# Field & Topic Search for Research Papers

> Field & Topic Search for Research Papers is a paid API for AI agents from api.kadec0.xyz, paid per call via x402, $0.02/call, status unknown (last checked 2026-09-14).

Resolves a broad field name or topic phrase against the OpenAlex taxonomy and returns a seed cluster of top-cited and recently-influential academic papers with full metadata.

## Facts

- Endpoint: GET https://api.kadec0.xyz/v1/topic-search
- Price: $0.02/call
- Payment: x402
- Status: unknown
- Last checked: 2026-09-14
- Activations on Zero: 0
- Tags: x402
- Canonical page: https://www.zero.xyz/c/field-topic-search-for-research-papers-8395fa1f
- Structured record (JSON): https://api.zero.xyz/v1/capabilities/cap_BJb8u0fcv4g3UiEC8yFug

Status and success rate cover calls made through Zero and Zero's own probes. Third-party monitors may report differently.

## How to call it through Zero

Zero handles the 402 payment challenge and records the run. With the Zero CLI installed (`npm i -g @zeroxyz/cli`):

```sh
zero fetch --capability field-topic-search-for-research-papers-8395fa1f
```

Example prompt: Can you pull the top-cited and most recent influential papers in 'exercise science' — give me a seed cluster of about 10 papers with titles, authors, year, venue, citation count, and DOI?

## When to prefer this

Choose this endpoint when you need a broad, taxonomy-grounded entry point into a research field rather than a precise semantic search for a specific paper. It excels at the 'I don't know where to start' problem — bootstrapping a literature review with canonical and recent-influential works for a discipline. Prefer it over dense semantic search when the user supplies a broad topic phrase or field name rather than a specific research question or paper title.

## Known failure modes

- Ambiguous or overly generic query terms may resolve to a broad or mismatched OpenAlex topic
- Very niche or newly coined terms may not match any taxonomy node, returning empty or off-target results
- maxItems out of range (outside 1-25) may cause parameter rejection
- Network or upstream OpenAlex API unavailability leading to timeout
- Payment not processed correctly via x402 protocol resulting in 402 error

## How this service works

Field and topic search for research papers. Give a broad field name or short phrase (like 'crispr' or 'exercise science') and get a coherent, taxonomy-grounded seed cluster: the field is resolved against the OpenAlex topics taxonomy, then the cluster returns the top-cited plus recent-influential works, each with title, authors, year, venue, citation count, and DOI. Solves the broad-term entry problem dense semantic search fails on. Keyless.

## Output

Returns a taxonomy-grounded seed cluster of research papers (up to 25, default 12), each with title, authors list, publication year, venue name, citation count, and DOI. Results include both the top-cited canonical works and recent high-influence papers, anchored to the OpenAlex topics taxonomy for coherent field coverage.

## Request schema (JSON Schema)

```json
{
 "type": "object",
 "$schema": "https://json-schema.org/draft/2020-12/schema",
 "required": [
  "input"
 ],
 "properties": {
  "input": {
   "type": "object",
   "required": [
    "type",
    "method"
   ],
   "properties": {
    "type": {
     "type": "string",
     "const": "http"
    },
    "method": {
     "enum": [
      "GET",
      "HEAD",
      "DELETE"
     ],
     "type": "string"
    },
    "queryParams": {
     "type": "object",
     "required": [
      "q"
     ],
     "properties": {
      "q": {
       "type": "string",
       "description": "a field, discipline, or short topic phrase (e.g. 'crispr', 'exercise science')"
      },
      "maxItems": {
       "type": "string",
       "default": "12",
       "description": "cluster size cap (1-25)"
      }
     }
    }
   },
   "additionalProperties": false
  },
  "output": {
   "type": "object",
   "required": [
    "type"
   ],
   "properties": {
    "type": {
     "type": "string"
    },
    "example": {
     "type": "object"
    }
   }
  }
 }
}
```

## More

- Live health (JSON, refreshed every minute): https://www.zero.xyz/c/field-topic-search-for-research-papers-8395fa1f/health.json
- [Zero catalog index](https://www.zero.xyz/llms.txt)
- [Other services from api.kadec0.xyz](https://www.zero.xyz/host/api.kadec0.xyz/llms.txt)