scholarimpact 0.0.14rc191779004803

A bibliometric tool to analyse, visualise, and share your research impact, output and scholarly influence using Google Scholar and OpenAlex data

ScholarImpact

A bibliometric tool to analyse, visualise, and share your research impact, output and scholarly influence using Google Scholar and OpenAlex data.

For each article under your Google Scholar Profile, ScholarImpact: (1) total number of citations, (2) number of unique authors who have cited the article, (3) number of countries from which citations originate, (4) number of institutions from which citations originate, (5) geographic distribution of citations, (6) citation trends over time, (7) research domain analysis, (8) interdisciplinary impact Metrics including Patents and Wikipedia mentions (9) Alternative metrics.

Workflow Overview

This workflow first extracts author data from your Google Scholar profile and optionally enriches it with OpenAlex and Altmetric data. Then it sources citations for each article under your Google Scholar profile. Next workflow enriches them with information using Google Scholar profiles of citing authors and/or OpenAlex APIs. Finally, output data is used to present your impact of your research with geographic and institutional insights.

flowchart TD
    A[Your Google Scholar Profile] --> B[Your Articles]
    B --> C[OpenAlex API]
    B --> D[Altmetric API]
    C --> E[Enhanced Scholar Data]
    D --> E[Enhanced Scholar Data]
    
    style A fill:#0ea5e9,stroke:#0ea5e9,color:#ffffff
    style C fill:#059669,stroke:#059669,color:#ffffff
    style D fill:#059669,stroke:#059669,color:#ffffff
    style E fill:#ecebe3,stroke:#ecebe3,color:#3d3a2a

flowchart TD
    A[Enhanced Scholar Data] --> B[Your Articles]
    B --> C[Citing Articles]
    B --> F[OpenAlex API]
    C --> D[Enhanced Citation Data]
    D --> E[Streamlit Dashboard]
    
    C --> F[OpenAlex API]
    C --> G[Google Scholar Profiles of citing Authors]
    F --> D
    G --> D
    
    F -.-> H[Author Affiliations]
    F -.-> I[Country Codes]
    F -.-> J[Research Domains]
    G -.-> K[Verified Email Domain]
    G -.-> L[Profile Details including Affiliations]
    
    H --> D
    I --> D
    J --> D
    K --> D
    L --> D
    
    style A fill:#ecebe3,stroke:#ecebe3,color:#3d3a2a
    style E fill:#cb785c,stroke:#cb785c,color:#ffffff
    style F fill:#059669,stroke:#059669,color:#ffffff
    style G fill:#fbbf24,stroke:#fbbf24,color:#3d3a2a
    style D fill:#ecebe3,stroke:#ecebe3,color:#3d3a2a

Quick Start

Prerequisites

Install

pip install scholarimpact

Caution

This system is designed for academic research purposes and personal usage. Please use responsibly and in accordance with Google Scholar, OpenAlex, Altmetric terms of services with appropriate attribution.

Breaking Changes (v0.0.13+)

API Key Requirements

As of version v0.0.13+, both OpenAlex and Altmetric now require API keys. This is a breaking change from previous versions.

What Changed:

OpenAlex:

• Previous: Email-based authentication with --openalex-email flag
• Current: API key-based authentication with --openalex-api-key option
• Impact: OpenAlex enrichment now requires an API key

Altmetric:

• Previous: Altmetric worked with just --use-altmetric flag (public API)
• Current: Altmetric requires API key with --altmetric-api-key option
• Impact: Altmetric enrichment now requires an explicit API key

Getting API Keys

OpenAlex API Key

OpenAlex data is and will remain available at no cost. The API is a freemium service:

• $1 free credit daily - sufficient for most research use cases
• Pay as you go after daily limit - only charged for usage beyond free tier
• No API key required for the free tier (limited rate)
• Free API key - create an account in 30 seconds for higher rate limits

To get your OpenAlex API key:

1. Go to openalex.org/settings/api
2. Create a free account (takes 30 seconds)
3. Copy your API key from the settings page
4. Use it with the --openalex-api-key flag in ScholarImpact commands

Documentation: OpenAlex API Authentication

Altmetric API Key

Altmetric offers free access for university scientometric researchers through their Details Page API - Counts Only, which is optimized for querying publication identifiers.

