Observed arrival · 2026-09-24
OpenAbstracts puts literature search behind one API
A REST API for searching academic papers by keyword, semantic similarity, or full text, with access to paper metadata, PDFs, figures, and AI summaries.
○Open
⊠Login
$Paid
†Ads
✦Pretty
●Pro
◎Niche
◉Human
⚑Risk
ƒJS
- For
- Developers building academic search into apps
- Worth noticing
- The sample request uses an API key in a header and returns structured paper metadata, including journal, year, quartile, and authors.
Field notes
The example request searches for “marketing” in papers mode and returns JSON with a result count and a references array. The displayed response includes a paper title, journal, year, quartile, and author; the page says abstracts and other metadata accompany results. The homepage also presents MCP setup as a route for using the search from Claude or Cursor, alongside the direct REST interface.
Observed signals
Read the marks
Editorial observations of this landing page, not a rating.
○OpenPublic substance visible
$PaidCommerce or pricing visible
✦PrettyNotable craft visible
◎NicheUnusually specific use
ƒJavaScriptBrowser-side code central
One card from the complete issue