Academic Paper Search MCP server

The Academic Paper Search MCP Server enables searching and retrieving academic paper information from multiple sources through a Model Context Protocol implementation. It provides LLMs with real-time academic paper search functionality, access to paper metadata and abstracts, and the ability to retrieve full-text content when available.

Features

This server exposes several tools for academic paper searches:

search_papers

Search for academic papers across multiple sources

• Parameters:
  • query (str): Search query text
  • limit (int, optional): Maximum number of results to return (default: 10)
• Returns: Formatted string containing paper details

fetch_paper_details

Retrieve detailed information for a specific paper

• Parameters:
  • paper_id (str): Paper identifier (DOI or Semantic Scholar ID)
  • source (str, optional): Data source ("crossref" or "semantic_scholar", default: "crossref")
• Returns: Formatted string with comprehensive paper metadata including:
  • Title, authors, year, DOI
  • Venue, open access status, PDF URL (Semantic Scholar only)
  • Abstract and TL;DR summary (when available)

search_by_topic

Search for papers by topic with optional date range filter

• Parameters:
  • topic (str): Search query text (limited to 300 characters)
  • year_start (int, optional): Start year for date range
  • year_end (int, optional): End year for date range
  • limit (int, optional): Maximum number of results to return (default: 10)
• Returns: Formatted string containing search results including:
  • Paper titles, authors, and years
  • Abstracts and TL;DR summaries when available
  • Venue and open access information

Installation

Installing via Smithery

To install Academic Paper Search Server for Claude Desktop automatically via Smithery:

npx -y @smithery/cli install @afrise/academic-search-mcp-server --client claude

Note: This method is largely untested, as their server may have issues. You can follow the standalone instructions as an alternative.

Manual Installation

1. Install dependencies:

uv add "mcp[cli]" httpx

2. Set up required API keys in your environment or .env file:

SEMANTIC_SCHOLAR_API_KEY=your_key_here 
CROSSREF_API_KEY=your_key_here  # Optional but recommended

3. Run the server:

uv run server.py

Usage with Claude Desktop

1. Add the server to your Claude Desktop configuration (claude_desktop_config.json):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "academic-search": {
      "command": "uv",
      "args": ["run ", "/path/to/server/server.py"],
      "env": {
        "SEMANTIC_SCHOLAR_API_KEY": "your_key_here",
        "CROSSREF_API_KEY": "your_key_here"
      }
    }
  }
}

2. Restart Claude Desktop

3. In your conversations with Claude, you can now ask it to search for academic papers, fetch details about specific papers, or search by topic with optional date ranges.

For example:

• "Find me recent papers about large language models"
• "Get detailed information about this DOI: 10.1038/s41586-021-03819-3"
• "Search for papers on climate change published between 2020 and 2023"

How to install this MCP server

For Claude Code

To add this MCP server to Claude Code, run this command in your terminal:

claude mcp add-json "academic-search" '{"command":"uv","args":["run","server.py"],"env":{"SEMANTIC_SCHOLAR_API_KEY":"your_key_here","CROSSREF_API_KEY":"your_key_here"}}'

See the official Claude Code MCP documentation for more details.

For Cursor

There are two ways to add an MCP server to Cursor. The most common way is to add the server globally in the ~/.cursor/mcp.json file so that it is available in all of your projects.

If you only need the server in a single project, you can add it to the project instead by creating or adding it to the .cursor/mcp.json file.

Adding an MCP server to Cursor globally

To add a global MCP server go to Cursor Settings > Tools & Integrations and click "New MCP Server".

When you click that button the ~/.cursor/mcp.json file will be opened and you can add your server like this:

{
    "mcpServers": {
        "academic-search": {
            "command": "uv",
            "args": [
                "run",
                "server.py"
            ],
            "env": {
                "SEMANTIC_SCHOLAR_API_KEY": "your_key_here",
                "CROSSREF_API_KEY": "your_key_here"
            }
        }
    }
}

Adding an MCP server to a project

To add an MCP server to a project you can create a new .cursor/mcp.json file or add it to the existing one. This will look exactly the same as the global MCP server example above.

How to use the MCP server

Once the server is installed, you might need to head back to Settings > MCP and click the refresh button.

The Cursor agent will then be able to see the available tools the added MCP server has available and will call them when it needs to.

You can also explicitly ask the agent to use the tool by mentioning the tool name and describing what the function does.

For Claude Desktop

To add this MCP server to Claude Desktop:

1. Find your configuration file:

• macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json
• Windows: %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json
• Linux: ~/.config/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json

2. Add this to your configuration file:

{
    "mcpServers": {
        "academic-search": {
            "command": "uv",
            "args": [
                "run",
                "server.py"
            ],
            "env": {
                "SEMANTIC_SCHOLAR_API_KEY": "your_key_here",
                "CROSSREF_API_KEY": "your_key_here"
            }
        }
    }
}

3. Restart Claude Desktop for the changes to take effect