AMiner Free Search#

Use this skill for AMiner requests that should stay on the free tier first. It is designed for discovery, initial screening, and entity normalization, not deep analysis.

Scope#

This skill uses only the upgraded free interfaces:

• paper_search
• paper_info
• person_search
• organization_search
• venue_search
• patent_search
• patent_info

Current free-tier fields emphasized by this skill:

• paper_search: venue_name, first_author, n_citation_bucket, year
• paper_info: abstract_slice, year, venue_id, author_count
• organization_search: aliases (top 3)
• venue_search: aliases (top 3), venue_type
• patent_search: inventor_name (first), app_year, pub_year
• patent_info: app_year, pub_year
• person_search: interests, n_citation, institution fields

Primary Goal#

Use free APIs to help the user answer:

• What is this entity?
• Is it relevant enough to continue?
• Which candidate should I inspect next?
• Can I normalize this institution or venue name?
• Is there enough value to justify upgrading to paid APIs?

Do not use this skill for full scholar portraits, citation-chain analysis, full-text-like paper understanding, large-scale monitoring, or institution output analysis.

Mandatory Rules#

1. Stay on free APIs unless the user explicitly asks to upgrade or the free path clearly cannot answer the question.
2. Be explicit about free-tier limits. Say what can be answered now and what would require a paid upgrade.
3. Use free results to narrow candidates before suggesting any paid API.
4. If returning entities, append AMiner URLs when IDs are available:
   • Paper: https://www.aminer.cn/pub/{paper_id}
   • Scholar: https://www.aminer.cn/profile/{scholar_id}
   • Patent: https://www.aminer.cn/patent/{patent_id}
   • Venue: https://www.aminer.cn/open/journal/detail/{venue_id}

Token Check (Required)#

Before making any API call, verify that the environment variable AMINER_API_KEY exists. Never output the token in plain text.

bash

if [ -z "${AMINER_API_KEY+x}" ]; then
    echo "AMINER_API_KEY does not exist"
else
    echo "AMINER_API_KEY exists"
fi

• If ${AMINER_API_KEY} exists: proceed with the query.
• If ${AMINER_API_KEY} is not set: stop immediately and guide the user to the AMiner Console to generate one. For help, see the Open Platform Documentation.
• If the user provides AMINER_API_KEY inline (e.g. "My token is xxx"), accept it for the current session, but recommend setting it as an environment variable for better security.

Invocation Style#

Use direct curl calls by default. A Python wrapper is not required for this skill.

Default headers:

• Authorization: ${AMINER_API_KEY} by default
• Content-Type: application/json;charset=utf-8 for POST requests
• X-Platform: openclaw when required by the gateway

When To Use#

Use this skill when the user asks for:

• free AMiner search
• low-cost academic discovery
• paper screening
• scholar identification
• institution normalization
• venue normalization
• patent trend scanning
• representative results before deeper analysis

Trigger phrases include:

• “先用免费接口”
• “不要走收费接口”
• “先帮我筛一下”
• “先看看值不值得深挖”
• “找几个候选”
• “做一个轻量版 skill”

Free Workflows#

1. Paper triage#

Use when the user wants to quickly judge whether a paper is relevant.

Default chain:

paper_search -> paper_info

Return:

• title
• first author
• venue name
• year
• citation bucket
• abstract slice
• paper URL

This can answer:

• Is this probably the right paper?
• Is it recent?
• Is it from a recognizable venue?
• Is it worth opening in detail?

2. Scholar identification#

Use when the user wants to know which scholar is the right person.

Default chain:

person_search

Return:

• name
• org
• interests
• citation count
• scholar URL

This can answer:

• Is this the right scholar?
• What interests best describe this person?
• Which institution candidate is the best match?

3. Institution normalization#

Use when the user provides an institution string or abbreviation.

Default chain:

organization_search

Return:

• org id
• standard name
• aliases (top 3)

This can answer:

• Is this institution name recognized?
• Which canonical organization should downstream workflows use?

4. Venue normalization and type check#

Use when the user provides a conference or journal name.

