# OpenAlex API: Get institution research summary

> Summarise an institution's research output from its name, including annual output, leading topics and authors. Annual citations count citations received by works published that year; leading authors are coauthors of institution-linked works, not necessarily employees.

Unofficial. Not affiliated with or endorsed by OpenAlex.

- Page: https://fous.com/methods/openalex.org/get-institution-research
- Method: `openalex.org/get_institution_research`, version 1
- Website: openalex.org
- Returns: name, type, location, homepage, totals, works and citations by year, top topics, top authors, links
- Effect: read (it gets data and changes nothing)
- Sign-in: none needed
- Cost: 1 credit per completed run (1¢ with pay as you go); failed runs are free
- Verified: Nov 2, 2026

## Inputs

| Field | Type | Required | In the run below | Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| `institution` | string | yes | `"Pfizer"` | Name of the university, hospital or company, for example MIT or Pfizer. |

## Output

From a run on Oct 31, 2026, shortened. Its input:

```json
{
  "institution": "Pfizer"
}
```

Its output:

```json
{
  "city": "New York",
  "name": "Pfizer (United States)",
  "type": "company",
  "country": "United States",
  "homepage": "https://www.pfizer.com/",
  "ror_link": "https://ror.org/01xdqrp08",
  "top_topics": [
    {
      "name": "Monoclonal and Polyclonal Antibodies Research",
      "works": 1328,
      "openalex_link": "https://openalex.org/T11016"
    },
    {
      "name": "Health Systems, Economic Evaluations, Quality of Life",
      "works": 1291,
      "openalex_link": "https://openalex.org/T10804"
    },
    {
      "name": "Computational Drug Discovery Methods",
      "works": 1289,
      "openalex_link": "https://openalex.org/T10211"
    }
  ],
  "top_authors": [
    {
      "name": "Jie Jack Li",
      "works": 728,
      "openalex_link": "https://openalex.org/A5047418048"
    },
    {
      "name": "Joseph C. Cappelleri",
      "works": 683,
      "openalex_link": "https://openalex.org/A5091669022"
    },
    {
      "name": "Bradford D. Gessner",
      "works": 305,
      "openalex_link": "https://openalex.org/A5070628953"
    }
  ],
  "total_works": 43014,
  "openalex_link": "https://openalex.org/I180857899",
  "total_citations": 8675601,
  "openalex_institution_id": "I180857899",
  "works_and_citations_by_year": [
    {
      "year": 2017,
      "works": 1396,
      "citations": 67257
    },
    {
      "year": 2018,
      "works": 1496,
      "citations": 73092
    },
    {
      "year": 2019,
      "works": 1460,
      "citations": 55681
    }
  ]
}
```

## Run it

From code, with a Fous API key in `FOUS_API_KEY`; the answer's `data` holds the output:

```bash
curl https://api.fous.com/v1/runs \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $FOUS_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"method":"openalex.org/get_institution_research","input":{"institution":"Pfizer"}}'
```

From an AI agent connected to the Fous MCP server: its `run` with the same method and input. To connect one, give it `set up https://fous.com/SKILL.md`.

## Ask your agent

- Give me a research profile of ETH Zurich: how many papers they publish per year, their top research topics, and the most prolific authors on their papers.
- What are the main research areas and yearly publication counts for the Mayo Clinic according to OpenAlex?
- I need a quick overview of Novartis's scientific output — total works, citations by year, and leading topics.
- Pull up the OpenAlex summary for University of Cape Town, including its homepage, location, and top authors.
- How has Tsinghua University's publication volume and citation count changed over the years, and what fields does it focus on most?