Features:

• Query by DOI, PMID, or other identifiers
• Returns publication attention metrics (citations, social media mentions, etc.)
• Free access available for university researchers

To get Altmetric API key:

1. Visit Altmetric Research Access
2. Complete the researcher access request form
3. Specify your institution and research project
4. Altmetric will provide your API key
5. Use it with the --altmetric-api-key flag in ScholarImpact commands

Documentation: Altmetric Details Page API - Counts Only

Note: Free university researcher access is available through the research access program. Contact Altmetric for details on eligibility and access.

Step-by-Step Guide

Option 1: For Deployment (Recommended)

This approach creates a standalone project suitable for deployment to Streamlit Cloud or local development.

Step 1: Generate Dashboard Project

# Generate a dashboard project
scholarimpact generate-dashboard --output-dir my-research-dashboard --name app.py

# Navigate to the generated folder
cd my-research-dashboard

This creates a complete project structure with app.py, requirements.txt, .streamlit/config.toml, and a static folder containing fonts used by default theme.

Step 2: Extract Author Publications

# Extract your publications from Google Scholar
scholarimpact extract-author "YOUR_SCHOLAR_USER_ID"

# With OpenAlex API key (required for OpenAlex enrichment and Altmetric)
scholarimpact extract-author "YOUR_SCHOLAR_USER_ID" --openalex-api-key YOUR_API_KEY

# Or use full URL
scholarimpact extract-author "https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=YOUR_SCHOLAR_USER_ID" --openalex-api-key YOUR_API_KEY

This creates data/author.json with your publication list. Add --openalex-api-key to enrich with OpenAlex and Altmetric metrics (API key required).

Step 3: Crawl Citation Data

# Crawl citations with OpenAlex enrichment (API key required)
scholarimpact crawl-citations data/author.json --openalex-api-key YOUR_API_KEY

This creates data/cites-{ID}.json files for each publication.

Step 4: Test Locally

# Run the dashboard locally
streamlit run app.py

# Or alternatively
python app.py

Open http://localhost:8501to view your dashboard.

Step 5: Push your changes to a Github Repository

# Initialize git repository
git init
git add .
git commit -m "Initial research dashboard"

# Create GitHub repository and push
git remote add origin https://github.com/YOUR_USERNAME/YOUR_REPO.git
git branch -M main
git push -u origin main

Step 6: Deploy on Streamlit Cloud

1. Go to share.streamlit.io
2. Click "New app"
3. Connect your GitHub account
4. Select your repository and branch
5. Set main file path: app.py (or your custom name)
6. Click "Deploy"

Step 7: Project Structure for Deployment

Your repository should contain:

my-research-dashboard/
├── app.py                    # Main dashboard file
├── requirements.txt          # Python dependencies
├── Dockerfile                # Docker container configuration
├── docker-compose.yml        # Docker Compose orchestration (optional)
├── .streamlit/
│   └── config.toml          # Streamlit configuration
├── static/                  # Static assets (fonts from scholarimpact/assets/fonts)
│   ├── SpaceGrotesk-SemiBold.ttf
│   ├── SpaceGrotesk-VariableFont_wght.ttf
│   ├── SpaceMono-Regular.ttf
│   ├── SpaceMono-Bold.ttf
│   ├── SpaceMono-Italic.ttf
│   ├── SpaceMono-BoldItalic.ttf
│   └── OFL-*.txt           # Font licenses
└── data/
    ├── author.json          # Author profile data
    └── cites-*.json         # Citation data files

Step 8: Docker Deployment (Alternative to Streamlit Cloud)

The generated project includes Dockerfile and docker-compose.yml for containerized deployment:

Using Docker Compose (Recommended):

# Build and run with Docker Compose
docker-compose up -d

# View logs
docker-compose logs -f

# Stop the service
docker-compose down

Using Docker directly:

