What can you do with this server?

The Semantic Scholar MCP Server provides direct access to over 200 million academic papers from Semantic Scholar within Claude Desktop, enabling comprehensive academic research capabilities. Core Capabilities: • Search academic papers - Query 200M+ papers with advanced filters (year ranges, fields of study, publication types, citation counts, open access status) and boolean operators (AND, OR, NOT) • Get detailed paper information - Retrieve comprehensive details using multiple identifier formats (Semantic Scholar ID, DOI, ArXiv, PubMed, Corpus ID, ACL, URL), optionally including citations and references • Search for academic authors - Find authors by name with pagination support • Retrieve author profiles - Access detailed profiles including publications, citation metrics, and research output • AI-powered paper recommendations - Discover related papers based on seed papers for literature reviews • Bulk paper retrieval - Fetch up to 500 papers simultaneously for batch processing • Flexible output formats - Return results in Markdown (human-readable) or JSON (machine-readable) • Automatic rate limit handling - Exponential backoff retry logic for seamless operation • Privacy-focused - Runs entirely locally with API keys never leaving your machine

Which integrations are available for this server?

Provides comprehensive access to 200M+ academic papers through Semantic Scholar's API, including advanced paper search with filters, full paper details with citations and references, author profiles with h-index and publications, AI-powered paper recommendations, and bulk retrieval of up to 500 papers. Supports multiple identifier formats including Semantic Scholar ID, DOI, ArXiv, PubMed, ACL, and CorpusId.

How do I use Semantic Scholar MCP Server?

1. Click on "Install Server". 2. Wait a few minutes for the server to deploy. Once ready, it will show a "Started" state. 3. In the chat, type @ followed by the MCP server name and your instructions, e.g., "@Semantic Scholar MCP Server find recent papers about large language models with over 500 citations" That's it! The server will respond to your query, and you can continue using it as needed. Here is a step-by-step guide with screenshots.

Semantic Scholar MCP Server

PyPI version License: MIT MCP Python 3.10+

The most comprehensive MCP server for academic research. Direct access to 200M+ papers from Semantic Scholar within Claude Desktop.

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 .

Configuration

API Key Options

You can provide your API key in two ways:

Environment Variable (recommended for persistent use):
export SEMANTIC_SCHOLAR_API_KEY="your-api-key-here"
Per-Request Parameter (overrides env var):
{ "api_key": "your-api-key-here" }

Get a free API key at: https://www.semanticscholar.org/product/api

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.

Supported ID Formats

The server accepts the following paper identifier formats:

Format	Pattern	Example
Semantic Scholar ID	40-character hex	`649def34f8be52c8b66281af98ae884c09aef38b`
DOI	`DOI:xxx`	`DOI:10.1038/s41586-021-03819-2`
ArXiv	`ARXIV:xxx`	`ARXIV:2106.15928` or `ARXIV:2106.15928v2`
PubMed	`PMID:xxx`	`PMID:32908142`
Corpus ID	`CorpusId:xxx`	`CorpusId:215416146`
ACL	`ACL:xxx`	`ACL:P19-1285`
URL	`URL:xxx`	`URL:https://arxiv.org/abs/2106.15928`

Tools Reference

1. `semantic_scholar_search_papers`

Search for academic papers with advanced filters.

Parameters:

Parameter	Type	Required	Description
`query`	string	Yes	Search query (supports AND, OR, NOT operators and "phrase search")
`year`	string	No	Year filter: `"2024"`, `"2020-2024"`, or `"2020-"`
`fields_of_study`	string[]	No	Filter by fields: `["Computer Science", "Biology"]`
`publication_types`	string[]	No	Filter by type: `["Review", "JournalArticle"]`
`open_access_only`	boolean	No	Only return open access papers (default: false)
`min_citation_count`	integer	No	Minimum citation count
`limit`	integer	No	Max results 1-100 (default: 10)
`offset`	integer	No	Pagination offset (default: 0)
`response_format`	string	No	`"markdown"` or `"json"` (default: markdown)
`api_key`	string	No	Override environment API key

Example:

Search for "transformer attention mechanism" papers from 2023 with at least 100 citations

JSON Example:

{ "query": "transformer attention mechanism", "year": "2023", "min_citation_count": 100, "fields_of_study": ["Computer Science"], "limit": 20 }

2. `semantic_scholar_get_paper`

Get detailed information about a specific paper.

Parameters:

Parameter	Type	Required	Description
`paper_id`	string	Yes	Paper ID in any supported format
`include_citations`	boolean	No	Include citing papers (default: false)
`include_references`	boolean	No	Include referenced papers (default: false)
`citations_limit`	integer	No	Max citations to return 1-100 (default: 10)
`references_limit`	integer	No	Max references to return 1-100 (default: 10)
`response_format`	string	No	`"markdown"` or `"json"` (default: markdown)
`api_key`	string	No	Override environment API key

Example:

Get details for DOI:10.1038/s41586-021-03819-2 including its top 20 citations

JSON Example:

{ "paper_id": "DOI:10.1038/s41586-021-03819-2", "include_citations": true, "citations_limit": 20 }

3. `semantic_scholar_search_authors`

Search for academic authors by name.

