
        ]
      },
      "years": [
        123
      ]
    }
  ],
  "last_known_institutions": [
    {
      "id": "<string>",
      "display_name": "<string>",
      "ror": "<string>",
      "country_code": "<string>",
      "type": "<string>",
      "lineage": [
        "<string>"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "topics": [
    {
      "id": "<string>",
      "display_name": "<string>",
      "count": 123
    }
  ],
  "counts_by_year": [
    {
      "year": 123,
      "works_count": 123,
      "cited_by_count": 123
    }
  ],
  "ids": {
    "openalex": "<string>",
    "orcid": "<string>",
    "scopus": "<string>"
  },
  "works_api_url": "<string>",
  "created_date": "2023-12-25",
  "updated_date": "2023-11-07T05:31:56Z"
}

{
  "error": "<string>",
  "message": "<string>"
}

{
  "error": "<string>",
  "message": "<string>"
}

Authorizations

api_key · string · query · required

Your OpenAlex API key. Get a free key at https://openalex.org/settings/api

Path Parameters

id · string · required

OpenAlex ID (e.g., A5023888391) or ORCID

Query Parameters

select · string

Comma-separated list of fields to return. Reduces response size. Example: select=id,display_name,cited_by_count

api_key · string · required

Your OpenAlex API key (required). Get a free key at https://openalex.org/settings/api

Response

200

application/json

Successful response

A person who creates scholarly works

id · string

The OpenAlex ID for this author.

Example:

"https://openalex.org/A5023888391"

orcid · string | null

The ORCID ID for this author. This is the Canonical External ID for authors.

display_name · string

The name of the author as a single string.

display_name_alternatives · string[]

Other ways this author's name has been displayed.

longest_name · string

The longest name variant found for this author across all their works.

parsed_longest_name · object

The longest name parsed into its component parts.

Show child attributes

works_count · integer

The number of works this author has created.

cited_by_count · integer

The total number of works that cite a work this author has created.

summary_stats · object

Citation metrics:

Show child attributes

affiliations · object[]

List of affiliations this author has claimed in their publications. Each object has:

Show child attributes

last_known_institutions · object[]

This author's last known institutional affiliations. Each item is a dehydrated Institution object.

Show child attributes

topics · object[]

Show child attributes

counts_by_year · object[]

works_count and cited_by_count for each of the last ten years.

Show child attributes

ids · object

External identifiers:

Show child attributes

works_api_url · string

A URL that will get you a list of all this author's works.

created_date · string<date>

When this author was added to OpenAlex (ISO 8601 date).

updated_date · string<date-time>

When this author was last updated (ISO 8601 datetime).