OpenAlex Institutions Search Scraper

OpenAlex Institutions Search Scraper is a BrowserAct Bot template for collecting structured public institution records from OpenAlex. Configure a base URL, keyword, and result count, then run the Bot to return ranked university, lab, and research organization metadata for academic analysis, institutional discovery, catalog enrichment, or automation workflows.

What Does BrowserAct OpenAlex Institutions Search Scraper Do?

This template opens OpenAlex's public institutions search API, parses institution records, and returns one structured record per institution.

Key Features

Extract public OpenAlex institution search results without requiring a login.
Capture institution ID, profile URL, ROR, country, type, homepage, works count, citation count, summary stats, topics, update date, and keyword.
Configure base URL, keyword, and count.
Use the public per-page parameter to return the requested default records.
Handle optional ROR, homepage, and topic fields cleanly.

What Data Can I Extract from OpenAlex?

Field	Description
`rank`	Search result position assigned by the Bot.
`institution_id`	OpenAlex institution ID.
`institution_url`	Public OpenAlex institution profile URL.
`display_name`	Institution display name.
`ror`	ROR identifier when available.
`country_code`	Institution country code.
`type`	Institution type, such as education.
`homepage_url`	Public homepage URL when available.
`works_count`	Number of works associated with the institution.
`cited_by_count`	Total cited-by count.
`summary_2yr_mean_citedness`	OpenAlex two-year mean citedness value.
`summary_h_index`	OpenAlex h-index.
`summary_i10_index`	OpenAlex i10-index.
`topics`	Topic names as a semicolon-separated string.
`updated_date`	OpenAlex updated date.
`search_keyword`	Keyword used for the run.

How to Use OpenAlex Institutions Search Scraper

Click Run task.
Enter the OpenAlex API base URL.
Enter an institution type, university keyword, country-related term, or research organization keyword.
Set how many institution records to collect.
Run the Bot and review the structured institution results.
Reuse the Bot with another keyword or connect the output to your workflow.

Input Parameters

Parameter	Required	Default	Description
`base_url`	Yes	`https://api.openalex.org`	OpenAlex API base URL without a trailing slash.
`keyword`	Yes	`university`	Search phrase matched against OpenAlex institutions.
`count`	Yes	`20`	Maximum number of institution records to collect.

Example Output

{
  "institutions": [
    {
      "rank": 1,
      "institution_id": "I136199984",
      "institution_url": "https://openalex.org/I136199984",
      "display_name": "Harvard University",
      "ror": "https://ror.org/03vek6s52",
      "country_code": "US",
      "type": "education",
      "homepage_url": "https://www.harvard.edu",
      "works_count": "712880",
      "cited_by_count": "145882297",
      "summary_h_index": "2790",
      "topics": "Immune Cell Function and Interaction; Neuroscience and Neuropharmacology Research",
      "updated_date": "2026-08-20T05:59:23",
      "search_keyword": "university"
    }
  ]
}

How Does it Work?

How OpenAlex Institutions Search Scraper runs

BrowserAct builds the public OpenAlex API URL in the format {base_url}/institutions?search={keyword}&per-page={count}. OpenAlex returns JSON with institution records and metadata.

For each institution, BrowserAct maps the ID, profile URL, ROR, country, type, homepage, works and citation counts, summary statistics, topics, and updated date into a flat table-friendly record. Optional fields stay empty when OpenAlex does not publish them for an institution.

How to Build a New Scraper Bot with Agent Built

Step 1: Describe the Data You Need

Open BrowserAct and start Agent Built from the Home prompt box or from Create -> Build with Agent. Paste a clear request that includes the website, the records to collect, the filters or search conditions, the fields to return, the result limit, and the inputs you want to reuse later.

Agent Built prompt templates

Step 2: Let BrowserAct Build and Test the Bot

BrowserAct explores the live website, works out the navigation and extraction path, and validates the result. If BrowserAct asks for clarification, reply in the same build conversation with the missing URL, condition, field, example, or expected output.

Agent Built exploration

Step 3: Run the Bot and Review the Result

When the build is complete, run the Bot with the default inputs first. Review the structured records, source URLs, missing fields, and row count before reusing the Bot with new inputs or connecting it to another workflow.

Agent Built run inputs

Agent Built run results

Why Scrape OpenAlex Institution Results?

OpenAlex institution data helps teams discover universities and research organizations, compare research volume and citation signals, enrich institutional catalogs, map academic ecosystems, and route public organization metadata into dashboards, alerts, or agent workflows.

Who Can Use This Template?

Researchers comparing universities and labs.
Libraries and knowledge teams enriching organization records.
Data teams building academic institution pipelines.
Product teams mapping research ecosystems.
Automation builders routing institution metadata into spreadsheets, databases, alerts, or agents.

How Many Results Can You Scrape?

Use count to control the number of institution records returned. OpenAlex supports up to 200 institution records per default request.

Automation and Export

Automation and export flow

BrowserAct returns structured OpenAlex institution records first. You can then use the output through API JSON responses, n8n workflows, Make scenarios, Zapier automations, MCP-based agent workflows configured from the Bot's Integrations tab, or manual CSV review.

Need Help?

Discord: Discord Community

E-mail: service@browseract.com

Brief