Author endpoint does not work with single author

[raffaem]

The author endpoint does not seem to work if we have a single author:

> authors_from_names <- oa_fetch(
+   entity = "authors",
+   display_name = c("Massimo Aria"),
+   has_orcid = TRUE
+ )
Warning in oa_request(oa_query(filter = filter_i, multiple_id = multiple_id,  :
  No records found!

[yjunechoe]

Please ignore the above. As documented in the search argument of ?oa_fetch():

To filter using search, append .search to the end of the attribute you're filtering for.

oa_fetch(
  entity = "authors",
  display_name.search = "Massimo Aria",
  has_orcid = TRUE
)
#> # A tibble: 1 × 15
#>   id                  display_name display_name_alterna…¹ relevance_score ids   orcid works_count
#>   <chr>               <chr>        <list>                           <dbl> <lis> <chr>       <int>
#> 1 https://openalex.o… Massimo Aria <chr [4]>                       17263. <chr> http…         199
#> # ℹ abbreviated name: ¹​display_name_alternatives
#> # ℹ 8 more variables: cited_by_count <int>, counts_by_year <list>, `2yr_mean_citedness` <dbl>,
#> #   h_index <int>, i10_index <int>, last_known_institutions <list>, topics <list>,
#> #   works_api_url <chr>```

[raffaem]

That doesn't work for me:

> oa_fetch(
+   entity = "authors",
+   display_name.search = "Massimo Aria",
+   has_orcid = TRUE
+ )
Error: lexical error: invalid char in json text.
                                       There was an error processing y
                     (right here) ------^
7.
parse_string(txt, bigint_as_char)
6.
parseJSON(txt, bigint_as_char)
5.
parse_and_simplify(txt = txt, simplifyVector = simplifyVector,
simplifyDataFrame = simplifyDataFrame, simplifyMatrix = simplifyMatrix,
flatten = flatten, ...)
4.
jsonlite::fromJSON(m, simplifyVector = FALSE) at oa_fetch.R#743
3.
api_request(query_url, ua, query = query_ls, api_key = api_key,
parse = FALSE) at oa_fetch.R#338
2.
oa_request(oa_query(filter = filter_i, multiple_id = multiple_id,
identifier = identifier, entity = entity, search = search,
options = options, group_by = group_by, endpoint = endpoint,
verbose = verbose), per_page = per_page, paging = paging, ... at oa_fetch.R#126
1.
oa_fetch(entity = "authors", display_name.search = "Massimo Aria",
has_orcid = TRUE)

[yjunechoe]

The error you're getting is unrelated - the OpenAlex API seems to be having a site-wide problem of handling mailto information (your contact email). See: #323

Can you try again with the mailto option set to NULL?

options(openalexR.mailto = NULL)

oa_fetch(
  entity = "authors",
  display_name.search = "Massimo Aria",
  has_orcid = TRUE
)
#> # A tibble: 1 × 15
#>   id           display_name display_name_alterna…¹ relevance_score ids   orcid works_count cited_by_count counts_by_year `2yr_mean_citedness`
#>   <chr>        <chr>        <list>                           <dbl> <lis> <chr>       <int>          <int> <list>                        <dbl>
#> 1 https://ope… Massimo Aria <chr [4]>                       10027. <chr> http…         199          12397 <df [14 × 3]>                  6.17
#> # ℹ abbreviated name: ¹​display_name_alternatives
#> # ℹ 5 more variables: h_index <int>, i10_index <int>, last_known_institutions <list>, topics <list>, works_api_url <chr>

[trangdata]

Thanks @raffaem for reporting! OpenAlex has just fixed this mailto issue, so June's code snippet above works for me. Could you please try again?

library(openalexR)
authors_from_names <- oa_fetch(
  entity = "authors",
  display_name.search = c("Massimo Aria"),
  has_orcid = TRUE
)
#> # A tibble: 1 × 15
#>   id             display_name display_name_alterna…¹ relevance_score ids   orcid
#>   <chr>          <chr>        <list>                           <dbl> <lis> <chr>
#> 1 https://opena… Massimo Aria <chr [4]>                       10027. <chr> http…
#> # ℹ abbreviated name: ¹​display_name_alternatives
#> # ℹ 9 more variables: works_count <int>, cited_by_count <int>,
#> #   counts_by_year <list>, `2yr_mean_citedness` <dbl>, h_index <int>,
#> #   i10_index <int>, last_known_institutions <list>, topics <list>,
#> #   works_api_url <chr>

^{Created on 2025-02-17 with reprex v2.0.2}

[raffaem]

I can't right now. Will try in a few days.