ScholarScope MCP
Academic MCP Server
About
The ScholarScope MCP Server is a custom Model Context Protocol server built with FastMCP for powerful academic research tasks.
It integrates with the OpenAlex API to search for papers, authors, institutions, retrieve citations, and even fetch full text using Jina where available.
🔍 Perfect for building intelligent research assistants that can:
- Search academic literature by keywords, author, or institution
- Explore related works and citations
- Retrieve full-text papers directly when possible
🚀 Installation
-
Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/ErikNguyen20/ScholarScope-MCP.git cd ScholarScope-MCP -
Install uv (if you don't already have it)
pip install uv -
Install dependencies
uv sync -
Set up environment variables
Create a.envfile in the project root:OPENALEX_MAILTO=your_email@example.com
🧪 Run with MCP Inspector
You can use the official MCP Inspector to test your server locally:
npx @modelcontextprotocol/inspector uv run \
--directory "/path/to/mcp_server" \
--with fastmcp \
fastmcp run src/server.py
[!Note] Replace
/path/to/mcp_serverwith the path to your local project root.
💬 Connect to Claude Desktop
- Open your Claude Desktop configuration file (usually
claude_desktop_config.json). - Add your MCP server configuration:
{
"mcpServers": {
"Tool Example": {
"command": "uv",
"args": [
"run",
"--directory", "/path/to/mcp_server",
"fastmcp",
"run",
"src/server.py"
]
}
}
}
[!Note] Ensure the
/path/to/mcp_servermatches your local directory structure.
Restart Claude Desktop after updating the config.
🧭 Features
- 🔍 Search papers by keyword, title, author, or institution
- 📊 Sort results by relevance, citations, or publication date
- 📚 Retrieve related works and citations for any paper
- 📄 Fetch full text from preferred sources when available
- ⚡ Built with FastMCP for fast startup and modular tools