# Semantic Scholar API: Search papers > 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. Unofficial. Not affiliated with or endorsed by Semantic Scholar. - Page: https://fous.com/methods/semanticscholar.org/search-papers - Method: `semanticscholar.org/search_papers`, version 1 - Website: semanticscholar.org - Returns: title, authors, year, venue, citations, summary, free PDF link, paper link - 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 | |---|---|---|---|---| | `field` | string | no | `"Computer Science"` | Field of study in plain words, for example Medicine or Computer Science. | | `query` | string | yes | `"graph neural networks"` | Topic or words from a paper title, for example long covid fatigue. | | `end_year` | integer | no | `2024` | Latest publication year, for example 2025. | | `start_year` | integer | no | `2021` | Earliest publication year, for example 2020. | | `max_results` | integer | no | `12` | Maximum papers to return, for example 10 (up to 100). Default 10. | | `open_access_only` | boolean | no | `true` | Only show open-access papers, for example true. Default false. | ## Output From a run on Oct 31, 2026, shortened. Its input: ```json { "field": "Computer Science", "query": "graph neural networks", "end_year": 2024, "start_year": 2021, "max_results": 12, "open_access_only": true } ``` Its output: ```json { "papers": [ { "year": 2021, "title": "E(3)-equivariant graph neural networks for data-efficient and accurate interatomic potentials", "venue": "Nature Communications", "authors": [ "Simon L. Batzner", "Albert Musaelian", "Li-Xin Sun" ], "summary": "NequIP achieves state-of-the-art accuracy, can faithfully describe dynamics of complex systems with remarkable sample efficiency and outperforms existing models with up to three orders of magnitude fewer training data, challenging the widely held belief that deep neural networks require massive trai…", "paper_id": "7456dea3a3646f2df6392773a196a5abd0d53b11", "paper_link": "https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/7456dea3a3646f2df6392773a196a5abd0d53b11", "free_pdf_link": "https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-022-29939-5.pdf", "number_of_citations": 2395 }, { "year": 2022, "title": "Rethinking Graph Neural Networks for Anomaly Detection", "venue": "International Conference on Machine Learning", "authors": [ "Jianheng Tang", "Jiajin Li", "Zi-Chao Gao" ], "summary": "This work proposes the Beta Wavelet Graph Neural Network (BWGNN), which has spectral and spatial localized band-pass filters to better handle the `right-shift' phenomenon in anomalies.", "paper_id": "53e80869c6582d7f95ef0a351170736afd1742d0", "paper_link": "https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/53e80869c6582d7f95ef0a351170736afd1742d0", "free_pdf_link": "https://arxiv.org/pdf/2205.15508", "number_of_citations": 438 }, { "year": 2024, "title": "A review of graph neural networks: concepts, architectures, techniques, challenges, datasets, applications, and future directions", "venue": "Journal of Big Data", "authors": [ "B. Khemani", "S. Patil", "K. Kotecha" ], "summary": "The paper delves into specific GNN models like graph convolution networks (GCNs), GraphSAGE, and graph attention networks (GATs), which are widely used in various applications today and offers an extensive overview of the landscape of GNN research and its practical implementations.", "paper_id": "1fad14bcfc2b75797c686a5a05779076437a683e", "paper_link": "https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/1fad14bcfc2b75797c686a5a05779076437a683e", "free_pdf_link": "https://journalofbigdata.springeropen.com/counter/pdf/10.1186/s40537-023-00876-4", "number_of_citations": 584 } ] } ``` ## 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":"semanticscholar.org/search_papers","input":{"field":"Computer Science","query":"graph neural networks","end_year":2024,"start_year":2021,"max_results":12,"open_access_only":true}}' ``` 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 - Find open-access papers on CRISPR off-target effects published between 2019 and 2024, with free PDF links if available - Search Semantic Scholar for the top 20 computer science papers about retrieval-augmented generation from 2023 onward - I need recent medicine research on long COVID fatigue in adolescents — give me titles, citation counts and a one-line summary of each - What are the most relevant papers on microplastics in freshwater fish since 2015? Only free-to-read ones, please, max 15 results. - Use semanticscholar.org to look up economics papers on universal basic income pilot programs from 2010 to 2022 and show venues and authors ## Input schema ```json { "type": "object", "required": [ "query" ], "properties": { "field": { "type": "string", "description": "Field of study in plain words, for example Medicine or Computer Science." }, "query": { "type": "string", "minLength": 1, "description": "Topic or words from a paper title, for example long covid fatigue." }, "end_year": { "type": "integer", "maximum": 2100, "minimum": 1800, "description": "Latest publication year, for example 2025." }, "start_year": { "type": "integer", "maximum": 2100, "minimum": 1800, "description": "Earliest publication year, for example 2020." }, "max_results": { "type": "integer", "default": 10, "maximum": 100, "minimum": 1, "description": "Maximum papers to return, for example 10 (up to 100)." }, "open_access_only": { "type": "boolean", "default": false, "description": "Only show open-access papers, for example true." } } } ``` ## Output schema ```json { "type": "object", "required": [ "papers" ], "properties": { "papers": { "type": "array", "items": { "type": "object", "required": [ "title", "authors", "year", "venue", "number_of_citations", "summary", "free_pdf_link", "paper_link", "paper_id" ], "properties": { "year": { "type": [ "integer", "null" ] }, "title": { "type": "string" }, "venue": { "type": [ "string", "null" ] }, "authors": { "type": "array", "items": { "type": "string" } }, "summary": { "type": [ "string", "null" ] }, "paper_id": { "type": "string" }, "paper_link": { "type": "string" }, "free_pdf_link": { "type": [ "string", "null" ] }, "number_of_citations": { "type": [ "integer", "null" ] } }, "additionalProperties": false } } }, "additionalProperties": false } ``` ## See more - [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. - [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. - [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. - [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. - [NIH API: Search PubMed articles](https://fous.com/methods/pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/search-articles.md): Finds PubMed medical and life-science articles by topic, with publication details and free full-text links when PubMed confirms them. - [bioRxiv API: Search preprints](https://fous.com/methods/biorxiv.org/search-preprints.md): Finds bioRxiv and medRxiv preprints whose title, abstract or subject matches all topic words, within a posting date range, newest first. Adds published journal details when available. - [Unpaywall API: Get free version of a paper](https://fous.com/methods/unpaywall.org/get-free-version.md): Finds a legal free copy of a paper by title or DOI, with its best available link and other copies. If no free copy is indexed, the copy links are null. - [arXiv API: Get paper](https://fous.com/methods/arxiv.org/get-paper.md): Gets an arXiv paper's title, authors, abstract, subjects, submission dates and publication details from its exact title, arXiv link or number. - [All Semantic Scholar methods](https://fous.com/methods/semanticscholar.org.md)