OpenCitations Scraper
Citation graph by DOI from 1.6B open citation links
What it does
Given a DOI, retrieve all citing papers and cited references from OpenCitations' 1.6 billion citation links. Build citation networks and map research influence. Pairs with the Crossref scraper. No API key required.
Built in
- ✓ Citing papers and cited references by DOI
- ✓ 1.6B open citation links
- ✓ Build citation networks and influence maps
- ✓ Pairs with Crossref and OpenAlex
- ✓ Empty results are never charged
Guides & tutorials
Five Scholarly Databases in One Call: OpenAlex, Crossref, arXiv, PubMed and OpenCitations
One call across OpenAlex, Crossref, arXiv, PubMed and OpenCitations: works, preprints, biomedical abstracts, citation graphs, and every output field.
arXiv Scraper: Search AI, Physics, and Biology Preprints with PDF Links via API
Search arXiv preprints by keyword, category, or author. Returns title, abstract, authors, categories, and PDF links. Track AI research before peer review. No API key required.
NIH RePORTER API: Search Grant Funding, Award Amounts, and Principal Investigators
Search NIH grant awards by topic, agency, institution, or state. Returns project title, abstract, award amount, and PI data for research funding intelligence. No API key required.
Related scrapers
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OpenAlex Scholarly Works
250M+ research papers, authors, and citations as structured JSON
Crossref Scraper
150M+ scholarly works, DOIs, and citation metadata
Google Trends Scraper
Interest over time, regional breakdown, and related queries
Common questions
What do I pass in? +
A DOI. The actor returns the papers citing it and the references it cites, drawn from the OpenCitations index.
How large is the underlying index? +
Roughly 1.6 billion open citation links, which is what makes it usable for building networks rather than one off lookups.
Do I need an API key? +
No. OpenCitations is open data and the actor needs no key and no account.
What can I build with it? +
Citation networks and influence maps for a field, an author or a journal. It pairs with the Crossref and OpenAlex scrapers when you also need bibliographic metadata.
What does it cost? +
Pay per citation returned. A DOI that resolves to no citations is never charged.
Are citations complete for every DOI? +
No. OpenCitations indexes what publishers have opened up, so coverage is strong for open access and mixed for closed venues. Treat it as a large open sample rather than a census.
Can I walk the graph outward? +
Yes. Feed the DOIs returned by one run back in as the next input to expand a network one hop at a time.
Try it on Apify.
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