Find Open-Access Papers with OpenAlex

Open-access discovery helps researchers find reachable versions of scholarly work, but access status, landing pages, PDFs, and reuse rights are different concepts. The OpenAlex Research Scraper exposes those fields without collapsing them into one assumption.

Apply the access filter

Combine a research topic, year range, and openAccessOnly switch.

{
  "queries": ["renewable energy storage"],
  "fromPublicationYear": 2024,
  "toPublicationYear": 2026,
  "openAccessOnly": true,
  "maxResultsPerQuery": 100
}

Inspect the returned open_access object, landing page, and PDF URL separately. Some records have an accessible repository copy but no direct PDF in the primary location. Others link to a publisher page that describes access conditions.

Verify access and reuse

Open important links and confirm they resolve. A URL captured today can later move or require a session. Preserve DOI and OpenAlex ID so the work can be rediscovered.

Open access does not automatically grant every reuse. Check the license on the publisher or repository page before redistributing full text, training a model, or republishing figures. The Actor collects metadata and links rather than downloading article content.

For a reading feed, save the input as a Task and schedule it. Deduplicate on OpenAlex ID and flag newly seen works. Keep publication date and collection time distinct: an older work can enter the feed after metadata changes. Review titles and abstracts for topical relevance, and treat missing PDFs or abstracts as missing evidence rather than negative evidence. Report the exact query and years so colleagues can reproduce the discovery set.