Paper Search MCP Server

A Model Context Protocol (MCP) server for searching and downloading academic papers from multiple platforms. Designed for LLM tools like Claude Desktop, Cursor, etc.

中文文档

Supported Platforms

Core Platforms

| Platform | Search | Download | Read | Description | |----------|:------:|:--------:|:----:|-------------| | arXiv | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | Preprints: Physics, Math, CS, Stats, Biology, Finance | | Semantic Scholar | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | General academic search, 200M+ papers, AI-powered | | PubMed | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | Biomedical literature | | bioRxiv | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | Biology preprints | | medRxiv | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | Medical preprints | | CrossRef | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | DOI metadata, 150M+ records | | IACR | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | Cryptography papers | | Google Scholar | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | All-discipline search (web scraping) | | RePEc/IDEAS | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | Economics paper library, 4.5M+ items | | Sci-Hub | ❌ | ✅ | ✅ | Download paywalled papers (pre-2023) |

RePEc/IDEAS Features

RePEc is the largest open economics bibliography, with rich search options:

Search Fields: Full text / Abstract / Keywords / Title / Author

Sort Options: Relevance / Newest / Oldest / Citations / Recent & Relevant

Document Types: Journal Articles / Working Papers / Book Chapters / Books

Institution/Journal Filters: | Category | Options | |----------|---------| | Research Institutions | nber, imf, worldbank, ecb, bis, cepr, iza | | Federal Reserve | fed, fed_ny, fed_chicago, fed_stlouis, fed_sf | | Top 5 Journals | aer, jpe, qje, econometrica, restud | | Other Journals | jfe, jme, aej_macro, aej_micro, aej_applied |

Quick Start

Installation

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/h-lu/paper-search-mcp.git
cd paper-search-mcp

# Install with uv (recommended)
uv pip install -e .

# Or use pip
pip install -e .

Configure Claude Desktop

Edit ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json (macOS):

Using uv (recommended):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "paper_search_server": {
      "command": "uv",
      "args": ["run", "-m", "paper_search_mcp.server"],
      "env": {
        "SEMANTIC_SCHOLAR_API_KEY": "",
        "CROSSREF_MAILTO": "your_email@example.com",
        "NCBI_API_KEY": "",
        "PAPER_DOWNLOAD_PATH": "~/paper_downloads"
      }
    }
  }
}

Using Python:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "paper_search_server": {
      "command": "python",
      "args": ["-m", "paper_search_mcp.server"],
      "env": {
        "SEMANTIC_SCHOLAR_API_KEY": "",
        "CROSSREF_MAILTO": "your_email@example.com",
        "NCBI_API_KEY": "",
        "PAPER_DOWNLOAD_PATH": "~/paper_downloads"
      }
    }
  }
}

Usage Guide

Choose Tools by Discipline

General academic search    → search_semantic or search_crossref
CS/Physics preprints       → search_arxiv
Biomedical                 → search_pubmed + download_scihub(doi)
Economics                  → search_repec (supports NBER, IMF, Fed, AER, etc.)
Cryptography               → search_iacr
Download paywalled papers  → download_scihub(doi) [pre-2023]

Typical Workflow

# 1. Search for papers
papers = search_semantic("climate change agriculture", max_results=5)

# 2. Get DOI
doi = papers[0]["doi"]

# 3. Download via Sci-Hub (older papers)
pdf_path = download_scihub(doi)

# 4. Read full text
text = read_scihub_paper(doi)

RePEc Economics Search Examples

# Search NBER working papers
search_repec("inflation expectations", series='nber')

# Search AER journal articles, sorted by newest
search_repec("causal inference", series='aer', sort_by='newest')

# Search Fed papers, with year filter
search_repec("monetary policy", series='fed', year_from=2020)

# Search by author
search_repec("Acemoglu", search_field='author')

# Get paper details (with full abstract)
get_repec_paper("https://ideas.repec.org/p/nbr/nberwo/32000.html")

Complete Tool List

Search Tools

| Tool | Description | |------|-------------| | search_arxiv | Search arXiv preprints | | search_semantic | Semantic Scholar general search | | search_crossref | CrossRef DOI metadata search | | search_pubmed | PubMed biomedical search | | search_biorxiv | bioRxiv biology preprints | | search_medrxiv | medRxiv medical preprints | | search_iacr | IACR cryptography papers | | search_google_scholar | Google Scholar search | | search_repec | RePEc/IDEAS economics search |

Download Tools

| Tool | Description | |------|-------------| | download_arxiv | Download arXiv PDF (free) | | download_semantic | Download open access papers | | download_biorxiv | Download bioRxiv PDF | | download_medrxiv | Download medRxiv PDF | | download_iacr | Download IACR PDF | | download_scihub | Download via Sci-Hub |

Read Tools (PDF → Markdown)

| Tool | Description | |------|-------------| | read_arxiv_paper | Read arXiv paper | | read_semantic_paper | Read Semantic Scholar paper | | read_biorxiv_paper | Read bioRxiv paper | | read_medrxiv_paper | Read medRxiv paper | | read_iacr_paper | Read IACR paper | | read_scihub_paper | Read Sci-Hub downloaded paper |

Helper Tools

| Tool | Description | |------|-------------| | get_repec_paper | Get RePEc paper details (full abstract) | | get_crossref_paper_by_doi | Get paper metadata by DOI |

Environment Variables

| Variable | Purpose | Recommended | |----------|---------|:-----------:| | SEMANTIC_SCHOLAR_API_KEY | Increase Semantic Scholar rate limit | ✅ | | CROSSREF_MAILTO | CrossRef polite pool access | ✅ | | NCBI_API_KEY | Increase PubMed rate limit | Optional | | SCIHUB_MIRROR | Custom Sci-Hub mirror | Optional | | PAPER_DOWNLOAD_PATH | PDF download directory (default: ~/paper_downloads) | Optional |

Development

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/openags/paper-search-mcp.git
cd paper-search-mcp

# Create virtual environment
uv venv && source .venv/bin/activate

# Install dev dependencies
uv pip install -e .

# Run tests
uv run pytest tests/ -v

License

MIT License

🎓 Happy researching!

MCP Servers