---
title: "Academic Paper Search"
method: POST
path: "/v1/tools/paper_search"
---

# Academic Paper Search

`POST /v1/tools/paper_search`

## Request

- Base URL: `https://unstuckapi.com`
- URL: `https://unstuckapi.com/v1/tools/paper_search`
- Auth: one of:
  - HTTP bearer
  - API key in header `x-api-key`

Search scholarly papers, articles, books and preprints by topic or title: title, authors, year, journal or venue, DOI, link, type and citation count (metadata only, no abstracts). Use it to find sources or citations for a research question. Data source: Crossref.

Price: $0.002 per call. Charged once per call that returns a result, including an empty result list. Failed calls are free.

## Request body

- object
  - `query` string, required: What to search for, e.g. "microplastics drinking water".
  - `limit` integer: How many papers, default 5, max 10.
  - `from_year` integer: Only works published in or after this year.

## Response `200`

Success

- object
  - `tool` 'paper_search', required
  - `result` object, required
    - `source` 'Crossref', required
    - `query` string, required
    - `total_results` integer, nullable, required
    - `results` object[], required
      - `title` string, nullable, required
      - `authors` string[], required: Author names in order (first 20).
      - `year` integer, nullable, required
      - `venue` string, nullable, required: Journal, book or conference.
      - `doi` string, nullable, required
      - `url` string, nullable, required
      - `type` string, nullable, required: e.g. "journal-article".
      - `citation_count` integer, nullable, required: Times cited, as counted by Crossref.
  - `charged_usd` number, required
  - `balance_usd` number, required

## Other responses

- `400`: Invalid JSON or input. Not charged.
- `401`: Paid tool without a valid API key.
- `402`: Balance too low for this call. Not charged.
- `404`: Unknown tool.
- `422`: The tool failed. Not charged.
- `429`: Rate limited, free tries used up, or the uncharged-result limit reached. See Retry-After.

---

[API](https://skmtc.dev/unstuckapi/apis/unstuck-api.md) · [All operations](https://skmtc.dev/unstuckapi/apis/unstuck-api/llms.txt) · [OpenAPI document](https://skmtc.dev/unstuckapi/apis/unstuck-api/revisions/ef3ec951224f?raw)