SciLEx (Science Literature Exploration) is a Python toolkit for systematic literature reviews. Crawl 10 academic APIs, deduplicate papers, analyze citation networks, and push to Zotero with advanced quality filtering.
Full text:
Célian Ringwald, Benjamin Navet. SciLEx, Science Literature Exploration Toolkit ⟨swh:1:dir:944639eb0260a034a5cbf8766d5ee9b74ca85330⟩.
Bibtex:
@softwareversion{scilex2026,
TITLE = {{SciLEx, Science Literature Exploration Toolkit}},
AUTHOR = {Ringwald, Célian and Navey, Benjamin},
URL = {https://github.com/Wimmics/SciLEx},
NOTE = {},
INSTITUTION = {{University C{\^o}te d'Azur ; CNRS ; Inria}},
YEAR = {2026},
MONTH = Fev,
SWHID = {swh:1:dir:944639eb0260a034a5cbf8766d5ee9b74ca85330},
VERSION = {1.0},
REPOSITORY = {https://github.com/Wimmics/SciLEx},
LICENSE = {MIT Licence},
KEYWORDS = {Python, Scientific literature, literature research, paper retriva},
HAL_ID = {},
HAL_VERSION = {},
}
- Multi-API collection with parallel processing (10 academic APIs)
- Smart deduplication using DOI, URL, and fuzzy title matching
- 5-phase quality filtering pipeline with time-aware citation thresholds
- Citation network extraction via CrossRef + OpenCitations + Semantic Scholar
- HuggingFace enrichment: ML models, datasets, GitHub stats, AI keywords
- Export to Zotero (bulk upload) or BibTeX (with PDF links)
- Idempotent collections for safe re-runs
# With uv (recommended)
uv sync
# With pip
pip install -e .
# Dev dependencies (pytest, ruff, coverage)
pip install -e ".[dev]"# 1. Configure APIs and search parameters
cp scilex/api.config.yml.example scilex/api.config.yml
cp scilex/scilex.config.yml.example scilex/scilex.config.yml
cp scilex/scilex.advanced.yml.example scilex/scilex.advanced.yml
# 2. Activate your environment (pip/venv users)
source .venv/bin/activate # macOS/Linux
# .venv\Scripts\activate # Windows
# uv users: no activation needed, use: uv run scilex-collect
# 3. Collect papers from APIs
scilex-collect
# 3. Deduplicate & filter
scilex-aggregate
# 4. (Optional) Enrich with HuggingFace metadata
scilex-enrich
# 5. Export to Zotero or BibTeX
scilex-push-zotero # Push to Zotero
scilex-export-bibtex # Or export to BibTeXSee the Quick Start Guide for a complete walkthrough.
| API | Key Required | Best For |
|---|---|---|
| SemanticScholar | Optional | CS/AI papers, citation networks |
| OpenAlex | Optional | Broad coverage, ORCID data |
| IEEE | Yes | Engineering, CS conferences |
| Arxiv | No | Preprints, physics, CS |
| Springer | Yes | Journals, books |
| Elsevier | Yes | Medical, life sciences |
| PubMed | Optional | 35M biomedical papers |
| HAL | No | French research, theses |
| DBLP | No | CS bibliography, 95%+ DOI |
| Istex | No | French institutional access |
See the API Comparison for rate limits, coverage details, and limitations.
Full documentation is available at scilex.readthedocs.io:
- Installation - Setup with uv or pip
- Configuration - API keys, keywords, filters
- Basic Workflow - Step-by-step pipeline guide
- Advanced Filtering - 5-phase filtering pipeline
- BibTeX Export - Field reference, PDF sources
- Troubleshooting - Common issues and fixes
- Report issues: GitHub Issues
- See CONTRIBUTING.md for development guidelines
- Python >=3.10
- pip or uv package manager