diff --git a/DESCRIPTION b/DESCRIPTION
index 92237d7..d38ecb4 100644
--- a/DESCRIPTION
+++ b/DESCRIPTION
@@ -32,7 +32,7 @@ URL: https://github.com/ropensci/openalexR,
     https://docs.ropensci.org/openalexR/
 BugReports: https://github.com/ropensci/openalexR/issues
 Imports: 
-    httr,
+    httr2,
     jsonlite,
     progress,
     rlang,
diff --git a/R/coro.R b/R/coro.R
index 96a017a..ef5bdf0 100644
--- a/R/coro.R
+++ b/R/coro.R
@@ -78,7 +78,7 @@ oa_generate <- function(...) {
                mailto = oa_email(),
                api_key = oa_apikey(),
                verbose = FALSE) {
-        ua <- httr::user_agent("https://github.com/ropensci/openalexR/")
+        ua <- "https://github.com/ropensci/openalexR/"
         query_ls <- list("per-page" = 200)
         if (!is.null(mailto)) {
           if (isValidEmail(mailto)) {
diff --git a/R/oa_fetch.R b/R/oa_fetch.R
index 050fbe2..2149a8b 100644
--- a/R/oa_fetch.R
+++ b/R/oa_fetch.R
@@ -83,7 +83,8 @@ oa_fetch <- function(entity = if (is.null(identifier)) NULL else id_type(shorten
                      count_only = FALSE,
                      mailto = oa_email(),
                      api_key = oa_apikey(),
-                     verbose = FALSE) {
+                     verbose = FALSE,
+                     timeout = 30) {
   output <- match.arg(output)
   entity <- match.arg(entity, oa_entities())
 
@@ -142,7 +143,8 @@ oa_fetch <- function(entity = if (is.null(identifier)) NULL else id_type(shorten
       mailto = mailto,
       api_key = api_key,
       parse = output != "raw",
-      verbose = verbose
+      verbose = verbose,
+      timeout = timeout
     )
   }
 
@@ -197,6 +199,10 @@ oa_fetch <- function(entity = if (is.null(identifier)) NULL else id_type(shorten
 #' If FALSE, returns the raw JSON response as string.
 #' @param verbose Logical.
 #' If TRUE, print information about the querying process. Defaults to TRUE.
+#' @param timeout Numeric.
+#' Maximum number of seconds to wait.
+#' An error will be thrown if the request does not complete in the time limit.
+#' Defaults to 30.
 #'
 #' @return a data.frame or a list of bibliographic records.
 #'
@@ -312,9 +318,10 @@ oa_request <- function(query_url,
                        mailto = oa_email(),
                        api_key = oa_apikey(),
                        parse = TRUE,
-                       verbose = FALSE) {
-  # https://httr.r-lib.org/articles/api-packages.html#set-a-user-agent
-  ua <- httr::user_agent("https://github.com/ropensci/openalexR/")
+                       verbose = FALSE,
+                       timeout = 30) {
+
+  ua <- "https://github.com/ropensci/openalexR/"
 
   # building query...
   is_group_by <- grepl("group_by", query_url)
@@ -335,7 +342,7 @@ oa_request <- function(query_url,
   }
 
   # first, download info about n. of items returned by the query
-  res <- api_request(query_url, ua, query = query_ls, api_key = api_key, parse = FALSE)
+  res <- api_request(query_url, ua, query = query_ls, api_key = api_key, parse = FALSE, timeout = timeout)
   res_parsed <- jsonlite::fromJSON(res, simplifyVector = FALSE)
   res_meta <- res_parsed$meta
   if (parse) {
@@ -364,7 +371,7 @@ oa_request <- function(query_url,
       if (verbose) cat("=")
       Sys.sleep(1 / 10)
       query_ls[[paging]] <- next_page
-      res <- api_request(query_url, ua, query = query_ls)
+      res <- api_request(query_url, ua, query = query_ls, timeout = timeout)
       data <- c(data, res[[result_name]])
       i <- i + 1
       next_page <- get_next_page("cursor", i, res)
@@ -412,10 +419,10 @@ oa_request <- function(query_url,
     query_ls[[paging]] <- next_page
 
