related_works_of_paper
Retrieve related academic papers for a specified work using the OpenAlex API, helping researchers explore connections and build literature reviews.
Instructions
Gets related works used to the specified paper using the OpenAlex API. Note: May return empty if the paper's full text is inaccessible.
Args: paper_id: An OpenAlex Work ID of the target paper. e.g., "https://openalex.org/W123456789"
Returns: A JSON object containing a list of paper ids related to the work, or an error message if the fetch fails.
Input Schema
TableJSON Schema
| Name | Required | Description | Default |
|---|---|---|---|
| paper_id | Yes |
Output Schema
TableJSON Schema
| Name | Required | Description | Default |
|---|---|---|---|
| data | No | ||
| count | No |
Implementation Reference
- src/server.py:351-390 (handler)The handler function for the 'related_works_of_paper' tool. It is decorated with @mcp.tool, which registers it in the FastMCP server. The function retrieves the 'related_works' array from the OpenAlex API for the specified paper_id and returns it wrapped in a ListResult object.
@mcp.tool async def related_works_of_paper( paper_id: str, ) -> ListResult: """ Gets related works used to the specified paper using the OpenAlex API. Note: May return empty if the paper's full text is inaccessible. Args: paper_id: An OpenAlex Work ID of the target paper. e.g., "https://openalex.org/W123456789" Returns: A JSON object containing a list of paper ids related to the work, or an error message if the fetch fails. """ # Fetches search results from the OpenAlex API async with RequestAPI("https://api.openalex.org", default_params={"mailto": OPENALEX_MAILTO}) as api: logger.info(f"Fetching related_works works for paper_id={paper_id}") try: result = await api.aget(f"/works/{paper_id}") # Returns a message for when the search results are empty if result is None or len(result.get("related_works", []) or []) == 0: error_message = f"No related_works works found for paper_id={paper_id}." logger.info(error_message) raise ToolError(error_message) # Successfully returns the searched papers works = result.get("related_works", []) or [] success_message = f"Retrieved {len(works)} related_works works for paper_id={paper_id}." logger.info(success_message) return ListResult(data=works, count=len(works)) except httpx.HTTPStatusError as e: error_message = f"Request failed with status: {e.response.status_code}" logger.error(error_message) raise ToolError(error_message) except httpx.RequestError as e: error_message = f"Network error: {str(e)}" logger.error(error_message) raise ToolError(error_message)