Millions of merged Work IDs redirect to one ID (W4285719527)

[Tijmen Altena]

Hi all,

In the last full snapshot of the data, the merged_ids/works/2023-04-30.csv.gz contains (as far as I can see) millions of papers that redirect to only one ID: W4285719527. And that ID yields a 404 in the API. So now papers that used to exist result in a 404, like:

https://api.openalex.org/works/W3120636422

https://api.openalex.org/works/W4287082157

Is this a bug, or deliberate decision? Is W4285719527 a proxy for erroneous papers or papers that should be deleted? If the latter is the case, should these not yield a specific API response?

Best,

Tijmen

[Casey Meyer]

Hi Tijmen,

This is a deliberate decision to show those works as deleted. So they are pointing to the "deleted work". I checked and the two examples you mentioned are showing up in the API properly now. 

Thanks,
Casey