# Build the image
docker build -t scholarimpact-dashboard .

# Run the container
docker run -p 8501:8501 scholarimpact-dashboard

# Or run in background
docker run -d -p 8501:8501 scholarimpact-dashboard

Access your dashboard at http://localhost:8501

Step 9: Update Data

To update citation data:

1. Re-run step-2 and step-3 to update data files
2. Commit changes and push them to your GitHub repository
3. For Streamlit Cloud: automatic restart on push
4. For Docker: rebuild and redeploy the container

Tips for Streamlit Cloud Deployment

• Keep data files under 100MB each for optimal performance
• Use .gitignore to exclude unnecessary files
• Set secrets in Streamlit Cloud settings if needed
• Monitor app logs in Streamlit Cloud dashboard for debugging

Tips for Docker Deployment

• Resource limits are configured in docker-compose.yml (1 CPU, 512MB RAM)
• Use environment variables for configuration (see docker-compose.yml)
• For production, update the x-ports section with your domain
• Mount data volume for persistent storage: docker run -v ./data:/app/data -p 8501:8501 scholarimpact-dashboard

Option 2: For Quick Local Testing

This approach is fastest for local analysis without deployment needs.

Step 1: Extract Author Publications

# Extract publications directly
scholarimpact extract-author "YOUR_SCHOLAR_USER_ID"

Step 2: Crawl Citation Data

# Crawl citations with OpenAlex enrichment (API key required)
scholarimpact crawl-citations data/author.json --openalex-api-key YOUR_API_KEY

Step 3: Launch Dashboard

# Run dashboard directly
ScholarImpact

The dashboard opens at http://localhost:8501.

CLI Options Reference

scholarimpact extract-author Command

Extract author publications from Google Scholar with OpenAlex and Altmetric enrichment:

scholarimpact extract-author [OPTIONS] SCHOLAR_ID

Arguments:

• SCHOLAR_ID: Google Scholar author ID or full profile URL

Options:

Option	Type	Default	Description
--max-papers N	int	None	Maximum number of papers to analyze (default: all)
--delay X	float	2.0	Delay between requests in seconds
--output-dir DIR	str	./data	Output directory for author.json
--output-file FILE	str	None	Custom output file path (overrides output-dir)
--openalex-api-key KEY	str	None	API key for OpenAlex (enables OpenAlex enrichment)
--altmetric-api-key KEY	str	None	API key for Altmetric (enables Altmetric enrichment)

OpenAlex enrichment adds (all fields prefixed with openalex_):

• openalex_ids: Object containing all identifiers:
  • openalex: OpenAlex work URL
  • doi: Digital Object Identifier URL
  • mag: Microsoft Academic Graph ID
  • pmid: PubMed ID URL
• openalex_type: Publication type (article, book, etc.)
• openalex_citation_normalized_percentile: Percentile ranking of citations
• openalex_cited_by_percentile_year: Citation percentile by year
• openalex_fwci: Field-Weighted Citation Impact
• openalex_cited_by_count: OpenAlex citation count
• openalex_primary_topic: Main research topic
• openalex_domain, openalex_field, openalex_subfield: Hierarchical classification

Altmetric enrichment adds (all fields prefixed with altmetric_):

• altmetric_score: Overall Altmetric attention score
• altmetric_cited_by_wikipedia_count: Citations in Wikipedia
• altmetric_cited_by_patents_count: Citations in patents
• altmetric_cited_by_accounts_count: Social media accounts mentioning
• altmetric_cited_by_posts_count: Social media posts mentioning
• altmetric_scopus_subjects: Scopus subject classifications
• altmetric_readers: Reader counts by platform (Mendeley, CiteULike, etc.)
• altmetric_readers_count: Total reader count
• altmetric_images: Altmetric badge images (small, medium, large)
• altmetric_details_url: Link to detailed Altmetric page

Examples:

# Basic usage (Google Scholar only, no enrichment)
scholarimpact extract-author "ABC123DEF"

# With OpenAlex API key for enrichment
scholarimpact extract-author "ABC123DEF" --openalex-api-key YOUR_OPENALEX_KEY

# With both OpenAlex and Altmetric enrichment
scholarimpact extract-author "ABC123DEF" --openalex-api-key YOUR_OPENALEX_KEY --altmetric-api-key YOUR_ALTMETRIC_KEY

