Semantic Scholar API

Semantic Scholar indexes 200M+ papers across all academic fields with AI-powered features: citation context, influential citations, TLDRs, and paper recommendations.

Base URLs

https://api.semanticscholar.org/graph/v1       (Academic Graph)
https://api.semanticscholar.org/recommendations/v1  (Recommendations)

Authentication

• Without key: Shared rate pool (frequently hits 429 errors). Works but unreliable.
• With key: 1 req/sec per key (higher on request).
• Header: x-api-key: YOUR_KEY
• Get a free key at: https://www.semanticscholar.org/product/api#api-key-form

The fields Parameter

Almost every endpoint accepts fields -- a comma-separated list (no spaces) of fields to include. Without it, you only get paperId + title.

Paper fields: paperId, corpusId, externalIds, url, title, abstract, venue, publicationVenue, year, referenceCount, citationCount, influentialCitationCount, isOpenAccess, openAccessPdf, fieldsOfStudy, s2FieldsOfStudy, publicationTypes, publicationDate, journal, authors, citations, references, tldr, embedding

Author fields: authorId, externalIds, url, name, affiliations, homepage, paperCount, citationCount, hIndex, papers

Paper ID Formats

The {paper_id} parameter accepts:

• 649def34f8be52c8b66281af98ae884c09aef38b (S2 hash)
• CorpusId:215416146
• DOI:10.1038/s41586-021-03819-2
• ARXIV:2005.14165
• PMID:19872477
• PMCID:2323736
• ACL:W12-3903

Key Endpoints

1. Paper search (relevance)

GET /graph/v1/paper/search?query={text}&fields={fields}&offset={n}&limit={n}

Max 1,000 results accessible via offset.

Example:

https://api.semanticscholar.org/graph/v1/paper/search?query=CRISPR+gene+therapy&fields=title,year,abstract,citationCount,authors,openAccessPdf&limit=10&year=2023-2024

2. Paper bulk search (boolean queries, large result sets)

GET /graph/v1/paper/search/bulk?query={text}&fields={fields}&sort={field}:{order}&token={token}

• Supports boolean operators: + (AND), | (OR), - (NOT), "..." (phrase), * (wildcard), () (grouping)
• Token-based pagination (up to 10M papers)
• Returns up to 1,000 per call
• Sortable: citationCount:desc, publicationDate:desc, paperId:asc

3. Paper details (by ID)

GET /graph/v1/paper/{paper_id}?fields={fields}

Example:

https://api.semanticscholar.org/graph/v1/paper/DOI:10.1038/s41586-021-03819-2?fields=title,year,abstract,citationCount,referenceCount,isOpenAccess,openAccessPdf,authors,tldr

Response:

{
  "paperId": "dc32a984b651256a8ec282be52310e6bd33d9815",
  "title": "Highly accurate protein structure prediction with AlphaFold",
  "year": 2021,
  "citationCount": 34260,
  "isOpenAccess": true,
  "openAccessPdf": {"url": "https://...pdf", "status": "HYBRID"},
  "tldr": {"text": "This work develops AlphaFold, a system that..."},
  "authors": [{"authorId": "47921134", "name": "J. Jumper"}, ...]
}

4. Paper citations

GET /graph/v1/paper/{paper_id}/citations?fields={fields}&offset={n}&limit={n}

Returns papers that cite this paper. limit max 1000.

Citation-specific fields: contexts, intents, isInfluential

5. Paper references

GET /graph/v1/paper/{paper_id}/references?fields={fields}&offset={n}&limit={n}

Returns papers cited by this paper. Same pagination as citations.

6. Paper title match

GET /graph/v1/paper/search/match?query={exact title}&fields={fields}

Returns single best match with matchScore. 404 if no match.

7. Author search

GET /graph/v1/author/search?query={name}&fields={fields}&offset={n}&limit={n}

8. Author details

GET /graph/v1/author/{author_id}?fields={fields}

9. Author's papers

GET /graph/v1/author/{author_id}/papers?fields={fields}&offset={n}&limit={n}

10. Paper recommendations

GET /recommendations/v1/papers/forpaper/{paper_id}?fields={fields}&limit={n}&from={pool}

from: recent (default) or all-cs. limit max 500.

11. Multi-paper recommendations (POST)

POST /recommendations/v1/papers/
Content-Type: application/json

{
  "positivePaperIds": ["paperId1", "paperId2"],
  "negativePaperIds": ["paperId3"]
}

12. Paper batch (POST)

POST /graph/v1/paper/batch?fields={fields}
Content-Type: application/json

{"ids": ["DOI:10.1038/nature12373", "ARXIV:2005.14165"]}

Max 500 IDs per request.

Pagination

Publication Types

Review, JournalArticle, CaseReport, ClinicalTrial, Conference, Dataset, Editorial, LettersAndComments, MetaAnalysis, News, Study, Book, BookSection

Fields of Study

Computer Science, Medicine, Chemistry, Biology, Materials Science, Physics, Geology, Psychology, Art, History, Geography, Sociology, Business, Political Science, Economics, Philosophy, Mathematics, Engineering, Environmental Science, Agricultural and Food Sciences, Education, Law, Linguistics

Error Format

{"message": "Too Many Requests", "code": "429"}

HTTP 404 for not found, 429 for rate limit.