openalex-local 0.3.0

Local OpenAlex database with 284M+ works, abstracts, and semantic search

OpenAlex Local

Local OpenAlex database with 284M+ scholarly works, abstracts, and semantic search.

Why OpenAlex Local?

Built for the LLM era - features that matter for AI research assistants:

Feature	Benefit
📚 284M Works	More coverage than CrossRef
📝 Abstracts	~45-60% availability for semantic search
🏷️ Concepts & Topics	Built-in classification
👤 Author Disambiguation	Linked to institutions
🔓 Open Access Info	OA status and URLs

Perfect for: RAG systems, research assistants, literature review automation.

Installation

pip install openalex-local

From source:

git clone https://github.com/ywatanabe1989/openalex-local
cd openalex-local && make install

Database setup (~300 GB, ~1-2 days to build):

# Check system status
make status

# 1. Download OpenAlex Works snapshot (~300GB)
make download-screen  # runs in background

# 2. Build SQLite database
make build-db

# 3. Build FTS5 index
make build-fts

Python API

from openalex_local import search, get, count

# Full-text search (title + abstract)
results = search("machine learning neural networks")
for work in results:
    print(f"{work.title} ({work.year})")
    print(f"  Abstract: {work.abstract[:200]}...")
    print(f"  Concepts: {[c['name'] for c in work.concepts]}")

# Get by OpenAlex ID or DOI
work = get("W2741809807")
work = get("10.1038/nature12373")

# Count matches
n = count("CRISPR")

CLI

openalex-local search "CRISPR genome editing" -n 5
openalex-local get W2741809807
openalex-local get 10.1038/nature12373
openalex-local count "machine learning"

Related Projects

crossref-local - Sister project with CrossRef data:

Feature	crossref-local	openalex-local
Works	167M	284M
Abstracts	~21%	~45-60%
Update frequency	Real-time	Monthly
DOI authority	✓ (source)	Uses CrossRef
Citations	Raw references	Linked works
Concepts/Topics	❌	✓
Author IDs	❌	✓
Best for	DOI lookup, raw refs	Semantic search

When to use CrossRef: Real-time DOI updates, raw reference parsing, authoritative metadata. When to use OpenAlex: Semantic search, citation analysis, topic discovery.

Data Source

Data from OpenAlex, an open catalog of scholarly works. Updated monthly from their snapshot.

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