ArXiv Retriever

Status: Maintenance Mode

Note: This project is currently in maintenance mode. While I am not actively developing new features, I will continue to address critical issues and security vulnerabilities as time permits. Users are welcome to fork the repository if they wish to extend its functionality. Please refer to Maintenance Policy for more information.

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Table of Contents

• Introduction
• Features
• Environment Setup
• Installation
• Usage
• Contributing
• Maintenance Policy
• License
• Acknowledgements

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Introduction

arxiv_retriever is a lightweight command-line tool designed to automate the retrieval of computer science papers from ArXiv. The retrieval can be done using specified ArXiv computer science archive categories, full or partial titles of papers, if available, or links to the papers. Paper retrieval can be refined by author.

NOTE: My tests indicate that when searching for a really long title, using the partial title and then refining by author yields better results, as opposed to searching with the full title or even searching with the full title and refining by author. However, the tests are not exhaustive.

This tool is built using Python and leverages the Typer library for the command-line interface and the Python ElementTree XML package for parsing XML responses from the arXiv API. It can be useful for researchers, engineers, or students who want to quickly retrieve an ArXiv paper or keep abreast of latest research in their field without leaving their terminal/workstation.

Although my current focus while building arxiv_retriever is the computer science archive, it can be easily used with categories from other areas on arxiv, e.g., math.CO.

Features

• Fetch the most recent papers specified ArXiv categories
• Search for papers on ArXiv using full or partial title
• Refine fetch and search by author (s) for more precise results
• Specify logic for combination of multiple authors ('AND' or 'OR') during retrieval
• Download papers after they are retrieved
• View paper details including title, authors, abstract, publication date, and links to paper's abstract and pdf pages
• Easy-to-use command-line interface built with Typer
• Configurable number of results to fetch
• Built using only the standard library and tried and tested packages.

Environment Setup

You can optionally set an environment variable (an OpenAI API key) before using the program. This is used to authenticate with OpenAI for the paper summarization feature. If you do not want your papers summarized, you will not need to set the environment variable. Specify your choice when asked by the CLI. Specifying 'y' without the KEY set will lead to an error.

Optional Environment Variable

• Variable Name: OPENAI_API_KEY

Setting the Environment Variable

On Unix-like systems (Linux, macOS)

In your terminal, run:

export OPENAI_API_KEY=<key>

To ensure this works across all shell instances, add the above line to your shell configuration file (e.g., ~/.bashrc, ~/.zshrc, or ~/.profile).

On Windows

1. Open the Start menu and search for "Environment Variables"
2. Click on the "Edit system environment variables" option.
3. In the System Properties window, click on the "Environment Variables" button
4. Under "User variables", click "New"
5. Set the variable name as OPENAI_API_KEY and the value as your API key.

Verifying the Environment Variable

To verify the environment variable is set correctly:

• On Unix-like systems:

  echo $OPENAI_API_KEY

• On Windows (command prompt):

  echo %OPENAI_API_KEY%

NOTE: Keep your API key confidential and do not share it publicly.

Installation

Install from PyPI (Recommended):

pip install --upgrade arxiv-retriever

Install from Source Distribution

If you need a specific version or want to install from a source distribution:

1. Download the source distribution (.tar.gz file) from PyPI or the GitHub releases page.

2. Install using pip:

   pip install axiv-x.y.z.tar.gz

   Replace x.y.z with the version number.

This method can be useful if you need a specific version or are in an environment without direct access to PyPI.

Install for Development and Testing

To install the latest development version from source:

1. Ensure you have Poetry installed. If not, install it by following the instructions at https://python-poetry.org/docs/#installation.
2. Clone the repository:

   git clone https://github.com/MimicTester1307/arxiv_retriever.git
   cd arxiv_retriever  

3. Install the project and its dependencies:

   poetry install

4. (Optional) To activate the virtual environment created by Poetry:

   poetry shell

5. (Optional) Run tests to ensure everything is set up correctly:

   poetry run pytest

6. Build the project:

   poetry build

7. Install the wheel file using pip:

   pip install dist/arxiv_retriever-<version>-py3-none-any.whl

Usage

After installation, use the package via the axiv command. To view available commands: axiv --help or axiv

Note on Package and Command Names

• Package Name: The package is named arxiv_retriever. This is the name you use when installing via pip or referring to the project.
• Command Name: After installation, you interact with the tool using the axiv command in your terminal.

This distinction allows for a more concise command while maintaining a descriptive package name.

Basic Commands

• fetch: Fetch papers from ArXiv based on categories, refined by options.
• search: Search for papers on ArXiv using title, refined by options.
• download: Download papers from ArXiv using their links (PDF or abstract links).
• version: Display version information for arxiv_retriever and core dependencies.

Sample Usage

Fetch

To retrieve the most recent computer science papers by categories, use the fetch command followed by the categories and options:

axiv fetch [OPTIONS] CATEGORIES...

Search

To search for a paper by title, use the search command followed by the title and options:

axiv search [OPTIONS] TITLE

CLI Options

Due to how most CLI frameworks (including Typer) handle arguments vs options, if you want to specify multiple options (in this case, authors) to refine your search or fetch command by, you will have to call the option multiple times. That is, --author <author> --author <author> as opposed to --author <author> <author>. Alternatively, you can use -a rather than --author

Downloading your research papers

There are multiple ways to download your research paper using axiv:

• use axiv download [OPTIONS] LINKS... to download the paper directly from the link
• confirm if you want to download the retrieved papers using fetch or search when asked by the CLI

With option 1, the file is named using the URL's basename, e.g. 2407.09298v1.pdf.

With options 2, the file is named using the title retrieved from the XML data when parsing.

NOTE: If the file name exists, it is overwritten.

Examples

Fetch the latest 5 papers in the cs.AI OR cs.GL categories:

axiv fetch cs.AI cs.GL --limit 5

Outputs limit papers sorted by submittedDate in descending order, filtered by authors

Refine fetch using multiple authors

axiv fetch cs.AI -a omar -a matei

Add logic for creating query when multiple authors are supplied using --author-logic or -l:

axiv fetch cs.AI math.CO -a "John Doe" -a "Jane Smith" --author-logic AND

Fetch papers matching the title, "Attention is all you need", refined by author "Ashish":

axiv search "Attention is all you need" --limit 5 --author "Ashish"

Download papers using links:

• download using link to abstract:

  axiv download https://arxiv.org/abs/2407.20214v1

• download using link to pdf:

  axiv download https://arxiv.org/pdf/2407.20214v1

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please fork the repository and submit a pull request for any features, bug fixes, or enhancements.

Note on Testing

Currently, all 12 tests pass, but that required a bit of magic. Refactoring the tests for asynchrony was an interesting challenge. Discussions and contributions regarding the asynchronous implementation are particularly welcome.

Contact me via email or leave a comment on the Notion project tracker.

Maintenance Policy

This project is currently in maintenance mode. Here is what you can expect:

• Security vulnerabilities and bugs will be addressed as time permits.
• Pull requests for bug fixes will be considered.
• Feature requested are unlikely to be implemented by the maintainer, but forks and extensions are encouraged.

For any questions, concerns, or comments, please open an issue in the GitHub repository.

License

This project is licensed under the MIT license. See the LICENSE file for more details.

Acknowledgements

• Typer for the command-line interface
• ElementTree for XML parsing
• arXiv API for providing access to paper metadata via a well-designed API
• Trio and HTTPx for the asynchronous features
• Dead Simple Python for helping me advance my knowledge of Python