# Limit to first 20 papers with 3-second delays
scholarimpact extract-author "ABC123DEF" --openalex-api-key YOUR_OPENALEX_KEY --max-papers 20 --delay 3

# Custom output file with OpenAlex API key
scholarimpact extract-author "ABC123DEF" --output-file data/my_author.json --openalex-api-key YOUR_OPENALEX_KEY

# Full URL format
scholarimpact extract-author "https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=ABC123DEF" --openalex-api-key YOUR_OPENALEX_KEY

scholarimpact list-articles Command

List all articles from author.json with their cites_id and title:

scholarimpact list-articles [OPTIONS] AUTHOR_JSON

Arguments:

• AUTHOR_JSON: Path to author.json file containing publications

Options:

Option	Type	Default	Description
--format FORMAT	str	table	Output format: table or json

Examples:

# List articles in table format
scholarimpact list-articles data/author.json

# List articles in JSON format
scholarimpact list-articles data/author.json --format json

# Copy cites_id from table output and use it to crawl specific article
scholarimpact crawl-citations data/author.json --cites-id "ABC123,XYZ789"

The table shows:

• #: Article index (0-based)
• Cites ID: Google Scholar citation ID (use with --cites-id flag)
• Title: Article title
• Year: Publication year
• Cit: Total citations count

scholarimpact crawl-citations Command

Crawl citations with OpenAlex integration:

scholarimpact crawl-citations [OPTIONS] AUTHOR_JSON

Arguments:

• AUTHOR_JSON: Path to author.json file containing publications

Options:

Option	Type	Default	Description
--openalex-api-key KEY	str	None	API key for OpenAlex (required to use OpenAlex)
--max-citations N	int	None	Maximum citations per paper
--delay-min X	float	5.0	Minimum delay between requests (seconds)
--delay-max Y	float	10.0	Maximum delay between requests (seconds)
--output-dir DIR	str	None	Output directory (defaults to author.json directory)
--cites-id CITES_ID	str	None	Crawl only a specific article by cites_id (auto-enables --force)
--force	flag	False	Force re-crawl of articles when citation counts don't match expectations

Smart Skipping Logic:

The crawler compares citation counts in author.json with counts in the crawled citation files:

1. Citations match (e.g., 10 in both):

   • Skip by default
   • Skip with --force (data is up to date)
   • Message: Citation count unchanged - 10 citations in author.json, 10 citations in file

2. New citations found (e.g., 4 in author.json, 3 in file):

   • Always crawl to get the new citation (even without --force)
   • Message: Citation count increased - 4 citations in author.json, 3 in file (crawling to get new citations)

3. File has more citations (e.g., 3 in author.json, 4 in file) [unusual]:

   • Skip by default
   • Crawl with --force to refresh
   • Message: File has more citations - 3 in author.json, 4 in file (use --force to recrawl)

Special behavior with --cites-id:

• Always crawls the specified article (ignores existing file)
• Automatically enables --force mode
• Gets fresh citation data regardless of file existence or citation count
• Useful for testing, re-crawling specific articles, or updating individual articles

When to use --force:

• Re-crawl all articles when citation counts seem out of sync
• Refresh corrupted citation files
• Override automatic skipping for articles with matching counts (if you want fresh data for all articles)

Examples:

# Basic usage - skips articles with matching citation counts, crawls new citations
scholarimpact crawl-citations data/author.json --openalex-api-key YOUR_API_KEY

# Crawl only a single article (always gets fresh data, auto-enables force)
scholarimpact crawl-citations data/author.json --openalex-api-key YOUR_API_KEY --cites-id "ABC123,XYZ789"

# Force re-crawl articles when citation counts differ or to refresh data
scholarimpact crawl-citations data/author.json --openalex-api-key YOUR_API_KEY --force

# Custom delays
scholarimpact crawl-citations data/author.json --openalex-api-key YOUR_API_KEY --delay-min 3 --delay-max 8

# Custom output directory
scholarimpact crawl-citations data/author.json --openalex-api-key YOUR_API_KEY --output-dir custom_data

