Usage Guide

The getscipapers command-line interface provides a set of subcommands that coordinate searches, downloads, and requests across multiple services.

Basic Usage

Show available modules and entry points:
```
getscipapers --list
```
Get help for a specific module:
```
getscipapers getpapers --help
```

Perform a quick DOI search using Crossref and Unpaywall:

getscipapers getpapers --doi 10.1038/s41586-020-2649-2 --email you@example.com

Request a paper through community bots without direct downloads:

getscipapers request --title "Efficient Vision Transformers" --nexus --non-interactive

Example Workflows

Use these ready-to-run commands as starting points:

# Keyword search limited to 5 results, downloading PDFs when available
getscipapers getpapers --search "graph neural network" --limit 5

# Download a DOI via Unpaywall with non-interactive credentials
GETSCIPAPERS_EMAIL=you@example.com \\
getscipapers getpapers --doi 10.1038/nature12373 --db unpaywall --non-interactive

# Process many DOIs from a text file and save outputs to a custom folder
getscipapers getpapers --doi-file dois.txt --download-folder ./pdfs

# Extract DOIs from a PDF without downloading
getscipapers getpapers --extract-doi-from-pdf paper.pdf --no-download

# Show metadata only across all services for a DOI
getscipapers getpapers --doi 10.1016/j.cell.2019.05.031 --no-download --verbose

Graphical wrapper

If you prefer not to remember command-line flags, start the Tkinter-based GUI wrapper (works on Windows and Linux) and trigger the same searches and DOI list downloads:

getscipapers gui

The window exposes database selection (toggle one or many services), metadata-only runs, verbose logging, and custom download folders while reusing the existing CLI logic under the hood.

Search Strategies

getpapers combines several strategies to maximize discovery:

Crossref lookups for authoritative metadata and publisher links.
Unpaywall queries to find open access versions.
Nexus bot searches to leverage community mirrors when direct download is not possible.
Optional LibGen and Z-Library queries for book-like content.

Combine options thoughtfully. For example, supplying --email ensures Crossref and Unpaywall requests include a contact address, improving API reliability.

Download Locations

Downloads are saved to the configured output directory (see Configuration). When running inside Docker or Codespaces, mount or bind a host directory so that downloaded files persist outside the container.

Non-interactive Runs

Many environments (CI, containers) cannot handle interactive prompts. Use the --non-interactive flag to require environment-provided credentials and avoid blocking for input. When set, the command will exit with an error if a needed credential is missing instead of waiting for keyboard input.