5. Author API¶

5.1 Author Search¶

Search for authors by name. Max 10MB response.

GET /graph/v1/author/search

Parameters:

Name	Type	Required	Description
`query`	string	Yes	Author name search query
`fields`	string		Fields to return
`offset`	integer		Start position
`limit`	integer		Max results (default 100, max 1,000)

Note: Requesting the papers field returns all papers for each author, so set limit appropriately to manage response size and latency.

Note: No special query syntax is supported. Names containing hyphens (-) won't match; replace with spaces instead.

Examples:

# Basic search (authorId + name, default 100)
curl "https://api.semanticscholar.org/graph/v1/author/search?query=adam+smith"

# With fields + papers + reduced limit
curl "https://api.semanticscholar.org/graph/v1/author/search?query=adam+smith&fields=name,url,papers.title,papers.year&limit=5"

# Non-existent name → total=0, data=[]
curl "https://api.semanticscholar.org/graph/v1/author/search?query=totalGarbageNonsense"

Response schema:

{
  "total": 482,
  "offset": 0,
  "next": 100,
  "data": [ { "authorId": "...", "name": "..." } ]
}

Field	Type	Description
`total`	string	Approximate total result count (may not be exact)
`offset`	integer	Current start position
`next`	integer	Next page start position (absent on last page)
`data`	array	Array of author objects

Test with hurl¶

hurl --variable s2_api_key=$S2_API_KEY --variable query=hinton api/graph/author-search.hurl

Change the query via --variable. Add --json flag to output captured values as JSON.

5.2 Author Detail¶

Retrieve detailed information for a specific author. Max 10MB response.

GET /graph/v1/author/{author_id}

Parameters:

Name	Location	Type	Required	Description
`author_id`	path	string	Yes	Author ID
`fields`	query	string		Fields to return

Examples:

# Basic (authorId + name)
curl "https://api.semanticscholar.org/graph/v1/author/1741101"

# URL + paper list (default subfields: paperId + title)
curl "https://api.semanticscholar.org/graph/v1/author/1741101?fields=url,papers"

# Paper abstracts + paper authors (nested)
curl "https://api.semanticscholar.org/graph/v1/author/1741101?fields=url,papers.abstract,papers.authors"

Available fields (Author model):

Field	Type	Description	Example
`authorId`	string	S2 unique author ID	`"1741101"`
`externalIds`	object	ORCID/DBLP external IDs	`{"DBLP": [123]}`
`url`	string	S2 profile URL	`"https://www.semanticscholar.org/author/1741101"`
`name`	string	Author name	`"Oren Etzioni"`
`affiliations`	array	Affiliated institutions	`["Allen Institute for AI"]`
`homepage`	string	Personal homepage	`"https://allenai.org/"`
`paperCount`	string	Total paper count	`10`
`citationCount`	string	Total citation count	`50`
`hIndex`	string	h-index	`5`

Note: paperCount, citationCount, hIndex are typed as string in the Swagger schema, but actual responses return numeric values.

Test with hurl¶

hurl --variable s2_api_key=$S2_API_KEY --variable author_id=1741101 api/graph/author-detail.hurl

Change the author ID via --variable. Add --json flag to output captured values as JSON.

5.3 Author Batch Lookup¶

Look up multiple authors at once.

POST /graph/v1/author/batch

Parameters:

Name	Location	Type	Required	Description
`fields`	query	string		Fields to return

authorId is always returned. When omitted, only authorId + name are returned.

fields examples:

fields=name,affiliations,papers          # name, affiliations, papers
fields=url,papers.year,papers.authors    # URL, paper year/authors

Request body:

{
  "ids": ["1741101", "2108700"]
}

Limitations: - Max 1,000 Author IDs - Single response max 10MB

Test with hurl¶

hurl --variable s2_api_key=$S2_API_KEY --variable author_id=1741101 api/graph/author-batch.hurl

Change the author ID via --variable. Add --json flag to output captured values as JSON.

5.4 Author Papers¶

Retrieve papers by a specific author in batch.

GET /graph/v1/author/{author_id}/papers

Note: Citations/references within the batch are limited to the most recent 10,000. For complete citations, use the /paper/{paper_id}/citations endpoint separately.

Parameters:

Name	Location	Type	Required	Description
`author_id`	path	string	Yes	Author ID
`fields`	query	string		Fields to return
`offset`	query	integer		Start position
`limit`	query	integer		Max results (default 100, max 1,000)
`publicationDateOrYear`	query	string		Publication date range filter

Examples:

# Basic (first 100, paperId + title)
curl "https://api.semanticscholar.org/graph/v1/author/1741101/papers"

# With fields + limit
curl "https://api.semanticscholar.org/graph/v1/author/1741101/papers?fields=url,year,authors&limit=2"

# Nested citation authors + offset
curl "https://api.semanticscholar.org/graph/v1/author/1741101/papers?fields=citations.authors&offset=260"

Test with hurl¶

hurl --variable s2_api_key=$S2_API_KEY --variable author_id=1741101 api/graph/author-papers.hurl

Change the author ID via --variable. Add --json flag to output captured values as JSON.