SciDownl

Install the scidownl package using pip to download PDFs from SciHub via DOI from your terminal or Python scripts.

$ pip3 install -U scidownl

You can install SciDownl using pip for convenience or by cloning the repository and installing from source.

Using pip:

pip3 install -U scidownl

From source:

git clone https://github.com/Tishacy/SciDownl.git
cd Scidownl && python3 setup.py install

To download multiple papers, iterate through a list of DOIs and instantiate the SciHub class for each.

from scidownl.scihub import *

DOIs = ["10.1021/ol9910114", "10.1021/example2"]
out = 'paper'
for doi in DOIs:
  SciHub(doi, out).download(choose_scihub_url_index=3)

For programmatic access, import the scihub_download function.

Signature: scihub_download(paper, paper_type, out=None, proxies=None)

Parameters:

• paper (str): The identifier (DOI, PMID, or Title).
• paper_type (str): The type of identifier. Use 'doi', 'pmid', or 'title'.
• out (str, optional): Output directory or file path.
• proxies (dict, optional): A dictionary of proxy mappings (e.g., {'http': 'socks5://...'}).

from scidownl import scihub_download

paper = "https://doi.org/10.1145/3375633"
paper_type = "doi"
out = "./paper/one_paper.pdf"
proxies = {
    'http': 'socks5://127.0.0.1:7890'
}

scihub_download(paper, paper_type=paper_type, out=out, proxies=proxies)

Use the update_link function from scidownl.update_link to refresh the list of available SciHub domains. You can choose between two update methods via the mod parameter:

• mod='c': Uses the crawling method.
• mod='b': Uses the brute-force search method.

from scidownl.update_link import *

# Use crawling method to update available Scihub links.
update_link(mod='c')

# Use brute force search method to update available Scihub links.
update_link(mod='b')

You can import SciHub from scidownl.scihub to integrate paper downloading into your Python workflows. This is useful for processing lists of DOIs.

To download a single paper, instantiate SciHub(doi, output_dir) and call .download(). You can optionally pass choose_scihub_url_index to specify which mirror to use.

from scidownl.scihub import *

DOI = "10.1021/ol9910114"
out = 'paper'
# Download using the SciHub mirror at index 3
sci = SciHub(DOI, out).download(choose_scihub_url_index=3)

The SciDownl command-line tool allows you to download papers using a DOI, manage SciHub mirror URLs, and specify output directories.

Arguments:

• -D DOI: The DOI number of the paper (required for downloading).
• -o OUTPUT: The directory where the PDF will be saved.
• -c CHOOSE: Select a specific SciHub URL from the list by its index.
• -u: Update the list of available SciHub links.
• -l: List all currently saved SciHub URLs and show the active one.
• -h, --help: Show the help message.

# Download a paper to the current directory
$ scidownl -D 10.1021/ol9910114

# Download a paper to a specific directory named 'paper'
$ scidownl -D 10.1021/ol9910114 -o paper

# List available SciHub URLs
$ scidownl -l

# Choose a specific SciHub URL by index (e.g., index 5)
$ scidownl -c 5

# Update available SciHub links
$ scidownl -u

The config command allows you to inspect the global configuration settings used by scidownl.

Options:

• -l, --location: Displays the file path to the global configuration file.
• -g, --get: Retrieves a specific configuration value. Requires a section and a key.
  • Usage: --get <section> <key>

Valid sections and keys depend on your current configuration file.

# Show where the config file is located
scidownl config --location

# Get a specific value (e.g., from the 'proxy' section, the 'http' key)
scidownl config --get proxy http

Use this command to refresh the list of available SciHub domains and save them to the local database.

Options:

• -m, --mode: The update method to use.
  • crawl (default): Crawls for domains.
  • search: Searches for domains.

If an invalid mode is provided, the command will fail and list the valid available modes.

# Update domains using the default 'crawl' mode
scidownl domain.update

# Update domains using 'search' mode
scidownl domain.update --mode search