Apify

Academic Paper Search: Crossref & PubMed Metadata

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Price: $0.10 per 1,000 papers, flat on every Apify plan, no start fee. Free-plan cap: up to 100 papers per run on the Apify Free plan. Prices checked on 2026-10-15.

Academic Paper Search runs one keyword search across Crossref and PubMed and returns one metadata row per paper, with links back to the source.

It returns metadata and links only. Copyright stays with publishers and authors.

Who it is for

Researchers, librarians, analysts and developers who need paper metadata from more than one database in a single run.

  • Build a reading list for a topic from Crossref and PubMed at once.
  • Collect DOIs and PMIDs for a literature review.
  • Track new papers on a keyword with a scheduled run.
  • Feed paper metadata into a search index or dashboard.

Inputs

Field Type Required Description
query string Yes Keywords to search for in paper metadata.
sources array of strings No crossref and/or pubmed. Defaults to both. arXiv is coming soon.
maxResultsPerSource integer No Maximum papers returned and charged from each source, 1 to 1,000. Defaults to 20.

Example input

{
  "query": "large language models",
  "sources": ["crossref", "pubmed"],
  "maxResultsPerSource": 10
}

Example output

Sample records for shape only. They are not a live response.

[
  {
    "type": "paper",
    "source": "crossref",
    "title": "...",
    "authors": ["A. Author", "B. Author"],
    "published": "2026-...",
    "venue": "...",
    "doi": "10....",
    "url": "https://doi.org/10...."
  }
]

Price

$0.10 per 1,000 papers

Free-plan cap: Up to 100 papers per run on the Apify Free plan

Billing happens on Apify, not on this website.

Limits

  • Up to 100 papers per run on the Apify Free plan.
  • One row per paper per source. Papers found in both sources are not merged.
  • arXiv is not available yet. Selecting it returns one free service-busy row.

What it does not do

  • It does not download or return abstracts, full text or PDFs. Metadata and links only.
  • It does not filter by date or sort results.
  • It does not look up a list of DOIs or PMIDs.

FAQ

What counts as a result?

One paper row from one source.

Do I pay when nothing matches?

No. You get one free no-results row. Busy or failed sources are free too.

Where does the data come from?

From the official Crossref REST API and NCBI E-utilities for PubMed.

Is there a start fee?

No. You pay only the flat price per result.

Run it on Apify