Google Scholar paper scraper in n8n
Search Google Scholar by keyword and get structured records for papers and citations, with author, venue, year, citation counts, and links to PDFs and related work. Filter by year range, document format, and article type.
What this workflow does
Import it and n8n runs the Google Scholar Paper & Citation Search Scraper Actor on Apify every day at 08:00 with the starter input below. Each row comes back with title, author, authors, year and 9 more. A Google Sheets append is included and stays off until you add your sheet. The only credential it needs is your Apify API token.
Read from the workflow file, built for Google Scholar Paper & Citation Search Scraper version 1.0.2. Updated 2026-11-14.How the rows travel
6 nodes, in the order n8n runs them. The yellow stop is the call to the Apify Actor; the dashed stop is optional.
- Daily trigger Schedule trigger
- Configure input Code
- Run Apify Actor HTTP Request
- Normalize + dedupe Code
- Rows ready No operation
- Google Sheets (optional) Google Sheets, off until you switch it on
From the Short
This workflow is the one the video points to: the number in each video opens this page.
Input
The Configure input node holds the starter input. Change it there; every setting the Actor accepts is listed below.
{
"queries": [
"attention is all you need"
],
"maxItems": 25
}| Setting | Type | Required | Default | What it does |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| mode | string | No | search | What to fetch: paper search, citing papers, or public author profiles. One of: search, citations, authorProfile. |
| queries | array | No | – | Keywords or paper titles to search on Google Scholar (mode=search). Each query runs separately. |
| clusterIds | array | No | – | Paper cluster IDs or Google Scholar 'cites=' URLs to list citing papers for (mode=citations). |
| authorIds | array | No | – | Google Scholar author IDs or profile URLs to export (mode=authorProfile). |
| maxItems | integer | No | 100 | Maximum papers per query or cluster, or papers per author. Google Scholar serves about 10 search results per page. |
| sortBy | string | No | relevance | Sort search results by relevance or date (mode=search). One of: relevance, date. |
| filter | string | No | all | Keep only PDF or HTML results; applied to returned rows (mode=search). One of: all, pdfOnly, htmlOnly. |
| articleType | string | No | any | Return all articles or review articles only (mode=search). One of: any, review. |
| newerThan | integer | No | – | Only include papers published in this year or later (mode=search). |
| olderThan | integer | No | – | Only include papers published in this year or earlier (mode=search). |
| author | string | No | – | Return papers written by this author, e.g. 'Geoffrey Hinton' (mode=search). |
| publication | string | No | – | Return papers from this journal or venue, e.g. 'Nature' (mode=search). |
| titleOnly | boolean | No | false | Match the query against paper titles instead of the full text (mode=search). |
| includeCitationFormats | boolean | No | false | Also return MLA, APA, Chicago, Harvard, and Vancouver citations for returned rows, within a bounded budget (mode=search or citations). |
| includePaperDetails | boolean | No | false | Fetch journal, volume, pages, publisher, and abstract for each author publication (mode=authorProfile). |
What each row holds
Every field the Actor returns stays in the row (13 in its dataset schema). Normalize + dedupe trims text, drops empty fields and adds _source and _scrapedAt. The main fields:
| Field | What it is |
|---|---|
| title | Title |
| name | Author |
| authors | Authors |
| year | Year |
| publication | Publication |
| citations | Citations |
| documentType | Type |
| documentLink | PDF/HTML |
| link | Link |
| clusterId | Cluster |
| scholarUrl | Scholar URL |
What the first run costs
With the starter input (maxItems = 25) a first run costs about $0.42 on the Apify Free plan: $0.40 to start the run at 4 GB of memory and $0.02 for the results, plus platform usage.
The Actor lists $0.99 per 1,000 results; its catalogue page breaks the price down by Apify plan. The Apify Free plan includes $5 of usage a month.
The Actor behind it
Google Scholar Paper & Citation Search Scraper: Search Google Scholar by keyword and get structured records for papers and citations, with author, venue, year, citation counts, and links to PDFs and related work. Filter by year range, document format, and article type.
The same job from an AI agent
The matching agent skill gives Claude Code, Codex, Cursor and other agents the same Actor, input and fields. Install it in one line:
npx skills add https://scraperfinder.com --skill google-scholar-paper-and-citation-search-scraper The google Scholar paper scraper skill, with manual install and run steps
Questions people ask
How do I import this workflow into n8n?
Copy https://scraperfinder.com/n8n/google-scholar-paper-and-citation-search-scraper.json. In n8n, open a new workflow, click the three-dot menu, choose Import from URL and paste it. Or download the JSON file and use Import from File; both give the same 6 nodes.
Do I need an Apify account?
Yes. The workflow calls the Google Scholar Paper & Citation Search Scraper Actor through the Apify API with your own token, and each run is billed to your Apify account. The Free plan includes $5 of usage a month.
What does a run cost?
With the starter input (maxItems = 25) a first run costs about $0.42 on the Apify Free plan: $0.40 to start the run at 4 GB of memory and $0.02 for the results, plus platform usage. The Actor's Store page shows the current price.
Can I change what it collects?
Yes: edit the input object in the Configure input node. The Actor takes 15 settings; the table on this page lists each one with its default. Raise maxItems once the first rows look right.
Does it work without Google Sheets?
Yes. The rows wait in the Rows ready node, so you can connect any other node there: a database, Airtable, a webhook or an email. The Google Sheets node is only one option.
Workflow updated 2026-11-14