SerpApi Official

Get live Google Search data and more from SerpApi's official node

Actions72

Search Actions

Overview

This node integrates with SerpApi's official API to perform live Google Scholar searches. It allows users to query scholarly articles, filter results by various parameters such as publication year, language, and content type, and retrieve structured search results or raw HTML data. This node is beneficial for researchers, academics, and developers who want to automate the retrieval of academic literature metadata and citations from Google Scholar without manual browsing.

Practical examples include:

Searching for recent publications on a specific topic.
Retrieving citing articles for a given paper.
Filtering results to only show review articles.
Limiting searches to certain languages or years.
Fetching multiple versions of an article.

Properties

Name	Meaning
Search Query (q)	The main search query string to find relevant scholarly articles.
Additional Fields	A collection of optional parameters to refine the search:
- Cited By (cites)	Unique ID of an article to find documents that cite it; can be combined with the query to search within citing articles.
- Year From (as_ylo)	Filter results to include only those published from this year onward.
- Year Until (as_yhi)	Filter results to include only those published up to this year.
- Sort By Date (scisbd)	Choose sorting by date for articles added in the last year; options are "Abstracts" or "Everything".
- Versions Of (cluster)	Unique ID of an article to retrieve all its versions.
- Language (hl)	Language code to use for the search interface and results (e.g., "en" for English).
- Set Multiple Languages (lr)	Limit search results to one or more languages using language codes separated by "
- Result Offset (start)	Skip a number of results before returning data (useful for pagination).
- Number of Results (num)	Maximum number of results to return, between 1 and 20.
- Search Type/Filter (as_sdt)	Defines search type or filter mode; see SerpApi docs for details.
- Adult Content Filtering (safe)	Level of filtering for adult content; options are "Active" (default) or "Off".
- Results Filtering (filter)	Enable or disable filters for "Similar Results" and "Omitted Results".
- Exclude Citations (as_vis)	Whether to exclude citation-only results.
- Review Articles Only (as_rr)	Return only review articles discussing topics or authors searched for.
- Disable Caching (no_cache)	Force fresh results instead of cached ones; cache expires after 1 hour. Cannot be used with async.
- Async (async)	Perform search asynchronously; submit query and retrieve results later via Search Archive API. Cannot be used with no_cache or on accounts with Ludicrous Speed enabled.
- ZeroTrace Mode (zero_trace)	Enterprise feature to avoid storing search parameters and metadata on SerpApi servers; may complicate debugging.
- Output (output)	Format of the output; "json" (default) returns structured JSON, "html" returns raw HTML.
- JSON Restrictor (json_restrictor)	Restrict returned JSON fields to specified paths, e.g., "organic_results[0:3].{title,snippet}".

Output

The node outputs a JSON object containing the search results from Google Scholar as returned by SerpApi. The structure includes metadata about the search, lists of organic results (articles), citations, versions, and other relevant scholarly information depending on the query parameters.

If the output format is set to "html," the node returns the raw HTML content retrieved from Google Scholar.

No binary data output is indicated.

Dependencies

Requires an active SerpApi account and a valid API key credential configured in n8n.
Internet access to call SerpApi endpoints.
No additional external dependencies beyond the SerpApi service.

Troubleshooting

Common Issues:
- Missing or invalid API key will cause authentication errors.
- Using incompatible parameter combinations (e.g., no_cache with async) will result in request failures.
- Requesting too many results (num > 20) may be rejected.
- Incorrect language codes or malformed JSON restrictor strings may lead to unexpected results or errors.
Error Messages:
- Authentication errors indicate missing or incorrect API credentials.
- Parameter validation errors suggest invalid or conflicting input properties.
- Rate limiting or quota exceeded errors mean the SerpApi usage limits have been reached; consider upgrading your plan or reducing request frequency.
Resolutions:
- Verify API key configuration in n8n credentials.
- Check property values against allowed ranges and formats.
- Avoid conflicting parameters like no_cache and async together.
- Consult SerpApi documentation for parameter usage and limits.