Semantic Scholar MCP Server

Instructions

Get papers referenced by a specific paper.

Args:
    paper_id: Paper ID to get references for
    limit: Maximum number of results (default: 10, max: 1000)
    offset: Number of results to skip (default: 0)
    fields: Comma-separated list of fields to return

Returns:
    List of referenced papers

Implementation Reference

• src/semantic_scholar_mcp/server.py:485-534 (handler)

  The handler function for the 'get_paper_references' tool. It is decorated with @mcp.tool() for registration and implements the logic to fetch references for a given paper ID from the Semantic Scholar API, format them using format_paper helper, and return a formatted string.

  @mcp.tool()
  async def get_paper_references(
      paper_id: str, limit: int = 10, offset: int = 0, fields: Optional[str] = None
  ) -> str:
      """
      Get papers referenced by a specific paper.
  
      Args:
          paper_id: Paper ID to get references for
          limit: Maximum number of results (default: 10, max: 1000)
          offset: Number of results to skip (default: 0)
          fields: Comma-separated list of fields to return
  
      Returns:
          List of referenced papers
      """
      params: Dict[str, Any] = {"limit": min(limit, 1000), "offset": offset}
  
      if fields:
          params["fields"] = fields
      else:
          params["fields"] = "paperId,title,authors,year,venue,citationCount"
  
      encoded_id = quote(paper_id, safe="")
      result = await make_api_request(f"paper/{encoded_id}/references", params)
  
      if result is None:
          return "Error: Failed to fetch references"
  
      if "error" in result:
          return f"Error: {result['error']}"
  
      references = result.get("data", [])
      total = result.get("total", 0)
  
      if not references:
          return "No references found for this paper."
  
      formatted_references = []
      for i, reference in enumerate(references, 1):
          cited_paper = reference.get("citedPaper", {})
          if cited_paper:
              formatted_references.append(f"{i}. {format_paper(cited_paper)}")
  
      result_text = (
          f"Found {total} total references (showing {len(formatted_references)}):\n\n"
      )
      result_text += "\n\n".join(formatted_references)
  
      return result_text