Paper Nexus

Export citations

export_citations

Read-onlyIdempotent

Cite papers in a reference manager or a bibliography: the papers as BibTeX, RIS (for Zotero, Mendeley or EndNote) or CSL-JSON (for Zotero, pandoc or citeproc), the same entries Paper Nexus's own export gives. Pass up to 50 Paper Nexus ids or papernex.us/paper/ links, or DOIs, arXiv ids, PMIDs, PMCIDs or OpenAlex ids, as papers; each paper counts as one lookup. Each entry holds what Paper Nexus has: title, authors (it keeps the first five, so a longer list is cut), year, venue, volume, issue and pages where known, DOI and other ids, and links. Nothing missing is filled in, so check the entries before a manuscript is submitted. content is the whole file, in the order given.

Tool call template

Replace each placeholder with a value matching the input schema. Only required parameters are included; add optional parameters as needed.

{
  "id": 1,
  "jsonrpc": "2.0",
  "method": "tools/call",
  "params": {
    "arguments": {
      "papers": "<papers>"
    },
    "name": "export_citations"
  }
}

Input Schema

Name	Required	Description	Default
`format`	No		bibtex
`papers`	Yes	Paper Nexus ids or papernex.us/paper/<id> links, or DOIs, arXiv ids, PMIDs, PMCIDs or OpenAlex ids

Output Schema

Name	Required	Description
`format`	Yes
`content`	Yes	The whole file: every entry, in the order given
`entries`	Yes	One a paper exported, in the order given: its id and citation key
`not_found`	No	The ids that are not Paper Nexus papers, left out
`identifiers`	No	When papers were named by DOI, arXiv id, PMID, PMCID or OpenAlex id: read_as maps each to its Paper Nexus id, and unresolved lists those no Paper Nexus paper has, which were left out
`authors_may_be_cut`	No	The papers whose stored author list is as long as Paper Nexus keeps, so it may be missing authors

Schema Changelog

Changes observed during successful MCP inspections.

AddedNov 12, 2026

TDQS

A4/5.0

Behavior3/5

Does the description disclose side effects, auth requirements, rate limits, or destructive behavior?

Annotations already declare readOnlyHint=true, idempotentHint=true, destructiveHint=false and closed-world, so safety is covered. The description still adds real behavioral facts the annotations cannot: author lists are truncated to five, missing metadata is never filled in, and each paper counts as one lookup against a quota. That quota and truncation disclosure are the kind of context the description alone can supply, but return-format details are partly carried by the output schema.

Agents need to know what a tool does to the world before calling it. Descriptions should go beyond structured annotations to explain consequences.

Conciseness4/5

Is the description appropriately sized, front-loaded, and free of redundancy?

Front-loaded with purpose and format options, and most sentences carry new information. The clause 'the same entries Paper Nexus's own export gives' is partly redundant with the later 'Each entry holds what Paper Nexus has', adding some density without new meaning.

Shorter descriptions cost fewer tokens and are easier for agents to parse. Every sentence should earn its place.

Completeness5/5

Given the tool's complexity, does the description cover enough for an agent to succeed on first attempt?

Covers what the tool does, format choice, identifier types, the 50-item cap, truncation and missing-data caveats, and even names the content return field. For a two-parameter export tool with an output schema, nothing an agent needs in order to call it correctly is absent.

Complex tools with many parameters or behaviors need more documentation. Simple tools need less. This dimension scales expectations accordingly.

Parameters3/5

Does the description clarify parameter syntax, constraints, interactions, or defaults beyond what the schema provides?

Schema coverage is 50%: the papers array already documents the accepted id types, and the description largely repeats that while adding the 'one lookup per paper' cost. It adds genuine value for format by explaining which tool each encoding serves, which the bare enum does not, but the papers parameter gets no new syntax detail beyond the schema.

Input schemas describe structure but not intent. Descriptions should explain non-obvious parameter relationships and valid value ranges.

Purpose5/5

Does the description clearly state what the tool does and how it differs from similar tools?

States a specific verb (cite/export) and resource (papers' citation entries) and enumerates the three output formats with the consumers each targets. An agent can tell this apart from get_paper or search_papers without opening the schema.

Agents choose between tools based on descriptions. A clear purpose with a specific verb and resource helps agents select the right tool.

Usage Guidelines4/5

Does the description explain when to use this tool, when not to, or what alternatives exist?

Frames the use case ('cite papers in a reference manager or a bibliography') and maps each format to a concrete consumer (Zotero/Mendeley/EndNote vs pandoc/citeproc), which effectively guides format selection. It stops short of naming an alternative tool or stating when not to use this one, so it is clear context rather than full routing.

Agents often have multiple tools that could apply. Explicit usage guidance like "use X instead of Y when Z" prevents misuse.

All Paper Nexus tools Inspect

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