Search papers, grants, and
researcher profiles at scale
ApifyForge helps researchers and librarians build literature review datasets by searching PubMed, OpenAlex, and Semantic Scholar in batch. Best for systematic reviews requiring cross-database deduplication of 500-5,000 papers. Less suitable when you need full-text PDFs or citation graph analysis. Costs $0.05 per query.
The problem
Literature reviews require searching multiple databases — PubMed, Google Scholar, Semantic Scholar, ORCID — and manually tracking results. A systematic review of 500+ papers takes weeks of searching, deduplicating, and organising.
The solution
Apify actors search academic databases programmatically. PubMed for biomedical literature. OpenAlex for cross-discipline papers. Semantic Scholar for AI-powered relevance. ORCID for researcher profiles. Run batch queries, deduplicate results, and export structured datasets for systematic reviews.
How it works
Define search criteria
Specify your keywords, date ranges, journals, and inclusion/exclusion criteria — just like a systematic review protocol.
Search across databases
Run PubMed, OpenAlex, and Semantic Scholar actors with the same queries. Each returns structured data: title, authors, abstract, citations, DOI.
Deduplicate and merge
Export results from all sources, deduplicate by DOI, and merge into a master dataset. Flag papers appearing in multiple databases for higher confidence.
Analyse and visualise
Import into reference managers via CSV, or feed into bibliometric analysis tools. Use citation counts to identify seminal papers and trends.
Actors we recommend
These Apify actors are listed on ApifyForge with real-time pricing, usage stats, and quality scores.
PubMed Evidence Triage — Grade, Dedupe & Decide
Turn a PubMed search into a decision-ready evidence map. Grades every result on the clinical evidence hierarchy, flags retractions, groups papers from the same trial into evidence units, ranks what to read first, and detects guidelines. Deterministic, free NCBI API, no key needed.
OpenAlex Research Paper Search
Search 250M+ academic papers, journal articles & scholarly works via OpenAlex API. Filter by keyword, publication year, citation count & open access. Returns authors, affiliations, DOI, concepts. Free API key from openalex.org.
Semantic Scholar Paper Search
Search and extract data from 200M+ academic papers via Semantic Scholar API. Filter by keyword, year, venue, field of study, citation count, and open access. Returns titles, abstracts, AI summaries (TLDR), authors, DOIs, ArXiv IDs, and PDF links. No API key required.
ORCID Researcher Profile Search
Search the ORCID registry for academic researcher profiles by name, affiliation, or keyword. Extract structured data including employment history, education, publications, DOIs, emails, and external IDs via the ORCID public API. No API key required.
Academic Research Brief — Multi-Source Paper Search
Search DBLP, OpenAlex, Semantic Scholar & Crossref in one query. Returns a ranked, deduplicated research brief with citation scores, clusters, BibTeX, RIS exports & cross-run trend monitoring. No API key.
What does it cost?
Searching 50 queries across 3 databases costs $2-5 in PPE charges. A full systematic review dataset of 2,000 papers: $10-25. Monthly monitoring: $5-10.
Estimate your cost →Useful tools
Ready to get started?
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