🔬 Semantic Scholar MCP Server
The most comprehensive MCP server for academic research. Direct access to 200M+ papers from Semantic Scholar within Claude Desktop.
🚀 Features
| Tool | Description |
|---|---|
semantic_scholar_search_papers | Advanced paper search with filters (year, field, citations, open access) |
semantic_scholar_get_paper | Full paper details with optional citations and references |
semantic_scholar_search_authors | Find researchers by name |
semantic_scholar_get_author | Author profiles with h-index, publications, affiliations |
semantic_scholar_recommendations | AI-powered related paper discovery |
semantic_scholar_bulk_papers | Batch retrieval of up to 500 papers |
Supported ID Formats:
- Semantic Scholar ID
- DOI (
DOI:10.1038/...) - ArXiv (
ARXIV:2106.15928) - PubMed (
PMID:32908142) - ACL (
ACL:P19-1285) - CorpusId (
CorpusId:215416146)
📦 Installation
Option 1: pip (Recommended)
pip install semantic-scholar-mcp
Option 2: From Source
git clone https://github.com/smaniches/semantic-scholar-mcp.git
cd semantic-scholar-mcp
pip install -e .
🔑 Get Your API Key
- Go to Semantic Scholar API
- Sign up for a free API key
- Note your rate limit (typically 1-100 requests/second depending on tier)
⚙️ Configuration
Claude Desktop Setup
Add to your Claude Desktop config file:
Windows: %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json
macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json
Linux: ~/.config/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json
{
"mcpServers": {
"semantic_scholar": {
"command": "python",
"args": ["-m", "semantic_scholar_mcp"],
"env": {
"SEMANTIC_SCHOLAR_API_KEY": "your-api-key-here"
}
}
}
}
Then restart Claude Desktop.
💡 Usage Examples
Search Papers
Search for "transformer attention mechanism" papers from 2023 with at least 100 citations
Get Paper Details
Get details for DOI:10.1038/s41586-021-03819-2 including its top 20 citations
Find Related Papers
Get recommendations based on paper 649def34f8be52c8b66281af98ae884c09aef38b
Author Search
Find author "Yoshua Bengio" and list their recent publications
Bulk Retrieval
Retrieve these papers: DOI:10.1038/nature12373, ARXIV:2106.15928, PMID:32908142
📊 Rate Limits
| Tier | Requests/Second | How to Get |
|---|---|---|
| No API Key | 1 req/sec | Default |
| Free API Key | 1 req/sec | Sign up |
| Academic Partner | 10-100 req/sec | Apply via S2 |
🏗️ Architecture
┌─────────────────┐ ┌──────────────────────┐ ┌─────────────────┐
│ Claude Desktop │────▶│ semantic-scholar-mcp │────▶│ Semantic Scholar│
│ (MCP Client) │◀────│ (This Server) │◀────│ API │
└─────────────────┘ └──────────────────────┘ └─────────────────┘
│ │ │
│ stdio (JSON-RPC) │ Your API Key │ HTTPS
│ Local process │ Local machine │ 200M+ papers
Your API key never leaves your machine. The MCP server runs locally.
🛠️ Development
# Clone
git clone https://github.com/smaniches/semantic-scholar-mcp.git
cd semantic-scholar-mcp
# Install dev dependencies
pip install -e ".[dev]"
# Run tests
pytest
# Type checking
mypy src/
📄 License
MIT License - see LICENSE file.
👤 Author
Santiago Maniches
- 🏢 Founder & CEO, TOPOLOGICA LLC
- 🔬 ORCID: 0009-0005-6480-1987
- 💼 LinkedIn: santiago-maniches
- 🌐 Website: topologica.ai
🤝 Contributing
Contributions welcome! Please read our Contributing Guidelines.
📬 Support
- 🐛 Issues: GitHub Issues
- 💬 Discussions: GitHub Discussions
- 📧 Contact: santiago@topologica.ai
⭐ Star History
If this tool helps your research, please star the repo!
Built with ❤️ by TOPOLOGICA LLC
Advancing computational research through topological intelligence