Powering the Next Generation of Research Intelligence
Dec. 31, 2025 | By David Watkins
What is OpenAlex?
Named after the ancient Library of Alexandria, OpenAlex is a revolutionary open index of the world's research system. It is not just a database of papers; it is a massive, interconnected "knowledge graph" that maps the relationships between hundreds of millions of scholarly works, authors, and institutions.
Operated by the non-profit OurResearch, OpenAlex was built to replace the gated silos of the past with a fully open, comprehensive record of human knowledge. It aggregates data from thousands of sources—including publishers, government repositories, and open archives—to create a unified view of global innovation.
By building on OpenAlex, we aren't just giving you data; we are giving you access to the entire modern research ecosystem.
Why We Champion OpenAlex
We believe that the best decisions are made when you have the complete picture. Our choice to use OpenAlex is driven by six core advantages that directly benefit the organizations we work with.
1. A Foundation of Openness
Our analytics are built on a resource that belongs to the global community. Because OpenAlex is open source with strong community backing, it ensures that the data driving your insights is sustainable and permanent.
The Benefit to You: Stability. We are building on public infrastructure, ensuring that the metrics and reports you rely on are future-proof and free from commercial restrictions.
2. Truly Global Perspectives (Languages)
Great research has no language barrier. We love OpenAlex because it embraces the diversity of global science, indexing research in hundreds of languages—from Spanish and Portuguese to Chinese and Indonesian.
The Benefit to You: We can help you discover innovation hubs and rising talent in regions that other tools might overlook. You get a truly worldwide view of impact.
3. Balanced Subject Coverage
In the past, bibliometrics often leaned heavily toward the hard sciences. OpenAlex democratizes this by ensuring excellent coverage across all disciplines, including the Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences.
The Benefit to You: Whether you are analyzing a conservatoire, a business school, or a physics lab, our data treats every discipline with the respect and detail it deserves.
4. Next-Gen Quality & Tagging
OpenAlex utilizes state-of-the-art Artificial Intelligence to organize the world’s knowledge. Instead of relying on broad, static categories, it reads abstracts and titles to assign precise "Topics" to every paper. This is paired with community-based correction, where researchers themselves can refine the data.
The Benefit to You: Precision. You can drill down into niche, cross-disciplinary topics—like "AI in Agriculture" or "Ethical FinTech"—with incredible accuracy.
5. Confidence Through Transparency
We believe trust is earned. Because our data source is fully open, the methodology behind our metrics is transparent and reproducible.
The Benefit to You: You never have to wonder where a number came from. Our analytics are audit-ready and verifiable, giving you the confidence to present our findings to your stakeholders.
6. A Rich, Connected Ecosystem
OpenAlex sits at the heart of the modern research web. It seamlessly connects with other gold-standard identifiers like DOIs (for papers), ORCID (for people), and ROR (for institutions).
The Benefit to You: We deliver insights that are deeply linked. We can trace the journey of an idea from a specific author to their funding body and their institutional home, providing you with a holistic map of influence.
Tags: Bibliometrics OpenAlex Research Intelligence