--- name: scholar-search description: Find academic papers, explore citations, and export BibTeX. Use when asked about research papers, references, citations, bibliography, or scholarly information. --- # Academic Scholar Search Find papers with **s2cli** (Semantic Scholar), **openalexcli** (OpenAlex), and **arxivy** (arXiv), get high-quality BibTeX with **dblpcli** (DBLP). All tools run via `uvx` — no installation needed. ## Finding Papers Three tools for paper discovery, each with different strengths. ### s2cli (Semantic Scholar) Best for: paper recommendations, citation/reference networks, arXiv/DOI lookups, citation count filtering. ```bash # Search by keyword uvx s2cli search "attention mechanism" --limit 10 --json uvx s2cli search "transformers" --year 2020-2024 --min-citations 100 --json # Filter options: --year, --venue, --field, --min-citations, --open-access # Get paper details by ID (supports S2 ID, DOI, arXiv, CorpusId) uvx s2cli paper ARXIV:1706.03762 --json uvx s2cli paper DOI:10.18653/v1/N18-3011 --json # Citation network uvx s2cli citations ARXIV:1706.03762 --limit 20 --json # papers citing this uvx s2cli references ARXIV:1706.03762 --limit 20 --json # papers cited by this # Recommendations based on a seed paper uvx s2cli recommend ARXIV:1706.03762 --limit 10 --json uvx s2cli recommend ARXIV:1706.03762 --pool all-cs --json # pool: 'recent' or 'all-cs' # Author search and papers uvx s2cli author search "Yoshua Bengio" --json uvx s2cli author papers --json ``` ### openalexcli (OpenAlex) Best for: broadest coverage (260M+ works), institution/journal queries, group-by aggregation, ORCID lookups, date range filtering. ```bash # Search by keyword uvx openalexcli search "attention mechanism" --limit 10 --json uvx openalexcli search "transformers" --from-date 2020-01-01 --min-citations 100 --json # Filter options: --filter, --from-date, --to-date, --min-citations, --open-access, --type, --sort, --group-by # Get work by OpenAlex ID uvx openalexcli work W2741809807 --json # Citation network uvx openalexcli citations W2741809807 --limit 20 --json uvx openalexcli references W2741809807 --limit 20 --json # Author search and works uvx openalexcli author search "Yoshua Bengio" --json uvx openalexcli author works --json # Institution queries uvx openalexcli institution search "MIT" --json uvx openalexcli institution works --json # Journal/source queries uvx openalexcli source search "Nature" --json uvx openalexcli source works --json # Aggregation (unique to OpenAlex) uvx openalexcli search "deep learning" --group-by publication_year --json ``` ### arxivy (arXiv) Best for: searching arXiv directly, getting paper details by arXiv ID, browsing recent submissions in a category. No API key needed. ```bash # Search by keyword uvx arxivy search "attention mechanism" --limit 10 uvx arxivy search "transformers" -c cs.CL -n 20 uvx arxivy search "diffusion models" --sort submittedDate # Include abstracts in results uvx arxivy search "RLHF" -c cs.AI --abstract # Get paper details by arXiv ID (accepts bare IDs, versioned IDs, or full URLs) uvx arxivy paper 1706.03762 uvx arxivy paper 1706.03762 2010.11929 1810.04805 # compare multiple uvx arxivy paper 1706.03762 --json # Browse recent submissions in a category uvx arxivy new cs.AI uvx arxivy new cs.CL -n 20 --abstract # BibTeX export (fallback — prefer dblpcli for curated entries) uvx arxivy bibtex 1706.03762 uvx arxivy bibtex 1706.03762 2010.11929 > refs.bib ``` **Note on output:** arxivy auto-detects whether stdout is a terminal. In a terminal it shows Rich tables; when piped it outputs JSON. Use `--json` to force JSON in a terminal. ### Which tool to pick | Need | Use | |---|---| | Recommendations for a paper | `s2cli recommend` | | Citation/reference graph traversal | `s2cli citations` / `s2cli references` | | arXiv ID or DOI lookup | `s2cli paper` or `arxivy