     if (parse) {
-      res <- api_request(query_url, ua, query = query_ls, parse = TRUE)
+      res <- api_request(query_url, ua, query = query_ls, parse = TRUE, timeout  = timeout)
       if (!is.null(res[[result_name]])) data[[i]] <- res[[result_name]]
     } else {
-      raw <- api_request(query_url, ua, query = query_ls, parse = FALSE)
+      raw <- api_request(query_url, ua, query = query_ls, parse = FALSE, timeout  = timeout)
       data[[i]] <- raw
     }
   }
@@ -625,7 +632,7 @@ oa_query <- function(filter = NULL,
     flt_ready <- mapply(append_flt, filter, names(filter))
     flt_ready <- paste0(flt_ready, collapse = ",")
   } else {
-    flt_ready <- list()
+    flt_ready <- NULL
   }
 
   if (!is.null(options$select)) {
@@ -655,11 +662,19 @@ oa_query <- function(filter = NULL,
     query <- options
   }
 
-  query_url <- httr::modify_url(
-    endpoint,
-    path = path,
-    query = query
-  )
+  my_req_url_query <- function(x,y) {
+    if(!is.null(y)) {
+      return(do.call(\(...) httr2::req_url_query(x,...), y))
+    }
+    else {
+      return(x)
+    }
+  }
+
+  query_url <- httr2::request(endpoint) |>
+    httr2::req_url_path(path) |>
+    my_req_url_query(query) |>
+    _$url
 
   if (is.null(oa_print())) {
     url_display <- query_url
@@ -707,44 +722,50 @@ oa_random <- function(entity = oa_entities(),
   final_res
 }
 
-api_request <- function(query_url, ua, query, api_key = oa_apikey(), parse = TRUE) {
-  res <- httr::GET(query_url, ua, query = query, httr::add_headers(api_key = api_key))
+api_request <- function(query_url, ua, query, api_key = oa_apikey(), parse = TRUE, timeout=30) {
+  my_req_url_query <- \(x,y) do.call(\(...) httr2::req_url_query(x,...), y)
+  res <- httr2::request(query_url) |>
+    httr2::req_timeout(timeout) |>
+    httr2::req_user_agent(ua) |>
+    my_req_url_query(query) |>
+    httr2::req_headers(api_key = api_key) |>
+    httr2::req_perform()
 
   empty_res <- if (parse) list() else "{}"
 
-  if (httr::status_code(res) == 400) {
+  if (httr2::resp_status(res) == 400) {
     stop("HTTP status 400 Request Line is too large")
   }
 
-  if (httr::status_code(res) == 429) {
+  if (httr2::resp_status(res) == 429) {
     message("HTTP status 429 Too Many Requests")
     return(empty_res)
   }
 
-  m <- httr::content(res, "text", encoding = "UTF-8")
+  m <- httr2::resp_body_string(res)
   if (parse) {
     m <- jsonlite::fromJSON(m, simplifyVector = FALSE)
   }
 
-  if (httr::status_code(res) == 503) {
+  if (httr2::resp_status(res) == 503) {
     mssg <- regmatches(m, regexpr("(?<=<title>).*?(?=<\\/title>)", m, perl = TRUE))
     message(mssg, ". Please try setting `per_page = 25` in your function call!")
     return(empty_res)
   }
 
-  if (httr::status_code(res) == 200) {
-    if (httr::http_type(res) != "application/json") {
+  if (httr2::resp_status(res) == 200) {
+    if (httr2::resp_content_type(res) != "application/json") {
       stop("API did not return json", call. = FALSE)
     }
     return(m) # Depending on `parse`, results can be raw JSON or parsed R list
   }
 
-  if (httr::http_error(res)) {
+  if (httr2::resp_status(res)>=400) {
     parsed <- jsonlite::fromJSON(m, simplifyVector = FALSE)
     stop(
       sprintf(
         "OpenAlex API request failed [%s]\n%s\n<%s>",
-        httr::status_code(res),
+        httr2::resp_status(res),
         parsed$error,
         parsed$message
       ),
@@ -752,8 +773,8 @@ api_request <- function(query_url, ua, query, api_key = oa_apikey(), parse = TRU
     )
   }
 
