Title: Output issue Last modified: November 12, 2025 --- # Output issue * Resolved [hmh11](https://wordpress.org/support/users/hmh11/) * (@hmh11) * [7 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/output-issue/) * Hello, * Publications are not displaying. Getting the following message instead: * “Could not retrieve publications. Please check the User ID or try again later.” * User ID is correct. What might the issue be? * David Viewing 11 replies - 1 through 11 (of 11 total) * Plugin Author [valsze](https://wordpress.org/support/users/valsze/) * (@valsze) * [7 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/output-issue/#post-18717250) * Hello, may I know your Google Scholar link? Thank you * Thread Starter [hmh11](https://wordpress.org/support/users/hmh11/) * (@hmh11) * [7 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/output-issue/#post-18718660) * Hi Valsze, * The link is [https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=yOJFolEAAAAJ](https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=yOJFolEAAAAJ) * I added the shortcode [schopufe_publications user_id=”yOJFolEAAAAJ”] to a text block. * Regards, * David * Plugin Author [valsze](https://wordpress.org/support/users/valsze/) * (@valsze) * [7 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/output-issue/#post-18718681) * Hi there. The user ID is valid and the plugin is working correctly. It’s possible that the issue comes from the quotation marks in your shortcode.If you copy–paste the shortcode, the quotes can sometimes change to “smart quotes” (“ ”), which are different characters. * Please try typing the quotation marks (“) manually, that should fix it. * ![](https://i0.wp.com/i.postimg.cc/RFCQbD4v/Screenshot-2025-11-13-at-21-10-47. png?ssl=1) * Thread Starter [hmh11](https://wordpress.org/support/users/hmh11/) * (@hmh11) * [6 months, 4 weeks ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/output-issue/#post-18719555) * Hi Valsze, * Thank you. I tested both quote types, typing both manually, and both yielded the same result. I even tried using the unicode characters for the quotes and still no success. * Regards, * David * Plugin Author [valsze](https://wordpress.org/support/users/valsze/) * (@valsze) * [6 months, 4 weeks ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/output-issue/#post-18719584) * Hi David, thanks for the extra details and for testing the different quote types. * If you still see the same error, that means the shortcode itself is being parsed, but your site was not able to fetch or parse the Google Scholar page. The two most common causes are: * **_1. The server cannot reach scholar.google.com_Some hosts or security plugins block outgoing HTTP requests from WordPress ( _wp\_remote\_get() _) to external domains such as [https://scholar.google.com](https://scholar.google.com). * **_2. The PHP DOM extension is missing_The plugin relies on DOMDocument (php- xml) to parse the HTML returned by Google Scholar. * Could you please check the following and let me know? 1. **Your WordPress and PHP versions** You can find them under **Tools → Site Health → Info**. 2. **Whether the DOM extension is enabled** In **Tools → Site Health → Info → Server**, check if `dom` / `php-xml` is listed as enabled.If it’s missing, please ask your host to enable the PHP DOM / xml extension. 3. **Any HTTP/connection issues** In **Tools → Site Health → Status**, see if there are warnings about “Loopback requests”, “Scheduled events”, or “HTTP requests”. * If you’re comfortable enabling debugging, you can also temporarily enable `WP_DEBUG_LOG` in `wp-config.php`, reload the page with the shortcode, and then check `wp-content/ debug.log` for any errors related to: - `scholar-publications-fetcher` - `wp_remote_get` - `DOMDocument` * Thread Starter [hmh11](https://wordpress.org/support/users/hmh11/) * (@hmh11) * [6 months, 4 weeks ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/output-issue/#post-18719997) * Hi Valsze, * Thank you. I checked. The first two are from a phpinfo file I uploaded to the server and the third from the WordPress Site Health > Status tab. 1. PHP Version 7.4.33 2. DOM/XML enabled 3. Site can perform loopback requests Scheduled events are runningHTTP requests seem to be working as expected * There was nothing suspicious in the debug log file that I could find. I also disabled all the plugins and got the same result. * David * Plugin Author [valsze](https://wordpress.org/support/users/valsze/) * (@valsze) * [6 months, 4 weeks ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/output-issue/#post-18720047) * **Hi David,** * Thank you very much for checking all of that and for the detailed feedback. Your PHP version and DOM/XML setup look good, and the fact that other HTTP checks pass means the basics are working. * Given that you’re still seeing: * > “Could not retrieve publications. Please check the User ID or try again later.” * this means the shortcode is being parsed correctly, but WordPress is either: 1. not receiving the expected HTML from Google Scholar, or 2. receiving a different page (e.g. a block page or a profile that doesn’t list any publications). * To narrow this down, could you please: 1. **Run a small test to see what your server actually gets from Scholar** If you’re comfortable adding a temporary snippet (for example via the “[Code Snippets](https://wordpress.org/plugins/code-snippets/)” plugin or a small mu-plugin), please try something like: `$url = 'https://scholar. google.com/citations?hl=en&user=yOJFolEAAAAJ&view_op=list_works&sortby=pubdate'; $response = wp_remote_get( $url ); if ( is_wp_error( $response ) ) { var_dump( $response->get_error_message() ); } else { echo 'HTTP status: ' . wp_remote_retrieve_response_code( $response ) . "
