Academic Author Search (by Name)

omnial/author-search

Given an author's name, returns matching researcher profiles (there is often more than one person with the same name) with current institutional affiliation, total publications, total citations, h-index, i10-index, and that researcher's most-cited papers with title, year, and citation count each.

activeper callv3

Price

$0.0301 per call

You pay the price shown. If a call turns out to cost more than its quote, you pay the actual price, capped at twice the quote. No monthly minimum. Top-ups start at $5.00.

Data source

OpenAlex

Use it

Your AI assistant does the work: it finds this tool, shows you the price first, runs it, and you are charged when the run finishes. There is nothing to set up for this tool in particular.

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For developers: the calls your assistant makes

agent

// 1. search: find the tool
omnial_search({ query: "what you need" })

// 2. inspect: price and input schema
omnial_inspect({ tool: "omnial/author-search" })

// 3. learn: read the usage guide at runtime
omnial_learn({ tool: "omnial/author-search" })

// 4. run: price the exact call first, then run it
omnial_execute({ tool: "omnial/author-search", input: { /* see input_schema */ }, dry_run: true })
omnial_execute({ tool: "omnial/author-search", input: { /* ... */ } })

// 5. settle: the call is charged when it finishes, nothing to do

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Pricing

Every charge this tool can incur.

Charge	Price
Per call	$0.0301

Updated: Oct 27, 2026

Input and output schemas

Input schema

input_schema.json

{
  "type": "object",
  "required": [
    "name"
  ],
  "properties": {
    "name": {
      "type": "string",
      "description": "author name to search"
    },
    "maxItems": {
      "type": "string",
      "default": "10",
      "description": "1-25 candidate authors"
    },
    "top_works": {
      "type": "string",
      "default": "5",
      "description": "top papers per author (0-25)"
    }
  },
  "additionalProperties": false
}

Output schema

output_schema.json

{
  "type": "object",
  "properties": {
    "code": {
      "type": "string",
      "description": "Present instead of `count`/`items` when the data source rejects the request outright, e.g. 'HTTP_400' for a nonsense/invalid name; behavior for a merely-unrecognized-but-well-formed name is not documented."
    },
    "count": {
      "type": "number",
      "description": "Number of candidate profiles in `items`. Absent (along with `items`) when the name was rejected outright -- see `code`/`message`."
    },
    "items": {
      "type": "array",
      "items": {
        "type": "object",
        "properties": {
          "name": {
            "type": "string",
            "description": "The candidate researcher's publication name, e.g. 'Geoffrey E. Hinton'."
          },
          "type": {
            "type": "string",
            "description": "Observed as the literal string 'author' on every entry."
          },
          "orcid": {
            "type": [
              "string",
              "null"
            ],
            "description": "The researcher's ORCID identifier, when the profile has one on file. Usually `null`; the shape of a populated value is not documented."
          },
          "hIndex": {
            "type": "number"
          },
          "i10Index": {
            "type": "number"
          },
          "topWorks": {
            "type": "array",
            "items": {
              "type": "object",
              "properties": {
                "doi": {
                  "type": [
                    "string",
                    "null"
                  ],
                  "description": "The paper's DOI (e.g. '10.1038/nature14539'), when it has one on file. Often `null` -- not every indexed work carries a DOI."
                },
                "url": {
                  "type": "null",
                  "description": "A link to the paper (a doi.org or openalex.org URL). Value withheld the same way as `openAlexId`."
                },
                "year": {
                  "type": "number"
                },
                "title": {
                  "type": "string"
                },
                "citedByCount": {
                  "type": "number"
                }
              },
              "additionalProperties": true
            },
            "description": "This author's most-cited papers, up to the input `top_works` count. Often an empty array for low-publication-count candidates."
          },
          "openAlexId": {
            "type": "null",
            "description": "An OpenAlex researcher-profile identifier URL. Value withheld (always returned as `null` regardless of the real underlying id) -- only that the field exists is observable, not the identifier itself."
          },
          "worksCount": {
            "type": "number",
            "description": "Total publications on file."
          },
          "affiliations": {
            "type": "array",
            "items": {
              "type": "object",
              "properties": {
                "ror": {
                  "type": "null",
                  "description": "A ror.org research-organization identifier URL. Value withheld the same way as `openAlexId`."
                },
                "name": {
                  "type": "string",
                  "description": "The institution's public name."
                },
                "country": {
                  "type": "string",
                  "description": "Two-letter country code, e.g. 'CA'."
                }
              },
              "additionalProperties": true
            },
            "description": "Current/recent institutional affiliations. Often an empty array for low-publication-count candidates."
          },
          "citedByCount": {
            "type": "number",
            "description": "Total citations across all works."
          },
          "meanCitedness2yr": {
            "type": "number",
            "description": "Average citations per work over the most recent 2-year window."
          }
        },
        "additionalProperties": true
      },
      "description": "One entry per candidate author profile matching the searched name -- a common name can return many unrelated people, not one disambiguated match (10 distinct people observed for a single well-known name, several sharing near-identical name strings)."
    },
    "message": {
      "type": "string",
      "description": "Human-readable detail accompanying `code`."
    }
  },
  "description": "The search result.",
  "additionalProperties": true
}