mcp-scholaris

An MCP server for retrieving academic papers from open access sources. Provides search across arXiv, Semantic Scholar, and PubMed, with full text retrieval via arXiv PDFs, PubMed Central (BioC API), and Unpaywall. No paywalls, no grey area — legitimate open access only.

Installation

pip install mcp-scholaris

Tools

search_papers

Search for academic papers by topic, author, or keyword.

Parameters:

• query (required) — search terms
• sources (optional) — list of sources to search: arxiv, semantic_scholar, pubmed. Defaults to all three.
• max_results (optional) — maximum results per source. Defaults to 5.

fetch_paper

Fetch the full text of a paper. Tries open access sources in order: arXiv → PubMed Central → Unpaywall. Provide at least one identifier.

Parameters:

• arxiv_id — e.g. 2301.00001 or arxiv:2301.00001
• pubmed_id — PubMed ID (PMID), e.g. 36383508
• doi — e.g. 10.1371/journal.pone.0276755

Configuration

Semantic Scholar works without an API key but is rate-limited. For higher limits, create a .env file in your working directory:

SEMANTIC_SCHOLAR_API_KEY=your_key_here

API keys are free at semanticscholar.org.

Usage with an MCP client

Add to your MCP client configuration:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "scholaris": {
      "command": "scholaris"
    }
  }
}

Or run directly:

scholaris

The server communicates over stdio using the MCP protocol (JSON-RPC 2.0).

Sources

Source	Search	Full Text
arXiv	✓	✓ PDF
Semantic Scholar	✓	✓ when OA PDF available
PubMed	✓	✓ via BioC API (PMC articles)
Unpaywall	—	✓ for any DOI with OA version

License

MIT