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

Journal of Open Source Software · 2026 · 11(118), 8775

Keywords

literature-reviews, data-management, student-paper

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.

Article / DOI link Open access PDF

Open access PDF

Citation (APA)

Eckhardt, P., Ernst, K. M., Fleischmann, T., Geßler, A., Schnickmann, K., Thurner, L., & Wagner, G. (2026). search-query: An open source Python library for academic search queries. Journal of Open Source Software 11(118), 8775. https://doi.org/10.21105/JOSS.08775

Citation: BibTeX

@article{EckhardtEtAl2026,
  doi        = {10.21105/JOSS.08775},
  author     = {Eckhardt, Peter and Ernst, Katharina Maria and Fleischmann, Thomas and Geßler, Anna and Schnickmann, Karl and Thurner, Laureen and Wagner, Gerit},
  journal    = {Journal of Open Source Software},
  title      = {search-query: An open source Python library for academic search queries},
  year       = {2026},
  volume     = {11},
  number     = {118},
  pages      = {8775},
  url        = {https://joss.theoj.org/papers/10.21105/joss.08775#},
  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.}
}

Citation: RIS

TY  - JOUR
AU  - Eckhardt, Peter
AU  - Ernst, Katharina Maria
AU  - Fleischmann, Thomas
AU  - Geßler, Anna
AU  - Schnickmann, Karl
AU  - Thurner, Laureen
AU  - Wagner, Gerit
TI  - search-query: An open source Python library for academic search queries
T2  - Journal of Open Source Software
PY  - 2026
VL  - 11
IS  - 118
SP  - 8775
DO  - 10.21105/JOSS.08775
UR  - https://joss.theoj.org/papers/10.21105/joss.08775#
ER  -