"; echo 'Body length: ' . strlen( wp_remote_retrieve_body( $response ) ); }` If the status code is not **200**, or the body length is very small, that usually means the host or a firewall is blocking requests to `scholar. google.com` specifically. * Sometimes hosting providers allow general HTTP requests (so Site Health looks fine) but block requests to certain domains, including Google Scholar. If you can share: - the HTTP status/body length from the snippet above (if you manage to run it), * I’ll be happy to investigate further and adjust the plugin if needed. * PS: I forgot this one. Just to completely rule out the quote issue, try to use the shortcode without the mark on a shortcode block: * `[schopufe_publications user_id=yOJFolEAAAAJ count=10 order=desc]` * (Attributes are allowed without quotes as long as they don’t contain spaces.) - This reply was modified 6 months, 4 weeks ago by [valsze](https://wordpress.org/support/users/valsze/). Reason: I forgot something - This reply was modified 6 months, 4 weeks ago by [valsze](https://wordpress.org/support/users/valsze/). Reason: typo * Thread Starter [hmh11](https://wordpress.org/support/users/hmh11/) * (@hmh11) * [6 months, 4 weeks ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/output-issue/#post-18720118) * Hi Valsze, * Thank you. Here is the result from the snippet you provided. * HTTP status: 403 Body length: 1103 * So, the server will not process the request. * Also, the shortcode without the quotes did not work. * David * Plugin Author [valsze](https://wordpress.org/support/users/valsze/) * (@valsze) * [6 months, 4 weeks ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/output-issue/#post-18720264) * Hi David, * Thank you for running that test – this is very helpful. * The result: * > **HTTP status: 403** > Body length: 1103 * means that when your server tries to request your Google Scholar page, Google( or a firewall in between) is responding with **403 Forbidden**. In other words, the plugin is working, but your server is not allowed to fetch the Scholar page, so there is nothing for the plugin to parse and display. * This also explains why: - PHP 7.4 and DOM/XML are fine - HTTP checks in Site Health “seem OK” (they usually test `api.wordpress.org`, not `scholar.google.com`) * At this point, there are only two realistic options: 1. **Check with your hosting provider** Please contact your host and show them this information (HTTP 403 when calling`https://scholar.google.com/citations? hl=en&user=yOJFolEAAAAJ&view_op=list_works&sortby=pubdate`from PHP / WordPress). Ask if: 2. - outbound HTTP/HTTPS requests to `scholar.google.com` are being blocked or filtered, or - there is a security/WAF rule (e.g. mod_security, firewall, proxy) that is returning 403 for this domain. 3. If they can whitelist `scholar.google.com` or relax the rule for your site, the plugin should start working immediately. 4. **Use a different server/hosting (or a middle API)** If your host cannot or will not allow requests to `scholar.google.com`, then unfortunately this plugin cannot fetch your publications from that environment.In that case, the only workaround would be to run the plugin on another WordPress installation where Scholar is accessible, and then embed the output (for example via iframe or a custom API), which is more advanced. * Because the HTTP 403 is coming from outside of WordPress, there’s sadly nothing I can change in the plugin itself to bypass it without breaking security guidelines. * Thread Starter [hmh11](https://wordpress.org/support/users/hmh11/) * (@hmh11) * [6 months, 4 weeks ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/output-issue/#post-18720429) * Hi Valsze, * Thank you very much for your thorough analysis and suggestions. The host, SiteGround, is highly regarded, established and popular, so it would be odd if it did not allow requests from Google Scholar. I will contact SiteGround support about the issue and keep you posted. * Your support is outstanding. Can I suggest that you develop a similar sort of plug-in for PubMed? PubMed is a free online archive of biomedical and life science peer review journal literature. It is not as broad-based academically as Google Scholar, but it is more exhaustive. For example, Google Scholar for the user ID I used to test your plugin only lists half that user’s academic publications whereas PubMed has them all. There are a few PubMed WP plugins already, but they are all outdated and most have been abandoned and do not work anymore. * Regards, * David * Plugin Author [valsze](https://wordpress.org/support/users/valsze/) * (@valsze) * [6 months, 4 weeks ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/output-issue/#post-18720647) * Hi David, * Thank you so much for the detailed follow-up and for your kind words, I really appreciate it. Regarding your PubMed suggestion, I can’t promise. I have so many things happening in my private life. But I will consider it. Thanks again for your patience, testing, and thoughtful feedback, it really helps improve the plugin. Viewing 11 replies - 1 through 11 (of 11 total) The topic ‘Output issue’ is closed to new replies. * ![](https://ps.w.org/scholar-publications-fetcher/assets/icon-256x256.png?rev =3525160) * [Scholar Publications Fetcher](https://wordpress.org/plugins/scholar-publications-fetcher/) * [Frequently Asked Questions](https://wordpress.org/plugins/scholar-publications-fetcher/#faq) * [Support Threads](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/scholar-publications-fetcher/) * [Active Topics](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/scholar-publications-fetcher/active/) * [Unresolved Topics](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/scholar-publications-fetcher/unresolved/) * [Reviews](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/scholar-publications-fetcher/reviews/) * 11 replies * 2 participants * Last reply from: [valsze](https://wordpress.org/support/users/valsze/) * Last activity: [6 months, 4 weeks ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/output-issue/#post-18720647) * Status: resolved