Publishers

The Publishers endpoint represents publishing organizations — commercial publishers, university presses, scholarly societies, and platform hosts. Publishers own or operate sources (journals, conference proceedings, repositories) and are organized in a hierarchy with parent and child relationships.

Quick Start

Get a publisher by OpenAlex ID

from aletheca import AlethecaSession

async with AlethecaSession() as session:
    publisher = await session.publishers.get("P4310320990")  # Springer Nature
    print(publisher.display_name)
    print(publisher.hierarchy_level)
    print(publisher.works_count)

Search for publishers

from aletheca import AlethecaSession

async with AlethecaSession() as session:
    results = await session.publishers.search(
        search="elsevier",
        page_size=10,
    )
    for pub in results.results:
        print(f"{pub.display_name}: {pub.works_count} works")

Filtering

Use PublishersFilters to construct structured filter queries:

from aletheca import AlethecaSession
from aletheca.endpoints import PublishersFilters

async with AlethecaSession() as session:
    filters = PublishersFilters(
        display_name_search="springer",
    )
    results = await session.publishers.search(filters=filters, page_size=25)

Filter by country

from aletheca import AlethecaSession
from aletheca.endpoints import PublishersFilters

async with AlethecaSession() as session:
    # Publishers based in specific countries
    filters = PublishersFilters(country_codes="US")
    filters = PublishersFilters(country_codes="NL")  # Netherlands (Elsevier)

Filter by hierarchy level

from aletheca import AlethecaSession
from aletheca.endpoints import PublishersFilters

async with AlethecaSession() as session:
    # Top-level publishers only
    filters = PublishersFilters(hierarchy_level=0)
    results = await session.publishers.search(filters=filters, page_size=25)

Filter by works count

from aletheca import AlethecaSession
from aletheca.endpoints import PublishersFilters

async with AlethecaSession() as session:
    # Major publishers
    filters = PublishersFilters(works_count_range="1000000-")
    results = await session.publishers.search(
        filters=filters,
        page_size=25,
        sort="works_count:desc",
    )

Publisher Hierarchy and Lineage

Publishers are organized in a hierarchy. The lineage field provides the full chain from root publisher to current, and parent_publisher links to the immediate parent:

from aletheca import AlethecaSession

async with AlethecaSession() as session:
    publisher = await session.publishers.get("P4310320990")

    # Hierarchy level (0 = top-level)
    print(f"Level: {publisher.hierarchy_level}")

    # Full lineage (list of OpenAlex IDs from root to current)
    print(f"Lineage: {publisher.lineage}")

    # Direct parent
    if publisher.parent_publisher:
        print(f"Parent: {publisher.parent_publisher.get('display_name')}")

Walk the hierarchy

from aletheca import AlethecaSession
from aletheca.endpoints import PublishersFilters

async with AlethecaSession() as session:
    # Get all child publishers of a parent
    parent = await session.publishers.get("P4310320554")  # A top-level publisher

    # Search for publishers in the same lineage
    for lineage_id in parent.lineage:
        child = await session.publishers.get(lineage_id)
        print(f"  {child.display_name} (level {child.hierarchy_level})")

Iteration

from aletheca import AlethecaSession
from aletheca.endpoints import PublishersFilters

async with AlethecaSession() as session:
    filters = PublishersFilters(
        hierarchy_level=0,
        works_count_range="100000-",
    )
    async for publisher in session.publishers.iterate(
        filters=filters,
        per_page=200,
        sort="works_count:desc",
    ):
        print(f"{publisher.display_name}: {publisher.works_count} works")

Key Fields

Field	Type	Description
display_name	str \| None	Publisher display name
hierarchy_level	int \| None	Level in hierarchy (0 = top-level)
parent_publisher	ParentPublisher \| None	Immediate parent publisher as {id, display_name} object (not a string)
lineage	list[str]	Full hierarchy chain (OpenAlex IDs, root to current)
country_codes	list[str]	ISO country codes
alternate_titles	list[str]	Alternative publisher names
sources_api_url	str \| None	URL to fetch sources from this publisher
works_count	int \| None	Total number of works
cited_by_count	int \| None	Total citations
roles	list[Role]	Roles the publisher plays
homepage_url	str \| None	Publisher homepage
counts_by_year	list[YearCount]	Annual works/citations breakdown
summary_stats	SummaryStats \| None	2yr mean citedness, h-index, i10-index

Notes

• OpenAlex IDs for publishers start with P (e.g. P4310320990).
• The publisher hierarchy uses parent_publisher for the immediate parent and lineage for the full chain.
• hierarchy_level is 0 for top-level publishers and increments for each level down.
• The sources_api_url field provides a direct link to query sources (journals, etc.) published by this entity.
• Publishers can have multiple roles — they may simultaneously be a publisher, funder, or other entity type.