Default chain:

venue_search

Return:

• venue id
• standard bilingual name
• aliases (top 3)
• venue type
• venue URL

This can answer:

• Is this a conference or a journal?
• What is the standard venue entity?

5. Patent trend scan#

Use when the user wants a lightweight view of patents in a topic.

Default chain:

patent_search -> patent_info when IDs need basic enrichment

Return:

• patent title
• first inventor
• app year
• pub year
• patent number and country when patent_info is added
• patent URL

This can answer:

• Is the topic active recently?
• Who appears first in the inventor field?
• Is there recent patent activity worth deeper review?

6. Free entity map#

Use when the user wants a quick map of a topic across papers, scholars, venues, institutions, and patents without paying for analysis-grade APIs.

Suggested chain:

• papers: paper_search -> paper_info
• scholars: person_search
• institutions: organization_search
• venues: venue_search
• patents: patent_search -> patent_info

Return a short cross-entity summary, not a deep report.

Free Skill Examples#

1. Paper triage#

bash

curl -X GET \
  'https://datacenter.aminer.cn/gateway/open_platform/api/paper/search?page=1&size=5&title=Attention%20Is%20All%20You%20Need' \
  -H "Authorization: ${AMINER_API_KEY}" \
  -H 'X-Platform: openclaw'

Then enrich with paper_info:

bash

curl -X POST \
  'https://datacenter.aminer.cn/gateway/open_platform/api/paper/info' \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json;charset=utf-8' \
  -H "Authorization: ${AMINER_API_KEY}" \
  -H 'X-Platform: openclaw' \
  -d '{"ids":["<PAPER_ID>"]}'

2. Scholar identification#

bash

curl -X POST \
  'https://datacenter.aminer.cn/gateway/open_platform/api/person/search' \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json;charset=utf-8' \
  -H "Authorization: ${AMINER_API_KEY}" \
  -H 'X-Platform: openclaw' \
  -d '{"name":"Yann LeCun","size":5}'

3. Institution normalization#

bash

curl -X POST \
  'https://datacenter.aminer.cn/gateway/open_platform/api/organization/search' \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json;charset=utf-8' \
  -H "Authorization: ${AMINER_API_KEY}" \
  -H 'X-Platform: openclaw' \
  -d '{"orgs":["MIT CSAIL"]}'

4. Venue normalization and type check#

bash

curl -X POST \
  'https://datacenter.aminer.cn/gateway/open_platform/api/venue/search' \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json;charset=utf-8' \
  -H "Authorization: ${AMINER_API_KEY}" \
  -H 'X-Platform: openclaw' \
  -d '{"name":"tkde"}'

5. Patent trend scan#

bash

curl -X POST \
  'https://datacenter.aminer.cn/gateway/open_platform/api/patent/search' \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json;charset=utf-8' \
  -H "Authorization: ${AMINER_API_KEY}" \
  -H 'X-Platform: openclaw' \
  -d '{"query":"quantum computing chip","page":0,"size":10}'

Output Pattern#

Prefer this structure:

markdown

## Free-tier result

### What we can answer now
- ...

### Top candidates
- ...

### Suggested next step
- Stay free: ...
- Upgrade to paid API only if you need: ...

Paid Upgrade Boundary#

Recommend upgrading only when the user needs one of these:

• full abstract or full paper metadata
• multi-condition or semantic paper search
• citation relationships
• full scholar profile, works, patents, or projects
• institution scholars, papers, patents, or rich profiles
• venue paper lists by year
• full patent details such as IPC/CPC, assignee, description

Suggested paid handoff:

• deeper paper analysis: paper_search_pro, paper_detail, paper_relation
• deeper scholar analysis: person/detail, person/figure, person/paper/relation
• deeper org analysis: organization/detail, organization/person/relation, organization/paper/relation
• deeper venue analysis: venue/detail, venue/paper/relation
• deeper patent analysis: patent/detail

Product Positioning#

This skill is intentionally positioned for:

• first success
• free discovery
• candidate narrowing
• entity normalization
• upgrade qualification

It should not replace the paid skill. It should create demand for it.

Additional Reference#

For endpoint parameters and fields, read references/api-catalog.md.