Source object | OpenAlex technical documentation

These are the fields in a source object. When you use the API to get a single source or lists of sources, this is what's returned.

abbreviated_title

String: An abbreviated title obtained from the .

abbreviated_title: "J. addict. med. ther. sci."

alternate_titles

Array: Alternate titles for this source, as obtained from the and individual work records, like Crossref DOIs, that carry the source name as a string. These are commonly abbreviations or translations of the source's canonical name.

alternate_titles: [
   "ACRJ"
]

apc_prices

List: List of objects, each with price (Integer) and currency (String).

Article processing charge information, taken directly from .

apc_prices: [
    {
        price: 3920,
        currency: "GBP"
    }
]

apc_usd

apc_usd: 5200

`cited_by_count`

cited_by_count: 133702

`country_code`

country_code: "GB"

`counts_by_year`

If the source was founded less than ten years ago, there will naturally be fewer than ten years in this list. Years with zero citations and zero works have been removed so you will need to add those in if you need them.

counts_by_year: [
    {
        year: 2021,
        works_count: 4338,
        cited_by_count: 127268
    },
    {
        year: 2020,
        works_count: 4363,
        cited_by_count: 119531
    },
    
    // and so forth
]

`created_date`

created_date: "2017-08-08"

`display_name`

String: The name of the source.

display_name: "PeerJ"

`homepage_url`

String: The starting page for navigating the contents of this source; the homepage for this source's website.

homepage_url: "http://www.peerj.com/"

`host_organization`

id: "https://openalex.org/P4310320595"

`host_organization_lineage`

host_organization_lineage: [
    "https://openalex.org/P4310321285",
    "https://openalex.org/P4310319900",
    "https://openalex.org/P4310319965"
]

`host_organization_name`

host_organization_name: "Elsevier BV"

`id`

id: "https://openalex.org/S1983995261"

`ids`

Object: All the external identifiers that we know about for this source. IDs are expressed as URIs whenever possible. Possible ID types:

Many sources are missing one or more ID types (either because we don't know the ID, or because it was never assigned). Keys for null IDs are not displayed.

Example

ids: {
    openalex: "https://openalex.org/S1983995261",
    issn_l: "2167-8359",
    issn: [
        "2167-8359"
    ],
    mag: 1983995261,
    fatcat: "https://fatcat.wiki/container/z3ijzhu7zzey3f7jwws7rzopoq",
    wikidata: "https://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q96326029"
}

`is_core`

is_core: true

`is_in_doaj`

is_in_doaj: true

`is_oa`

We say "currently" because the status of a source can change over time. It's common for journals to "flip" to Gold OA, after which they may make only future articles open or also open their back catalogs. It's entirely possible for a source to say is_oa: true, but for an article from last year to require a subscription.

is_oa: true

`issn`

issn: ["2167-8359"]

`issn_l`

ISSN is a global and unique ID for serial publications. However, different media versions of a given publication (e.g., print and electronic) often have different ISSNs. This is why we can't have nice things. The ISSN-L or Linking ISSN solves the problem by designating a single canonical ISSN for all media versions of the title. It's usually the same as the print ISSN.

issn_l: "2167-8359"

societies

societies: [
    {
        "url": "http://www.counseling.org/",
        "organization": "American Counseling Association on behalf of the American College Counseling Association"
    }
]

`summary_stats`

Object: Citation metrics for this source

While the h-index and the i-10 index are normally author-level metrics, they can be calculated for any set of papers, so we include them for sources.

summary_stats: {
    2yr_mean_citedness: 1.5295340589458237,
    h_index: 105,
    i10_index: 5045
}

`type`

String: The type of source, which will be one of: journal, repository, conference, ebook platform, book series, metadata, or other.

type: "journal"

`updated_date`

updated_date: "2022-01-02T00:00:00"

`works_api_url`

String: A URL that will get you a list of all this source's Works.

We express this as an API URL (instead of just listing the works themselves) because sometimes a source's publication list is too long to reasonably fit into a single Source object.

works_api_url: "https://api.openalex.org/works?filter=primary_location.source.id:S1983995261",

`works_count`

works_count: 20184

`x_concepts`

score (Float): The strength of association between this source and the listed concept, from 0-100.

x_concepts: [
    {
        id: "https://openalex.org/C86803240",
        wikidata: null,
        display_name: "Biology",
        level: 0,
        score: 86.7
    },
    {
        id: "https://openalex.org/C185592680",
        wikidata: null,
        display_name: "Chemistry",
        level: 0,
        score: 51.4
    },
    
    // and so forth
]

The `DehydratedSource` object

The DehydratedSource is stripped-down Source object, with most of its properties removed to save weight. Its only remaining properties are:

abbreviated_title

alternate_titles

apc_prices

apc_usd

cited_by_count

country_code

counts_by_year

created_date

display_name

homepage_url

host_organization

host_organization_lineage

host_organization_name

id

ids

is_core

is_in_doaj

is_oa

issn

issn_l