Search OpenAlex for peer-reviewed academic literature on petroleum engineering, geochemistry, critical minerals, produced water treatment, direct lithium extraction, hydraulic fracturing, and related topics. Use this skill when the user asks to find journal articles, academic papers, citations, or research literature on any topic related to petroleum engineering or geoscience. Trigger for phrases like "find papers on direct lithium extraction", "academic literature on produced water treatment", "citations for Marcellus Shale research", "who has published on DLE from brines", "peer-reviewed papers on hydraulic fracturing chemicals", "open access articles on critical mineral supply chains", "recent publications on wellbore stability", or any request for academic or research literature. Covers 250 million-plus works across all disciplines with full open-access PDFs where available. Produces citation tables with abstracts and DOI links.
Searches OpenAlex — a free, open index of 250M+ scholarly works — for peer-reviewed publications on petroleum engineering, geochemistry, and critical minerals topics.
No API key required. The OpenAlex API is fully public.
Polite pool (recommended): Include a mailto: address in the User-Agent
header for faster responses and higher rate limits (100k requests/day vs
10/second throttle):
-H "User-Agent: OpenAlexClient/1.0 (mailto:[email protected])"
Base URL: https://api.openalex.org
| Endpoint | What It Returns |
|---|---|
/works |
| Publications: articles, books, theses, conference papers |
/authors | Author profiles with publication counts and h-index |
/sources | Journals and repositories |
/concepts | Controlled vocabulary topic tags |
/institutions | Institutional affiliations |
Map user intent to OpenAlex search parameters:
| User Intent | Query Strategy |
|---|---|
| Topic keyword search | ?search=direct+lithium+extraction |
| Title-specific search | ?filter=title.search:produced+water |
| Open access only | Add filter=open_access.is_oa:true |
| Recent papers | Add filter=publication_year:>2019 |
| Specific journal | Add filter=primary_location.source.display_name:Desalination |
| By author | ?filter=author.display_name:smith+lithium |
| Most cited | Add sort=cited_by_count:desc |
# Basic keyword search, sorted by citation count
curl -s "https://api.openalex.org/works?search=direct+lithium+extraction+produced+water&per-page=10&sort=cited_by_count:desc" \
-H "User-Agent: OpenAlexClient/1.0 (mailto:[email protected])"
# Filtered: open access papers after 2019
curl -s "https://api.openalex.org/works?search=Marcellus+shale+lithium&filter=open_access.is_oa:true,publication_year:>2019&per-page=10&sort=cited_by_count:desc" \
-H "User-Agent: OpenAlexClient/1.0 (mailto:[email protected])"
# Multiple filters with comma separation
curl -s "https://api.openalex.org/works?filter=title.search:produced+water+treatment,publication_year:>2020&per-page=15&sort=publication_date:desc" \
-H "User-Agent: OpenAlexClient/1.0 (mailto:[email protected])"
{
"meta": {"count": 1247, "page": 1, "per_page": 10},
"results": [
{
"id": "https://openalex.org/W2741809807",
"doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.watres.2020.116198",
"title": "Lithium recovery from produced water: A review",
"display_name": "Lithium recovery from produced water: A review",
"publication_year": 2020,
"publication_date": "2020-09-15",
"primary_location": {
"source": {"display_name": "Water Research", "issn_l": "0043-1354"}
},
"authorships": [
{"author": {"display_name": "Jane Smith"}, "institutions": [{"display_name": "WVU"}]}
],
"cited_by_count": 312,
"open_access": {"is_oa": true, "oa_url": "https://example.com/paper.pdf"},
"abstract_inverted_index": {"Lithium": [0], "recovery": [1], "from": [2]},
"concepts": [{"display_name": "Lithium", "score": 0.95}]
}
]
}
OpenAlex stores abstracts as an inverted index {word: [positions]}.
Reconstruct by sorting positions:
import json
def reconstruct_abstract(inverted_index):
if not inverted_index:
return "(abstract not available)"
word_positions = []
for word, positions in inverted_index.items():
for pos in positions:
word_positions.append((pos, word))
word_positions.sort(key=lambda x: x[0])
return " ".join(w for _, w in word_positions)
Format as citation table with narrative summary.
## Literature Search Results: Direct Lithium Extraction from Produced Water
**Search query:** "direct lithium extraction produced water"
**Total results in OpenAlex:** 1,247
**Showing:** Top 10 by citation count
| Title | Authors | Year | Journal | Citations | OA |
|-------|---------|------|---------|-----------|-----|
| Lithium recovery from produced water: A review | Smith et al. | 2020 | Water Research | 312 | Yes |
| DLE sorbent performance in high-TDS brines | Jones & Liu | 2021 | Desalination | 187 | No |
**Key Themes:** Research on DLE from produced water clusters around three