CORE
The world's largest aggregator of open-access research — full text at scale.
At a Glance
- Publisher
- The Open University and Jisc
- Coverage
290M+ open-access articles harvested from repositories and journals worldwide, with full text and a rich API (verify current counts).
- Access
Free; open API and datasets; some services and higher API limits via registration.
- Free alternative
- It is free; OpenAlex, BASE, Unpaywall.
- Regional
Global; aggregates repositories worldwide with strong Global-South inclusion.
Our Take
CORE is the biggest aggregator of open-access full text there is — it harvests from tens of thousands of repositories and journals, which makes it a powerful backbone for text-mining and for actually getting the PDF rather than just the metadata. For machine-scale work its API and datasets are excellent, and coverage is genuinely global. As with any large harvest, metadata quality varies and duplicates appear. Use it as your open full-text and text-mining layer; verify individual records against a curated index.
Power Tips
- Use the CORE API and datasets for large-scale full-text mining without a subscription.
- Reach for CORE when you need the actual PDF, not just an abstract.
- Cross-check metadata against OpenAlex for high-stakes records.
Alternatives & Complements
OpenAlex, BASE, Unpaywall, Semantic Scholar
Figures last verified: June 15, 2026