Overview
This node enables searching academic publications across multiple scholarly databases through a unified API. It is designed to help users find relevant academic papers, articles, and research documents by querying various providers such as Semantic Scholar, ArXiv, PubMed, Google Scholar, and ERIC.
Common scenarios include:
- Researchers looking for literature on a specific topic.
- Academics compiling references for a paper or review.
- Students gathering sources for assignments.
- Developers integrating academic search capabilities into workflows.
For example, a user can input a query like "machine learning in healthcare," select providers such as Semantic Scholar and PubMed, set limits and year filters, and receive structured search results with metadata fields like title, authors, abstract, and publication year.
Properties
| Name | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Query | The search string or keywords to find relevant academic publications. |
| Providers | Select one or more academic databases to search from: ArXiv, ERIC, Google Scholar, PubMed, Semantic Scholar. |
| Limit | Maximum number of results to return per provider (minimum 1). |
| Offset | Number of results to skip per provider, useful for pagination (minimum 0). |
| Year From | Filter to include only publications published from this year onward (inclusive). |
| Year To | Filter to include only publications published up to this year (inclusive). |
| Additional Fields | Optional selection of extra metadata fields to include in the response, such as: |
| - Abstract, Authors, Date, DOI, PDF URL, Provider, Provider Data, Provider URL, Title, | |
| - Total Citations, Total References, URL, Year |
Output
The node outputs an array of JSON objects representing academic publications matching the search criteria. Each object contains standard bibliographic information and any additional requested fields.
Typical fields in each result may include:
title: Title of the publication.authors: List of authors.abstract: Summary of the publication.date/year: Publication date or year.doi: Digital Object Identifier.url: Link to the publication.pdfURL: Direct link to the PDF if available.provider: Source database name.totalCitations,totalReferences: Citation metrics.providerData: Raw data from the provider.providerURL: URL at the provider's site.
No binary data output is produced by this operation.
Dependencies
- Requires an API key credential for authenticating with the external PDF Vector API service.
- The node makes HTTP POST requests to the PDF Vector API endpoints for academic search.
- Proper configuration of the API key credential in n8n is necessary.
- Internet access is required to reach the external API.
Troubleshooting
- No results returned: Check that the query string is not empty and that selected providers are valid. Also verify year filters are reasonable.
- Invalid API key error: Ensure the API key credential is correctly configured and active.
- Insufficient credits error: The external API requires credits; add more credits to your account if you encounter this.
- Rate limit exceeded: Too many requests in a short time may cause throttling; wait before retrying.
- Bad request errors: Usually caused by invalid parameters or malformed requests; verify all inputs especially JSON structures if used.
- Missing binary data errors: Not applicable for this operation but relevant for document parsing operations in the same node.