Leveraging OpenAlex for Automated Dashboards: Is OpenAlex all we need?

Inspired by the University of Cambridge’s dashboards for visualising academic publishing trends, presented at LibPMC2023, we set out to create a similar tool at the University of Aberdeen. Our goal was to monitor publication patterns, particularly tracking closed-access publications by corresponding authors, to inform decisions on publisher agreements and support open-access initiatives.
Early on, we faced two major challenges:
1. Our Web of Science subscription lacked API access, forcing manual downloads of publication data in 1,000-record batches—impractical for multi-year data analysis.
2. Without API integration, automated data workflows with Power BI were impossible, requiring tedious manual updates.
To address these limitations, we adopted OpenAlex, an open-source database with free API access. This enabled integration with Power BI, allowing us to build a dashboard that refreshes daily.
The result is an automated tool showcasing comprehensive publishing analytics for generating publishing insights and guiding strategic actions. We discovered that OpenAlex offers significant advantages in automation and accessibility compared to traditional databases, however, we also uncovered challenges in its use and data accuracy that will be laid out in the presentation.
Our project highlights the transformative role open-source bibliometric database can play in library analytics workflows. It also raises critical questions about whether OpenAlex can fully replace traditional citation databases, offering valuable insights for libraries seeking cost-effective, automated bibliometric solutions.