Get a single subfield

Retrieve a single subfield by its ID.

GET /subfields/{id}

Get a single subfield

cURL

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

import requests

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

response = requests.get(url)

print(response.text)

const options = {method: 'GET'};

fetch('https://api.openalex.org/subfields/{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/subfields/{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/subfields/{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/subfields/{id}?api_key=")
  .asString();

require 'uri'
require 'net/http'

url = URI("https://api.openalex.org/subfields/{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/subfields/1702",
  "display_name": "<string>",
  "description": "<string>",
  "display_name_alternatives": [
    "<string>"
  ],
  "field": {
    "id": "<string>",
    "display_name": "<string>"
  },
  "domain": {
    "id": "<string>",
    "display_name": "<string>"
  },
  "topics": [
    {
      "id": "<string>",
      "display_name": "<string>"
    }
  ],
  "siblings": [
    {
      "id": "<string>",
      "display_name": "<string>"
    }
  ],
  "ids": {
    "openalex": "<string>",
    "wikidata": "<string>",
    "wikipedia": "<string>"
  },
  "works_count": 123,
  "cited_by_count": 123,
  "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

Subfield ID (e.g., 1702 for Artificial Intelligence)

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

Third-level category in the topic hierarchy (254 total)

id · string

The OpenAlex ID for this subfield.

Example:

"https://openalex.org/subfields/1702"

display_name · string

The English-language label of the subfield.

description · string

A description of this subfield.

display_name_alternatives · string[]

Alternate names for this subfield.

field · object

The field containing this subfield (parent level).

Show child attributes

domain · object

The domain containing this subfield (top level of hierarchy).

Show child attributes

topics · object[]

The topics within this subfield. Each object has id and display_name.

Show child attributes

siblings · object[]

Other subfields at the same level (across all fields). Each object has id and display_name.

Show child attributes

ids · object

External identifiers:

Show child attributes

works_count · integer

The number of works tagged with topics in this subfield.

cited_by_count · integer

Total citations to works in this subfield.

works_api_url · string

A URL that returns all works tagged with this subfield.

created_date · string<date>

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

updated_date · string<date-time>

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