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OpenAlex: what is it and how do we use it?

Authors: Josephine Hartwig und Sebastian Schmidt

The number of scientific publications has been continuously increasing for years (https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2309.15884). As a result, both researchers and the assessment of scholarly work are faced with new challenges. OpenAlex (https://openalex.org/), as an open data source, provides an approach to maintaining an overview of the growing number of scientific articles, conference papers, and collected volumes. In order to help these vital services the Sachsenkonsortium (consortium of Saxony) coordinated by the Saxon State and University Library (SLUB Dresden) continues to support OpenAlex.

Source: Wikimedia (Logo, MIT-Lizenz, OurResearch) 

OpenAlex enables the analysis of relationships between research contributions across various research fields and institutions. For scientists and scholars, as well as for universities, it is becoming increasingly time-consuming to keep track of the current literature, given the steadily rising number of research contributions.

Vast amounts of data for analysis

OpenAlex collects, processes, and provides data on scientific publications, authors, research institutions, and funders under a free license. This allows institutions like libraries to comprehensively investigate trends and connections among scholarly publications. To this end, OpenAlex gathers information from a growing number of sources and makes them available through a user-friendly search interface, as well as via programming interfaces and data exports. Researchers and university administrators can thus conduct analyses to inform decisions, for example when appointing professors or allocating funds to faculties. Furthermore, the insights gained can be used for retrospective evaluations of the development of research findings, such as through literature searches or citation analyses.

OpenAlex: openly licenced

In contrast to major commercial research databases like Web of Science and Scopus, which are costly to use, operate under restrictive licenses and limit both accessibility and traceability, OpenAlex is free of charge and openly licensed. Research funders, foundations, and scholarly institutions jointly finance its operation and further development by supporting work packages and becoming members (https://open-access-brandenburg.de/open-access-basics-was-ist-openalex/).

OpenAlex plays an especially important role in the context of open-access publications: When articles are published openly, authors often incur publication fees. In collaboration with TU Dresden, the SLUB Dresden manages a publication fund to cover such costs. OpenAlex is employed in this context to provide transparency regarding the amount of publication fees. In 2023 the Sachsenkonsortium including SLUB Dresden has financed the integration of OpenAPC-data in OpenAlex. In this way, not only research performance but also the financial effort required to disseminate scientific knowledge can be more effectively assessed and managed.

Source: OpenAlex-Dokumentation (Graph, MIT-License, OurResearch)

The Utilization of OpenAlex at SLUB Dresden and Beyond

The SLUB Dresden actively engages with OpenAlex at various levels. We have elected to utilize OpenAlex as data source for our analyses, with the ultimate goal of expanding its usage and thereby reducing our reliance on commercial databases. Our intention is to make OpenAlex the primary data source for our operations.

The Growing Adoption of OpenAlex

Other institutions and projects are increasingly adopting OpenAlex as an open-source data source as well. The OA Monitor, for instance, is gradually transitioning to utilize OpenAlex and has set a target to completely eliminate its reliance on commercial data providers by 2029. Similarly, the German Competence Network for Bibliometrics has expressed its intention to exclusively utilize OpenAlex as its data source in the future.

The Development of OpenAlex

The OpenAlex team is remarkably user-centric and responsive to the needs of the community, including libraries and other institutions. As a result, the team is able to rapidly implement changes and updates in response to user feedback. OpenAlex is continuously evolving, with its data schema undergoing significant improvements since its inception in 2022. Initially, the schema lacked affiliations, but due to the high demand, this was promptly addressed. The team has since implemented automated data enrichment and has continued to refine the project. The ability to incorporate raw data into objects is a testament to the ongoing development and improvement of OpenAlex.

The OpenAlex Team’s Commitment to Excellence

The OpenAlex team demonstrates an exemplary error culture, with data cleansing and metadata quality improvement being ongoing priorities. Even with large datasets, data cleansing is expedited, and the team’s commitment to enhancing metadata quality is evident at all times.

Financial contribution to OpenAlex

To further support OpenAlex and intensify our collaboration, the Sachsenkonsortium coordinated by SLUB Dresden has provided financial support to OpenAlex for the second time. We are delighted with the excellent working relationship and hope that our contribution will facilitate further development and improvement of OpenAlex.


OpenEdition schlägt Ihnen vor, diesen Beitrag wie folgt zu zitieren:
Redakteur (21. Januar 2025). OpenAlex: what is it and how do we use it? SLUB Open Science Lab. Abgerufen am 16. Juli 2025 von https://doi.org/10.58079/13433


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