search-query: An open source Python library for academic search queries

The Journal of Open Source Software 2026 Open access

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Authors: Peter Eckhardt, Katharina Maria Ernst, Thomas Fleischmann, Anna Geßler, Karl Schnickmann, Laureen Thurner, Gerit Wagner
DOI: 10.21105/joss.08775
Cited by: 1
References: 12

Abstract

search-query is an open source Python library for academic literature search queries.Its core capabilities include linting to detect syntactic and logical errors, translation to convert queries across database-specific syntaxes, improvement to programmatically refine queries, and automation to integrate searches into reproducible workflows.The library currently supports Web of Science, PubMed, and EBSCOHost, with parsers validated against a comprehensive set of peer-reviewed queries from searchRxiv.Unlike existing proprietary and web-based software, search-query offers programmatic access and thereby supports integration into research workflows, contributing to the automation of systematic literature reviews.

Fields of Study & Subjects

Computational Physics and Python Applications Mathematics Computing and Information Processing Expert finding and Q&A systems

Publication details

Journal / source
The Journal of Open Source Software
Publisher
The Open Journal
Volume
11
Issue
118
Pages
8775–8775
Publication date
19 February 2026