What Research Looks Like Screensaver
The What Research Looks Like screensaver shows every scholarly work registered in OpenAlex this month, grouped by what kind of thing it is. The journal article is no longer the whole of research output, and this is the shape that shows it. It's free, runs in your browser, and ESC exits.
Live preview
Press ESC to leave fullscreen. Settings are saved in your browser only.
How the What Research Looks Like screensaver works
The saver reads the source described above and draws it on a canvas — no account, no tracking.
Every scholarly work registered in OpenAlex this month, grouped by what kind of thing it is. The journal article is no longer the whole of research output, and this is the shape that shows it.
It refreshes on a schedule, so what you see stays current.
Colours and any options can be changed in settings; nothing is stored beyond your own browser.
How OpenAlex classifies scholarly work
OpenAlex is a free, open index of the global scholarly record, produced by OurResearch, a non-profit. It began operating in January 2022 as the successor to Microsoft Academic Graph, which stopped receiving updates on 31 December 2021. Its metadata draws on sources including Crossref, ORCID, DOAJ and Unpaywall, and its data is released under CC0.
Every work has exactly one type. OpenAlex’s documentation gives examples such as article, preprint, dataset and paratext, and the saver groups the month’s records by those labels. That is how it shows that the journal article is no longer the whole of research output.
Dates need care. OpenAlex records a publication date, which it usually sets to the earliest electronic-publication date it can find, and a separate created date for when the work was added to OpenAlex. Which of these defines “this month” changes what you see, and records keep being added over time, so treat the bars as an approximate mix rather than an exact census.
A worked example
Every scholarly work registered in OpenAlex this month, grouped by what kind of thing it is. The journal article is no longer the whole of research output, and this is the shape that shows it.
Settings & tips
- Accent and Background recolour the display.
- Every value on screen comes from the live source — nothing is simulated.
- Press ESC to leave fullscreen.
Frequently asked questions
- Is this real data?
- Yes — it comes from the source named on this page and is refreshed on a schedule.
- Is a key needed?
- No. This source is fully key-less.
- Is it free?
- Yes, and it runs entirely in your browser.
- Who runs OpenAlex?
- OurResearch, a non-profit. OpenAlex releases its data under CC0 and its code as open source.
- Why can the current month change after I see it?
- OpenAlex records both a publication date and the date a work was added, and new works keep being added, so counts for a recent period can still change.
- What is paratext?
- It is one of the work types OpenAlex uses, listed alongside article, preprint and dataset. OpenAlex’s work types page defines the full set of types.