Parameters:

Parameter	Type	Required	Description
`query`	string	Yes	Author name to search
`limit`	integer	No	Max results 1-100 (default: 10)
`offset`	integer	No	Pagination offset (default: 0)
`response_format`	string	No	`"markdown"` or `"json"` (default: markdown)
`api_key`	string	No	Override environment API key

Example:

Find author "Yoshua Bengio"

JSON Example:

{ "query": "Yoshua Bengio", "limit": 5 }

4. `semantic_scholar_get_author`

Get author profile with publications.

Parameters:

Parameter	Type	Required	Description
`author_id`	string	Yes	Semantic Scholar author ID
`include_papers`	boolean	No	Include publications (default: true)
`papers_limit`	integer	No	Max papers to return 1-100 (default: 20)
`response_format`	string	No	`"markdown"` or `"json"` (default: markdown)
`api_key`	string	No	Override environment API key

Example:

Get author profile for author ID 1741101 with their top 50 publications

JSON Example:

{ "author_id": "1741101", "include_papers": true, "papers_limit": 50 }

5. `semantic_scholar_recommendations`

Get AI-powered paper recommendations based on a seed paper.

Parameters:

Parameter	Type	Required	Description
`paper_id`	string	Yes	Seed paper ID in any supported format
`limit`	integer	No	Max recommendations 1-100 (default: 10)
`response_format`	string	No	`"markdown"` or `"json"` (default: markdown)
`api_key`	string	No	Override environment API key

Example:

Get recommendations based on paper 649def34f8be52c8b66281af98ae884c09aef38b

JSON Example:

{ "paper_id": "ARXIV:1706.03762", "limit": 15 }

6. `semantic_scholar_bulk_papers`

Retrieve multiple papers in a single request (max 500).

Parameters:

Parameter	Type	Required	Description
`paper_ids`	string[]	Yes	List of paper IDs (max 500)
`response_format`	string	No	`"markdown"` or `"json"` (default: json)
`api_key`	string	No	Override environment API key

Example:

Retrieve these papers: DOI:10.1038/nature12373, ARXIV:2106.15928, PMID:32908142

JSON Example:

{ "paper_ids": [ "DOI:10.1038/nature12373", "ARXIV:2106.15928", "PMID:32908142" ] }

7. `semantic_scholar_status`

Check server health and API connectivity status.

Parameters: None

Example:

Check Semantic Scholar API status

Response:

{ "server": "semantic-scholar-mcp", "version": "1.1.0", "api_key_configured": true, "timestamp": "2025-01-15T12:00:00.000000+00:00", "api_reachable": true }

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

The server automatically handles rate limiting with:

Request serialization to enforce minimum intervals
Exponential backoff retry for 429 (rate limit) and 503 (service unavailable) errors
Maximum 3 retries with jitter

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 # Run tests with coverage pytest --cov=src/semantic_scholar_mcp --cov-report=term-missing # 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.

Semantic Scholar MCP Server

Semantic Scholar MCP Server

Installation

Option 1: pip (Recommended)

Option 2: From Source

Configuration

API Key Options

Claude Desktop Setup

Supported ID Formats

Tools Reference

1. `semantic_scholar_search_papers`

2. `semantic_scholar_get_paper`

3. `semantic_scholar_search_authors`

4. `semantic_scholar_get_author`

5. `semantic_scholar_recommendations`

6. `semantic_scholar_bulk_papers`

7. `semantic_scholar_status`

Rate Limits

Architecture

Development

License

Author

Contributing

Support

Resources

Tools

Appeared in Searches

New MCP Servers

Latest Blog Posts

MCP directory API

Semantic Scholar MCP Server

Installation

Option 1: pip (Recommended)

Option 2: From Source

Configuration

API Key Options

Claude Desktop Setup

Supported ID Formats

Tools Reference

1. semantic_scholar_search_papers

2. semantic_scholar_get_paper

3. semantic_scholar_search_authors

4. semantic_scholar_get_author

5. semantic_scholar_recommendations

6. semantic_scholar_bulk_papers

7. semantic_scholar_status

Rate Limits

Architecture

Development

License

Author

Contributing

Support

Resources

Tools

Appeared in Searches

New MCP Servers

Latest Blog Posts

MCP directory API

1. `semantic_scholar_search_papers`

2. `semantic_scholar_get_paper`

3. `semantic_scholar_search_authors`

4. `semantic_scholar_get_author`

5. `semantic_scholar_recommendations`

6. `semantic_scholar_bulk_papers`

7. `semantic_scholar_status`