# Limit citations per paper
scholarimpact crawl-citations data/author.json --openalex-api-key YOUR_API_KEY --max-citations 100

ScholarImpact Command

Launch the interactive dashboard:

ScholarImpact [OPTIONS]

Options:

Option	Type	Default	Description
--port N	int	8501	Port to run the dashboard on
--address ADDR	str	localhost	Address to bind the server to
--data-dir DIR	str	./data	Directory containing citation data files

Examples:

# Basic usage
ScholarImpact

# Custom port
ScholarImpact --port 8502

# External access
ScholarImpact --address 0.0.0.0

# Different data directory
ScholarImpact --data-dir custom_data

scholarimpact quick-start Command

Complete analysis pipeline from Scholar ID to dashboard:

scholarimpact quick-start [OPTIONS] SCHOLAR_ID

Arguments:

• SCHOLAR_ID: Google Scholar author ID or full profile URL

Options:

Option	Type	Default	Description
--openalex-api-key KEY	str	None	OpenAlex API key (enables OpenAlex enrichment)
--altmetric-api-key KEY	str	None	Altmetric API key (enables Altmetric enrichment)
--output-dir DIR	str	./data	Output directory for all data
--launch-dashboard/--no-dashboard	flag	True	Launch dashboard after analysis

Examples:

# Complete pipeline with OpenAlex enrichment
scholarimpact quick-start "ABC123DEF" --openalex-api-key YOUR_OPENALEX_KEY

# Complete pipeline with both OpenAlex and Altmetric enrichment
scholarimpact quick-start "ABC123DEF" --openalex-api-key YOUR_OPENALEX_KEY --altmetric-api-key YOUR_ALTMETRIC_KEY

# Skip dashboard launch
scholarimpact quick-start "ABC123DEF" --no-dashboard

# Custom output directory with enrichment
scholarimpact quick-start "ABC123DEF" --output-dir results --openalex-api-key YOUR_OPENALEX_KEY

scholarimpact generate-dashboard Command

Generate a standalone dashboard project for deployment to Streamlit Cloud or Docker:

scholarimpact generate-dashboard [OPTIONS]

Options:

Option	Type	Default	Description
--output-dir DIR	str	.	Output directory for generated files
--name FILE	str	my_dashboard.py	Name of the dashboard file
--data-dir DIR	str	./data	Data directory path for dashboard
--title TEXT	str	My Citation Dashboard	Dashboard title

Examples:

# Generate dashboard in current directory
scholarimpact generate-dashboard

# Custom output directory and title
scholarimpact generate-dashboard --output-dir my-project --title "Research Impact Analysis"

# Custom data directory location
scholarimpact generate-dashboard --data-dir ../citation_data --name app.py

This command generates:

• A dashboard Python file (default: my_dashboard.py)
• Dockerfile for containerization (Python 3.13-slim base)
• docker-compose.yml for orchestration with resource limits
• .streamlit/config.toml with theme configuration
• requirements.txt for dependencies
• static folder containing fonts used by default theme

The generated project is ready for deployment to:

• Streamlit Cloud: Push to GitHub and deploy via share.streamlit.io
• Docker: Build and run locally or on any Docker-compatible server
• Docker Compose: Orchestrate with resource limits and environment configuration

Citation

If you use ScholarImpact in your research, please cite it as:

@software{tiwari_2025_17282762,
  author       = {Tiwari, Abhishek},
  title        = {ScholarImpact: A Python tool to analyse, visualise, and share individual research impact, output and scholarly influence using bibliometric data},
  month        = oct,
  year         = 2025,
  publisher    = {Zenodo},
  doi          = {10.5281/zenodo.17282708},
  url          = {https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17282708},
}

APA Format:

Tiwari, A. (2025). ScholarImpact: A Python tool to analyse, visualise, and share individual research impact, output and scholarly influence using bibliometric data. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17282708

MLA Format:

Tiwari, A. ScholarImpact: A Python tool to analyse, visualise, and share individual research impact, output and scholarly influence using bibliometric data. Zenodo, 7 Oct. 2025, https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17282708.