## Input schema

```json
{
  "type": "object",
  "required": [
    "institution"
  ],
  "properties": {
    "institution": {
      "type": "string",
      "minLength": 1,
      "description": "Name of the university, hospital or company, for example MIT or Pfizer."
    }
  }
}
```

## Output schema

```json
{
  "type": "object",
  "required": [
    "name",
    "type",
    "city",
    "country",
    "homepage",
    "total_works",
    "total_citations",
    "works_and_citations_by_year",
    "top_topics",
    "top_authors",
    "openalex_link",
    "openalex_institution_id",
    "ror_link"
  ],
  "properties": {
    "city": {
      "type": [
        "string",
        "null"
      ]
    },
    "name": {
      "type": "string"
    },
    "type": {
      "type": [
        "string",
        "null"
      ],
      "description": "Institution category in words."
    },
    "country": {
      "type": [
        "string",
        "null"
      ]
    },
    "homepage": {
      "type": [
        "string",
        "null"
      ]
    },
    "ror_link": {
      "type": [
        "string",
        "null"
      ],
      "x-fous-developer": true
    },
    "top_topics": {
      "type": "array",
      "items": {
        "type": "object",
        "required": [
          "name",
          "works",
          "openalex_link"
        ],
        "properties": {
          "name": {
            "type": "string"
          },
          "works": {
            "type": "integer",
            "minimum": 0
          },
          "openalex_link": {
            "type": "string"
          }
        },
        "additionalProperties": false
      }
    },
    "top_authors": {
      "type": "array",
      "items": {
        "type": "object",
        "required": [
          "name",
          "works",
          "openalex_link"
        ],
        "properties": {
          "name": {
            "type": "string"
          },
          "works": {
            "type": "integer",
            "minimum": 0
          },
          "openalex_link": {
            "type": "string"
          }
        },
        "additionalProperties": false
      }
    },
    "total_works": {
      "type": "integer",
      "minimum": 0
    },
    "openalex_link": {
      "type": "string"
    },
    "total_citations": {
      "type": "integer",
      "minimum": 0
    },
    "openalex_institution_id": {
      "type": "string",
      "x-fous-developer": true
    },
    "works_and_citations_by_year": {
      "type": "array",
      "items": {
        "type": "object",
        "required": [
          "year",
          "works",
          "citations"
        ],
        "properties": {
          "year": {
            "type": "integer"
          },
          "works": {
            "type": "integer",
            "minimum": 0
          },
          "citations": {
            "type": "integer",
            "minimum": 0
          }
        },
        "additionalProperties": false
      }
    }
  },
  "additionalProperties": false
}
```

## See more

- [OpenAlex API: Search scholarly papers](https://fous.com/methods/openalex.org/search-papers.md): Searches OpenAlex scholarly works by topic, with optional institution, publication-year and open-access filters, ranked by relevance, citations or newest date.
- [Semantic Scholar API: Get researcher impact metrics](https://fous.com/methods/semanticscholar.org/get-author.md): Finds a Semantic Scholar author by name (optionally limited to a listed institution), picks the best-cited matching profile and returns their impact metrics and up to 10 most-cited papers.
- [topuniversities.com API: Get QS university profile](https://fous.com/methods/topuniversities.com/get-university.md): Finds a university's QS profile by name and returns its latest QS World University Ranking and overall score, location, student figures, faculty ratio, public tuition ranges and up to five listed subject ranks.
- [Semantic Scholar API: Search papers](https://fous.com/methods/semanticscholar.org/search-papers.md): Searches Semantic Scholar for research papers in relevance order, with field of study, year range and open-access filters, returning AI one-sentence summaries, citations and free PDF links when available.
- [ORCID API: Get researcher profile](https://fous.com/methods/orcid.org/get-researcher.md): Looks up a researcher's public ORCID profile by name or ORCID iD, with employment, education, funding and up to 100 works. An institution helps tell namesakes apart; private entries are left out.
- [Times Higher Education API: Get university profile](https://fous.com/methods/timeshighereducation.com/get-university.md): Looks up a university on Times Higher Education and returns its latest displayed world ranking, overall and pillar scores, student statistics and subject rankings.
- [arXiv API: Search papers](https://fous.com/methods/arxiv.org/search-papers.md): Finds arXiv preprints by topic or title words, with optional author, subject, submission date range and sorting. Returns up to 100 papers with abstracts, subjects, dates and links.
- [Semantic Scholar API: Get paper details](https://fous.com/methods/semanticscholar.org/get-paper.md): Finds a paper on Semantic Scholar by title, DOI or Semantic Scholar link and returns its abstract, one-sentence summary, authors, publication details, citation counts and a free PDF link when there is one.
- [All OpenAlex methods](https://fous.com/methods/openalex.org.md)