get_paper_abstract
Retrieve complete abstracts for academic papers using OpenAlex IDs to support detailed research analysis and paper evaluation.
Instructions
Get the full abstract for a specific paper.
Args: paper_id: The OpenAlex paper ID (from search_papers results)
Returns: The paper's abstract text with title and metadata
Input Schema
TableJSON Schema
| Name | Required | Description | Default |
|---|---|---|---|
| paper_id | Yes |
Output Schema
TableJSON Schema
| Name | Required | Description | Default |
|---|---|---|---|
| result | Yes |
Implementation Reference
- src/server.py:47-71 (handler)Primary MCP tool handler for 'get_paper_abstract'. Fetches paper by ID using PaperFetcher, extracts abstract with helper method, formats and returns structured response including title, authors, year, citations, and full abstract text.
@mcp.tool() def get_paper_abstract(paper_id: str) -> str: """ Get the full abstract for a specific paper. Args: paper_id: The OpenAlex paper ID (from search_papers results) Returns: The paper's abstract text with title and metadata """ paper = fetcher.fetch_paper_by_id(paper_id) if "error" in paper: return paper["error"] abstract_text = fetcher.get_paper_abstract(paper) result = f"**{paper['title']}**\n" result += f"Authors: {paper['authors']}\n" result += f"Year: {paper['publication_year']}\n" result += f"Citations: {paper['cited_by_count']}\n\n" result += f"**Abstract:**\n{abstract_text}\n" return result - src/tools/paper_fetcher.py:117-140 (helper)Supporting helper method in PaperFetcher class that reconstructs the paper's abstract from OpenAlex's inverted index format (word positions) into readable plain text.
def get_paper_abstract(self, paper_data: Dict) -> str: """ Convert OpenAlex inverted index abstract to readable text. Args: paper_data: Paper dictionary containing abstract in inverted index format Returns: Readable abstract text """ inverted_index = paper_data.get("abstract") if not inverted_index: return "No abstract available" word_positions = [] for word, positions in inverted_index.items(): for pos in positions: word_positions.append((pos, word)) word_positions.sort(key=lambda x: x[0]) abstract = " ".join([word for _, word in word_positions]) return abstract - src/server.py:47-47 (registration)The @mcp.tool() decorator registers the get_paper_abstract function as an MCP tool.
@mcp.tool() - src/tools/paper_fetcher.py:82-82 (helper)Helper method that fetches detailed paper data from OpenAlex API by ID, which is used by the tool handler to retrieve paper metadata before extracting the abstract.
def fetch_paper_by_id(self, paper_id: str) -> Dict: