# Research Paper Topic Search via OpenAlex

> Research Paper Topic Search via OpenAlex is a paid API for AI agents from research-papers.x402tookit.com, paid per call via x402, $0.02/call, status unknown (last checked 2026-10-27).

Returns recent research papers on a given topic from OpenAlex, ranked by relevance, with title, year, citation count, DOI, and open-access link.

## Facts

- Endpoint: GET https://research-papers.x402tookit.com/topic-papers?utm_source=zero.xyz
- Price: $0.02/call
- Payment: x402
- Status: unknown
- Last checked: 2026-10-27
- Activations on Zero: 0
- Tags: x402
- Canonical page: https://www.zero.xyz/c/research-paper-topic-search-via-openalex-126a9e36
- Structured record (JSON): https://api.zero.xyz/v1/capabilities/cap_z2-Nic9gyigE91K6r9AkU

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 research-paper-topic-search-via-openalex-126a9e36
```

Example prompt: Find me the 10 most relevant recent papers on retrieval augmented generation published since 2022 — I need their titles, citation counts, DOIs, and open-access links.

## When to prefer this

Use this endpoint when you need to discover multiple relevant academic papers on a topic by keyword, especially when you don't already have specific DOIs. It is ideal for literature review, research landscaping, or finding open-access reading material. Prefer this over DOI-specific endpoints when the user wants broad topic coverage rather than metadata for a known paper.

## Known failure modes

- Topic query too vague or short returns low-relevance results
- No papers found for very niche or misspelled topics
- since_year set too recently may return zero results if field lacks recent indexed papers
- n exceeds 15 or is below 1 returns validation error
- OpenAlex API unavailability may cause degraded or empty response indicated by degraded flag

## How this service works

Recent research papers on a topic from OpenAlex: title, year, citations, DOI and open-access link, most relevant first.

## Output

Returns a list of research papers ranked by relevance, each with title, publication year, citation count, DOI, journal name, open-access status and URL. Also includes metadata such as the topic query, total matches found, data source (OpenAlex), and timestamp. May include a summary or disclaimer field.

## 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"
     ],
     "type": "string"
    },
    "queryParams": {
     "type": "object",
     "required": [
      "topic"
     ],
     "properties": {
      "n": {
       "type": "integer",
       "description": "How many, 1 to 15, default 8"
      },
      "topic": {
       "type": "string",
       "description": "Topic words, e.g. retrieval augmented generation"
      },
      "since_year": {
       "type": "integer",
       "description": "Earliest publication year, default two years ago"
      }
     }
    }
   },
   "additionalProperties": false
  },
  "output": {
   "type": "object",
   "required": [
    "type"
   ],
   "properties": {
    "type": {
     "type": "string"
    },
    "example": {
     "type": "object",
     "properties": {
      "asOf": {
       "type": [
        "null",
        "string"
       ]
      },
      "since": {
       "type": [
        "null",
        "number"
       ]
      },
      "topic": {
       "type": [
        "null",
        "string"
       ]
      },
      "papers": {
       "type": [
        "array",
        "null"
       ],
       "items": {
        "type": "object",
        "properties": {
         "doi": {
          "type": [
           "null",
           "string"
          ]
         },
         "year": {
          "type": [
           "null",
           "number"
          ]
         },
         "title": {
          "type": [
           "null",
           "string"
          ]
         },
         "journal": {
          "type": [
           "null",
           "string"
          ]
         },
         "citations": {
          "type": [
           "null",
           "number"
          ]
         },
         "openAccess": {
          "type": [
           "boolean",
           "null"
          ]
         },
         "openAccessUrl": {
          "type": [
           "null",
           "string"
          ]
         }
        }
       }
      },
      "source": {
       "type": [
        "null",
        "string"
       ]
      },
      "reasons": {
       "type": [
        "array",
        "null"
       ],
       "items": {
        "type": "string"
       }
      },
      "summary": {
       "ty
… (truncated)
```

## More

- Live health (JSON, refreshed every minute): https://www.zero.xyz/c/research-paper-topic-search-via-openalex-126a9e36/health.json
- [Zero catalog index](https://www.zero.xyz/llms.txt)
- [Other services from research-papers.x402tookit.com](https://www.zero.xyz/host/research-papers.x402tookit.com/llms.txt)