> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://developers.openalex.org/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Author Curation

> Curate your profile to claim works, remove works, or change your name

OpenAlex assigns [authors](/api-reference/authors) to works automatically, but sometimes we get things wrong.
Author curation lets you fix that: sign in, tell us what's wrong, and we'll make the change.

<Note>
  The `POST /curations` endpoint is live. The website UI for submitting curations is still being built.
</Note>

## What you can curate

Four corrections are available. The first two correct the authors attributed to a [work](/api-reference/works); the last two correct the names on an author profile.

| Action                | Description                                                              |
| --------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------ |
| `claim work`          | Assign a misattributed authorship to your profile                        |
| `remove from work`    | Detach a work that isn't yours                                           |
| `modify display_name` | Update the `display_name` on your author profile                         |
| `modify full_name`    | Update the `full_name` used to match future works to your author profile |

## Submitting a curation

Submit curations to:

```bash theme={"dark"}
POST https://user.openalex.org/curations
```

The endpoint accepts a single JSON object or an array of objects.

Requests are JWT-protected. Pass the token either as an `Authorization: Bearer <token>` header or as a `?jwt=<token>` query parameter. Site curators and organization owners/curators can submit; other authenticated users get a `403`.

### Claim a work

"The authorship with name `Smith, J.` on work W4404012345 is me, author A5023888391."

```json theme={"dark"}
{
  "entity": "works",
  "entity_id": "https://openalex.org/W4404012345",
  "property": "authorships[raw_author_name=\"Smith, J.\"].author.id",
  "action": "replace",
  "value": "https://openalex.org/A5023888391"
}
```

The `property` string anchors the claim to a specific `raw_author_name` from the authorships list in the work. Inside the brackets, the raw author name is wrapped in double quotes and sent byte-for-byte — apostrophes and inner double quotes are not escaped (so a byline like `George "Vern" Yocum` goes in verbatim). The downstream view extracts the name from `property` with this regex, where the capture group is the raw author name:

```
^authorships\[raw_author_name="(.+)"\]\.author\.id$
```

### Remove from work

"Work W4404012345 lists author A5023888391, but that's not me."

```json theme={"dark"}
{
  "entity": "works",
  "entity_id": "https://openalex.org/W4404012345",
  "property": "authorships.author.id",
  "action": "remove",
  "value": "https://openalex.org/A5023888391"
}
```

The `property` here has no `raw_author_name` anchor — the removal is non-positional and sticky. Every cycle, that author ID is cleared from every authorship on that work, even if the matcher tries to re-attach it.

### Modify display\_name

"My author profile A5023888391 should be displayed as `John Smith`, not `J Smith`."

```json theme={"dark"}
{
  "entity": "authors",
  "entity_id": "https://openalex.org/A5023888391",
  "property": "display_name",
  "action": "replace",
  "value": "John Smith"
}
```

The author's works will be re-synced so the updated name is reflected in the API.

### Modify full\_name

"Match works to my profile A5023888391 using the full name `John W. Smith`."

```json theme={"dark"}
{
  "entity": "authors",
  "entity_id": "https://openalex.org/A5023888391",
  "property": "full_name",
  "action": "replace",
  "value": "John W. Smith"
}
```

`full_name` feeds the matcher (not the displayed profile), so `value` should be one of the author's existing raw author names from a work already on their profile.

A successful request returns `201` with the saved curation:

```json theme={"dark"}
{
  "id": "cur-9Fw3RtYxQ7nLpK",
  "user_id": "usr-abc123",
  "user_name": "Casey M",
  "entity": "works",
  "entity_id": "https://openalex.org/W4404012345",
  "property": "authorships[raw_author_name=\"Smith, J.\"].author.id",
  "value": "https://openalex.org/A5023888391",
  "action": "replace",
  "created": "2026-05-13T12:34:56Z",
  "is_applied": false,
  "applied_at": null
}
```

Submitting the same curation twice (matching `user_id`, `entity`, `entity_id`, `value`, `action`) returns the existing row rather than creating a duplicate.

## Who can curate

Curation actions are recorded against the signed-in OpenAlex user account that submits them. Every curation row carries that `user_id`, so the audit trail of "who claimed what" is preserved in the source database even though it is not surfaced on the public API.

## When changes appear

Curations apply on the next end-to-end refresh of the pipeline, which runs once per day. So changes should appear within 24 hours.

## How it flows under the hood

The pipeline has four steps. The first two live in the OpenAlex users API (Heroku Postgres); the last two live in the OpenAlex data warehouse (Databricks / Delta).

<Steps>
  <Step title="Save the request to public.curations">
    The `POST /curations` request lands as one row in the `public.curations` Postgres table on the OpenAlex users API.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Split into views by curation type">
    Four views in the users-api Postgres database split `public.curations` into one view per curation type:

    * `work_author_claim_curations`
    * `work_author_remove_curations`
    * `author_display_name_curations`
    * `author_full_name_curations`
  </Step>

  <Step title="Sync nightly to Delta tables">
    A nightly Databricks job copies each view into a Delta table in the OpenAlex data warehouse:

    * `openalex.works.work_author_claim_curations`
    * `openalex.works.work_author_remove_curations`
    * `openalex.authors.author_names_curations` (one row per author, both name fields joined)
  </Step>

  <Step title="Apply curations">
    Each pipeline run applies the curations to the live entity tables.

    **Work curations** are applied during the works pipeline, between the `MatchAuthors` and `UpdateWorkAuthorships` steps. They modify `openalex.works.work_authors`:

    * A **claim** overwrites the `author_id` at the matching `(work_id, raw_author_name)`.
    * A **remove** sets the `author_id` to NULL at `(work_id, author_id)`.

    Both run every cycle, so a removed author stays removed even if the matcher tries to re-attach it. Every curated `work_id` is queued in `openalex.works.curated_work_ids_pending_sync` so the work re-exports to the search index on the next sync.

    **Author name curations** are applied during the authors pipeline. They modify `openalex.authors.authors`:

    * A **display\_name** change overwrites the profile's `display_name`, then queues every work that lists the author in `curated_work_ids_pending_sync` so the new name appears in the API.
    * A **full\_name** change overwrites the profile's matching `full_name`.
  </Step>
</Steps>