paper` | | Search arXiv directly (by category, recency) | `arxivy search` | | Browse new arXiv submissions | `arxivy new` | | Broadest search coverage | `openalexcli search` | | Filter by institution or journal | `openalexcli institution` / `openalexcli source` | | Aggregate stats (group-by) | `openalexcli search --group-by` | | ORCID-based author lookup | `openalexcli author get` | ## Getting BibTeX Use **dblpcli** for high-quality BibTeX sourced directly from DBLP (curated, consistent formatting). If a paper isn't in DBLP (e.g. a very recent arXiv preprint), fall back to `uvx arxivy bibtex `. ### Workflow 1. Find the paper's DBLP key by searching: ```bash uvx dblpcli search "attention is all you need" --format json ``` The `key` field in results (e.g., `conf/nips/VaswaniSPUJGKP17`) is what you need. 2. Export BibTeX: ```bash uvx dblpcli bibtex conf/nips/VaswaniSPUJGKP17 ``` 3. Batch export (multiple keys): ```bash uvx dblpcli bibtex conf/nips/VaswaniSPUJGKP17 journals/jmlr/KingmaB14 ``` 4. Custom citation key: ```bash uvx dblpcli bibtex conf/nips/VaswaniSPUJGKP17 --key vaswani2017attention ``` 5. Save to file: ```bash uvx dblpcli bibtex conf/nips/VaswaniSPUJGKP17 --output refs.bib ``` ### Full dblpcli command reference ```bash # Search publications (supports AND/OR operators, author: prefix) uvx dblpcli search "transformer attention" --format json uvx dblpcli search "deep learning" --year 2020-2024 --format json uvx dblpcli search "author:Vaswani" --limit 10 --format json # Get publication details uvx dblpcli pub conf/nips/VaswaniSPUJGKP17 --format json # Author workflow uvx dblpcli author search "Geoffrey Hinton" --format json # find PID uvx dblpcli author get --format json # author details uvx dblpcli author pubs --format json # list publications uvx dblpcli author bibtex # BibTeX for ALL papers # Venue queries uvx dblpcli venue search "NeurIPS" --format json uvx dblpcli venue pubs conf/nips --year 2023 --format json ``` ## Common Workflows ### Literature survey 1. Search broadly: `uvx s2cli search "topic" --json` or `uvx openalexcli search "topic" --json` 2. Find key papers, explore their citations: `uvx s2cli citations --json` 3. Get recommendations: `uvx s2cli recommend --json` 4. For each paper, find the DBLP key: `uvx dblpcli search "paper title" --format json` 5. Export BibTeX: `uvx dblpcli bibtex --output refs.bib` ### Build a bibliography from a list of papers 1. For each paper title, search DBLP: `uvx dblpcli search "title" --format json` 2. Collect DBLP keys from results 3. Batch export: `uvx dblpcli bibtex ... --output refs.bib` ### Citation network exploration 1. Start with a seed paper: `uvx s2cli paper ARXIV:1706.03762 --json` 2. Get citing papers: `uvx s2cli citations ARXIV:1706.03762 --limit 20 --json` 3. Get referenced papers: `uvx s2cli references ARXIV:1706.03762 --limit 20 --json` 4. Find related work: `uvx s2cli recommend ARXIV:1706.03762 --json` ### Get all papers by an author - From DBLP: `uvx dblpcli author search "Name" --format json` → `uvx dblpcli author bibtex ` - From Semantic Scholar: `uvx s2cli author search "Name" --json` → `uvx s2cli author papers --json` - From OpenAlex: `uvx openalexcli author search "Name" --json` → `uvx openalexcli author works --json` ## Configuration | Variable | Purpose | Required | |---|---|---| | `S2_API_KEY` | Semantic Scholar API key (higher rate limits) | No | | `OPENALEX_EMAIL` | OpenAlex polite pool (faster responses) | No | Both tools work without these but may hit rate limits on heavy use. ## When to Use Use this skill when the user asks about: - Finding academic papers or research on a topic - Citations, references, or bibliography - BibTeX entries or .bib files - Paper recommendations or related work - Author publication lists - Literature reviews or surveys - DOI, arXiv, or paper lookups - Browsing recent arXiv submissions in a category