Starting a literature review or trying to get a full picture of the research on a complex topic? Your immediate instinct might be to turn to trusted databases like Scopus or Web of Science. While these are powerful resources, another name deserves a prominent place in your research toolkit: OpenAlex
But with several tools available, what makes this one different? OpenAlex is a fully open and comprehensive bibliographic database that aligns perfectly with the principles of Open Science. This post explores what makes it a valuable tool and the specific, practical benefits it offers everyone in the TU Delft community, from students discovering literature to staff supporting research.
What is OpenAlex?
In simple terms, OpenAlex is a massive, free index of the global research ecosystem. Its mission is to create a fully open and interconnected map of scholarly communication.
It’s built on three core characteristics:
- Open and free: all the data in OpenAlex is publicly available under a CC0 licence, meaning anyone can access, reuse, and build upon it without cost or restriction.
- Comprehensive: it indexes a vast and growing number of scholarly works, including journal articles, preprints, books, datasets, and dissertations from a wide array of sources worldwide.
- Interlinked: it connects them. It creates a rich network linking publications to the authors who wrote them, the institutions they belong to (like TU Delft), the funders who supported the work, and the scientific topics they cover.
Key benefits for your work: a comparative look
While you might be used to curated, subscription-based resources, the open nature of OpenAlex provides distinct advantages for your work at TU Delft. The quality and transparency of its data are such that OpenAlex now provides the foundation for the CWTS Leiden Ranking Open Edition, a prominent university ranking.
As a researcher or student (for finding and discovering)
When your work involves finding and discovering papers, OpenAlex can give you a broader, more inclusive search experience. Its wide net can help you uncover conference papers, preprints from servers like arXiv, and publications from newer open-access journals that might not yet be indexed in traditional databases.
More importantly, you can use its rich set of metadata for powerful filtering. Beyond standard searches by author or title, you can retrieve information using unique fields such as:
- Topics: filter by the research topics a paper covers. OpenAlex uses over 4500 detailed topics which are structured like a tree, going from very specific subjects up to broader areas. A key difference compared to other systems is that OpenAlex assigns these topics directly to each individual paper, rather than just classifying based on the journal it’s published in. This allows for a much more precise description of a paper’s content.
- Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs): find research related to one or more of the 17 UN SDGs.
- Author’s Institution: you can search not just for an institution (like TU Delft), but also filter by its country or type (e.g., ‘education’, ‘government’).
- Open Access Status: easily find articles that are freely available to read.
This granular control makes it easier for you to pinpoint highly relevant literature. You can also explore connections using other unique filters, such as the publication’s funder, licence, or type (e.g. article, dataset). For deeper analysis, you can even filter by corresponding author, citation percentile, whether a paper is retracted, or if it has full-text available in a repository.
As staff and research support
If you support research, you’ll find OpenAlex to be a transparent and flexible alternative for bibliographic searches. Its open data model means that you can see exactly where the information comes from, which is invaluable for creating accurate publication lists or tracking the outputs of a project. The unrestricted API is also a significant benefit, allowing for the creation of customised reports and integrations without the export limitations found in other systems.
Getting started with OpenAlex
It’s easy to begin exploring, whether you want to perform a quick search or a more detailed analysis.
- For a quick search, explore the user-friendly web interface at OpenAlex.org. It’s an excellent starting point for any literature search.
- To see TU Delft’s profile, you can view the university’s institutional page directly here: https://openalex.org/I98358874
- For deeper analysis, the full power of OpenAlex is accessible through its API, allowing you to perform custom searches and data extractions.
More information
To learn more, explore these resources from OpenAlex and the TU Delft Library:
- OpenAlex Support: the official help centre for all your questions. Visit OpenAlex Support.
- OurResearch YouTube Channel: find video tutorials and updates on OpenAlex. Watch videos here.
- TU Delft Library Research Analytics: get specific support and find more use cases for OpenAlex and other tools. Visit the Research Analytics page.
- TU Delft Library Databases: discover all the databases and tools available to you. Explore databases here.
Conclusion
OpenAlex is more than just another database; it’s a powerful, open, and versatile tool that supports the principles of Open Science. For the TU Delft community, it’s a transparent and flexible resource that complements your existing toolkit. Whether you are searching for a single paper or exploring the research landscape of a specific field, OpenAlex offers a valuable new perspective.