{"id":44,"slug":"openalex-semantic-scholar-citation-graphs","title":"OpenAlex (271M works) and Semantic Scholar (214M+ works) — open scholarly citation graphs at scale","kind":"reference","scope":"business","status":"current","audiences":["claude-code","candid-team"],"topics":["content-architecture","knowledge-base"],"reference_body":"**Claim:** Two open scholarly knowledge graphs operate at scale:\n\n- **OpenAlex** (OurResearch nonprofit) — **271.3 million works** as of November 2025; launched 2022 to replace the discontinued Microsoft Academic Graph\n- **Semantic Scholar** (Allen Institute for AI) — over **214 million publications**, **80M+ authors**, **2.4B+ citation edges** in its 2023 snapshot per S2AG paper (arXiv:2301.10140)\n\n**Sources:** Codina et al. (ResearchGate analysis) for OpenAlex; S2AG paper arXiv:2301.10140 for Semantic Scholar.\n\n**Confidence:** Verified.\n\n**Open citation milestone:** Open-citation data crossed **1 billion public-domain citations in February 2021**, marking what Hutchins called an irreversible shift away from closed commercial providers. (arXiv:2106.04695.)\n\n**Use for Candid:** Reference when arguing that \"citation graphs\" are mature, working infrastructure — not a science-fiction concept. The agency methodology is borrowing a pattern that already operates at 271M-node scale.","rationale_body":null,"metadata":null,"links":{"outgoing":[{"slug":"wikipedia-verifiability-policy","title":"Wikipedia verifiability policy: all challenged material must carry an inline citation to a reliable published source","kind":"reference","scope":"business","link_type":"relates-to"}],"incoming":[{"slug":"research-brief-kb-backed-website-methodology","title":"Research brief: The knowledge-base-backed website (piece 3 of 15)","kind":"reference","scope":"business","link_type":"relates-to"}]},"created_at":"2026-05-22T18:57:39.650Z","updated_at":"2026-05-22T18:57:39.650Z"}