-  if (httr::status_code(res) != 429 & httr::status_code(res) != 200) {
-    message("HTTP status ", httr::status_code(res))
+  if (httr2::resp_status(res) != 429 & httr2::resp_status(res) != 200) {
+    message("HTTP status ", httr2::resp_status(res))
     return(empty_res)
   }
 }
diff --git a/codemeta.json b/codemeta.json
index 7e306d5..b5576e0 100644
--- a/codemeta.json
+++ b/codemeta.json
@@ -178,15 +178,15 @@
     },
     "2": {
       "@type": "SoftwareApplication",
-      "identifier": "httr",
-      "name": "httr",
+      "identifier": "httr2",
+      "name": "httr2",
       "provider": {
         "@id": "https://cran.r-project.org",
         "@type": "Organization",
         "name": "Comprehensive R Archive Network (CRAN)",
         "url": "https://cran.r-project.org"
       },
-      "sameAs": "https://CRAN.R-project.org/package=httr"
+      "sameAs": "https://CRAN.R-project.org/package=httr2"
     },
     "3": {
       "@type": "SoftwareApplication",
diff --git a/man/oa_fetch.Rd b/man/oa_fetch.Rd
index c261ff3..42b837a 100644
--- a/man/oa_fetch.Rd
+++ b/man/oa_fetch.Rd
@@ -20,7 +20,8 @@ oa_fetch(
   count_only = FALSE,
   mailto = oa_email(),
   api_key = oa_apikey(),
-  verbose = FALSE
+  verbose = FALSE,
+  timeout = 30
 )
 }
 \arguments{
@@ -110,6 +111,11 @@ Your OpenAlex Premium API key, if available.}
 Default to \code{verbose = FALSE}.
 To shorten the printed query URL, set the environment variable openalexR.print
 to the number of characters to print: \code{Sys.setenv(openalexR.print = 70)}.}
+
+\item{timeout}{Numeric.
+Maximum number of seconds to wait.
+An error will be thrown if the request does not complete in the time limit.
+Defaults to 30.}
 }
 \value{
 A data.frame or a list. Result of the query.
diff --git a/man/oa_request.Rd b/man/oa_request.Rd
index 9de2c86..55f207d 100644
--- a/man/oa_request.Rd
+++ b/man/oa_request.Rd
@@ -13,7 +13,8 @@ oa_request(
   mailto = oa_email(),
   api_key = oa_apikey(),
   parse = TRUE,
-  verbose = FALSE
+  verbose = FALSE,
+  timeout = 30
 )
 }
 \arguments{
@@ -50,6 +51,11 @@ If FALSE, returns the raw JSON response as string.}
 
 \item{verbose}{Logical.
 If TRUE, print information about the querying process. Defaults to TRUE.}
+
+\item{timeout}{Numeric.
+Maximum number of seconds to wait.
+An error will be thrown if the request does not complete in the time limit.
+Defaults to 30.}
 }
 \value{
 a data.frame or a list of bibliographic records.
diff --git a/tests/testthat/test-oa_fetch.R b/tests/testthat/test-oa_fetch.R
index 996cf9e..adc0c8a 100644
--- a/tests/testthat/test-oa_fetch.R
+++ b/tests/testthat/test-oa_fetch.R
@@ -407,8 +407,8 @@ test_that("different paging methods yield the same result", {
     title.search = c("bibliometric analysis", "science mapping"),
     cited_by_count = ">50",
     options = list(select = "id"),
-    from_publication_date = "2021-01-01",
-    to_publication_date = "2021-12-31",
+    from_publication_date = "2020-01-01",
+    to_publication_date = "2020-12-31",
     verbose = TRUE
   )
 
@@ -417,13 +417,13 @@ test_that("different paging methods yield the same result", {
     title.search = c("bibliometric analysis", "science mapping"),
     cited_by_count = ">50",
     options = list(select = "id"),
-    from_publication_date = "2021-01-01",
-    to_publication_date = "2021-12-31",
+    from_publication_date = "2020-01-01",
+    to_publication_date = "2020-12-31",
     verbose = TRUE,
     pages = c(2, 4:5),
     per_page = 10
   )
-  
+
   expect_equal(
     w0[c(11:20, 31:min(50, nrow(w0))), ],
     w24