myADS

myADS is a lightweight Python package to track citations to your (or others') research papers via the NASA ADS API.

It helps you:

• Report an author's current citation stats with author position and publication IDs
• Detect new or updated citations since the last check
• Find missing papers with deep search (any author position)
• Search for any author's publications without database tracking
• Maintain a local, efficient database for fast querying

Installation

Install from PyPI with:

pip install myads

Or install from source:

git clone https://github.com/stuartmcalpine/myADS.git
cd myADS
pip install .

Getting Started

No manual database setup needed — it initializes automatically at $HOME/myADS_database.db the first time you run a command.

1. Add Your ADS API Token

First, get your token here.

Then add it:

myads add-token YOUR-ADS-API-TOKEN

2. Add Authors to Track

Add an author by their name:

myads add-author "FirstName" "LastName" --orcid ORCID-ID

About ORCID:

• Optional but highly recommended to avoid name ambiguity
• Enables tracking papers at any author position (where ORCID is attached in ADS)
• Without ORCID, only first-author papers are tracked by default

Example:

myads add-author "Jane" "Doe" --orcid 0000-0002-1825-0097

You can list authors you've added:

myads list-authors

Remove an author:

myads remove-author AUTHOR_ID

(Find AUTHOR_ID by listing authors.)

Usage

Check for New Citations

myads check

• Checks for any new or updated citations to your tracked papers
• You can target a specific author:

myads check --author-id 1

• See more detail (including updated citations):

myads check --verbose

• Deep check to find co-authored papers not captured by ORCID search (uses name matching):

myads check --deep --author-id 1

This finds papers where the author appears at any position but the ORCID isn't attached in ADS, or for authors without ORCID who want to track co-authored work. You'll be prompted to confirm each candidate paper. Papers you reject are remembered, so you won't be asked again. To reset this memory:

myads clear-rejected --author-id 1

Note: During myads check, you may be prompted to remove papers that exist in your local database but are no longer found in ADS results. This typically happens when author metadata is corrected in ADS, ORCIDs are updated, or papers are retracted. Answer 'n' to keep the paper if you know it's yours, or use myads ignore to exclude it from tracking.

Generate a Citation Report

myads report

• Displays a report with:
  • Publication ID (for ignoring papers)
  • Author position (1st, 2nd, Last, etc.)
  • Total citations
  • Recent citations (last 90 days)
  • Citations per year
  • Publication year
  • Direct ADS links

You can generate a report for a specific author:

myads report --author-id 1

For a detailed per-paper breakdown including a quarterly citation timeline, use --extended:

myads report --extended

Ignore Publications

Mark conference proceedings, theses, or other papers you don't want to track:

myads ignore PUBLICATION_ID --reason "conference proceedings"

View ignored papers:

myads list-ignored

Restore tracking:

myads unignore PUBLICATION_ID

Search Without Tracking

Search for any author's publications without adding them to your database:

myads search "Jane" "Doe"

Options:

• --orcid ORCID-ID - Restrict results to papers matching both ORCID and author name (AND logic)
• --first-author-only - Restrict to first author papers only
• --format {table,json,csv} - Output format
• --max-rows N - Number of results (default: 100)

Example:

myads search "Jane" "Doe" --orcid 0000-0002-1825-0097 --format csv > output.csv

Command Overview

How it Works

Local Database: myADS uses an SQLite database to track publications, citations, and authors. This approach efficiently updates data and minimizes API calls.

Smart Citation Metrics:

• Recent citations are based on citing papers published in the last 90 days
• Citations per year are computed dynamically
• H-index is estimated automatically
• Author position is determined from the full author list

Deep Search: Default tracking behavior depends on ORCID: with ORCID, myADS tracks papers at any author position (where ORCID is attached in ADS) plus first-author papers by name; without ORCID, only first-author papers are tracked. Use --deep to find additional co-authored papers not captured by ORCID search, with interactive confirmation to avoid false matches.

Automatic Resilience:

• Auto-handles expired ADS tokens
• Auto-creates the database if it doesn't exist

Tips

• Adding ORCIDs enables tracking at any author position (not just first author) and avoids name ambiguity
• Use --deep periodically to catch co-authored papers where ORCID wasn't properly linked in ADS
• Ignore conference proceedings or other non-article publications to clean up your reports
• Use myads search to quickly check someone's work without adding them to your database
• Set up a cron job or scheduled task to run myads check weekly
• You can track multiple authors — perfect for research groups

Troubleshooting

Database Location

By default, myADS stores its database at:

• ~/.local/share/myads/database.db (XDG spec, recommended)
• ~/myADS_database.db (legacy location, if it already exists)

Customize location:

# Using environment variable
export MYADS_DATABASE_PATH=/custom/path/myads.db
myads check

# Using command-line flag
myads --db-path /custom/path/myads.db check

For development:

pip install -e ".[dev]"  # Install with dev dependencies (pytest, black, ruff, mypy)
pip install -e ".[viz]"  # Install with visualization dependencies for notebooks

Running tests:

pytest tests/        # Run all tests
pytest tests/ -v     # Verbose output

No Publications Found

If myads check or myads search returns no results:

With ORCID:

• Verify your ORCID is correct on orcid.org
• Check that ADS has linked your ORCID to your papers
• Verify name spelling matches ADS records
• Try --deep to find papers without ORCID metadata

Without ORCID:

• Only first-author papers are tracked by default
• Add an ORCID for better coverage
• Use --deep to search all author positions
• Check name spelling and format (e.g., "Last, First")

Paper Removal Prompts

During myads check, you may be prompted to remove papers not found in current ADS results.

Common causes:

• Author metadata corrected in ADS (name spelling changed)
• ORCID associations updated or removed
• Paper retracted or moved to different collection
• Your search criteria changed (e.g., added ORCID)

What to do:

• Answer 'n' to keep the paper if you know it's yours
• Use myads ignore <pub_id> to keep but exclude from tracking
• Answer 'y' to remove if it was incorrectly added

Rate Limits

ADS API has daily rate limits. If you hit the limit:

• Reduce --max-rows to fetch fewer results
• Wait 24 hours for limit reset
• Check remaining calls: the tool displays this after each run

Disclaimer

This tool queries the NASA/ADS database under fair-use API limits. Make sure you have appropriate permissions and token access.

License

MIT License.

Made for astronomers and researchers by Stuart McAlpine.