ScholarScope MCP

Instructions

Implementation Reference

• src/server.py:36-110 (handler)

  The core handler function for the 'search_papers' tool, decorated with @mcp.tool for registration. It constructs API parameters, queries OpenAlex API for papers, processes results using Work models, and returns a PageResult.

  @mcp.tool
  async def search_papers(
          query: str,
          search_by: Literal["default", "title", "title_and_abstract"] = "default",
          sort_by: Literal["relevance_score", "cited_by_count", "publication_date"] = "relevance_score",
          institution_name: Optional[str] = None,
          author_id: Optional[str] = None,
          page: int = 1,
  ) -> PageResult:
      """
      Searches for academic papers using the OpenAlex API.
  
      Args:
          query: The search term or keywords to look for in the papers.
          search_by: The field to search in ("default", "title", or "title_and_abstract").
          sort_by: The sorting criteria ("relevance_score", "cited_by_count", or "publication_date").
          institution_name: An optional institution or affiliation name to filter search results.
          author_id: An optional OpenAlex Author ID to filter search results. e.g., "https://openalex.org/A123456789"
          page: The page number of the results to retrieve (default: 1).
  
      Returns:
          A JSON object containing a list of searched papers+ids, or an error message if the search fails.
      """
      query = sanitize_search_text(query)
      institution_name = sanitize_search_text(institution_name)
  
      params = {
          "filter": f"{search_by}.search:\"{query}\"",
          "sort": f"{sort_by}:desc",
          "page": page,
          "per_page": 10,
      }
      if institution_name:
          params["filter"] += f",raw_affiliation_strings.search:\"{institution_name}\""
      if author_id:
          params["filter"] += f",authorships.author.id:{author_id}"
  
      # Fetches search results from the OpenAlex API
      async with RequestAPI("https://api.openalex.org", default_params={"mailto": OPENALEX_MAILTO}) as api:
          logger.info(f"Searching for papers using: query={query}, search_by={search_by}, sort_by={sort_by}, page={page}")
          try:
              result = await api.aget("/works", params=params)
  
              # Returns a message for when the search results are empty
              if result is None or len(result.get("results", []) or []) == 0:
                  error_message = "No works found with the query."
                  logger.info(error_message)
                  raise ToolError(error_message)
  
              # Successfully returns the searched papers
              works = Work.from_list(result.get("results", []) or [])
              success_message = f"Found {len(works)} papers."
              logger.info(success_message)
  
              total_count = (result.get("meta", {}) or {}).get("count")
              if total_count and total_count > params["per_page"] * params["page"]:
                  has_next = True
              else:
                  has_next = None
              return PageResult(
                  data=Work.list_to_json(works),
                  total_count=total_count,
                  per_page=params["per_page"],
                  page=params["page"],
                  has_next=has_next
              )
          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)

• src/schemas.py:133-139 (schema)

  Pydantic model defining the output schema for search_papers (and similar paginated tools), including data list, pagination metadata.

  class PageResult(BaseModel):
      data: List[Union[Institution, Author, Work, dict]] = Field(default_factory=list)
      total_count: Optional[int] = None
      per_page: int
      page: int
      has_next: Optional[bool] = None

• src/schemas.py:82-131 (schema)

  Pydantic model for Work (paper) objects, used in search_papers results data. Includes parsing from OpenAlex JSON and serialization.

  class Work(BaseModel):
      model_config = ConfigDict(
          frozen=False,  # set True for immutability
          validate_assignment=True,  # runtime type safety on attribute set
          str_strip_whitespace=True,  # trims incoming strings
      )
  
      title: str = None
      ids: Dict[str, str] = Field(default_factory=dict)
      cited_by_count: Optional[int] = None
      authors: List[Author] = Field(default_factory=list)
      publication_date: Optional[str] = None
      preferred_fulltext_url: Optional[str] = None
  
      @classmethod
      def from_json(cls, json_obj: Dict[str, Any]) -> "Work":
          # Gets title and page urls
          title = json_obj.get("title") or json_obj.get("display_name") or ""
  
          # Prioritize Open Access url
          preferred_fulltext_url = (json_obj.get("best_oa_location", {}) or {}).get("pdf_url")
          if preferred_fulltext_url is None:
              preferred_fulltext_url = (json_obj.get("best_oa_location", {}) or {}).get("landing_page_url")
          if preferred_fulltext_url is None:
              preferred_fulltext_url = (json_obj.get("primary_location", {}) or {}).get("pdf_url")
          if preferred_fulltext_url is None:
              preferred_fulltext_url = (json_obj.get("primary_location", {}) or {}).get("landing_page_url")
  
          # Gets individual authors of the work
          authors = Author.from_list(json_obj.get("authorships", []) or [])
          return cls(
              title=title,
              ids=json_obj.get("ids", {}) or {},
              authors=authors,
              cited_by_count=json_obj.get("cited_by_count"),
              publication_date=json_obj.get("publication_date"),
              preferred_fulltext_url=preferred_fulltext_url
          )
  
      @classmethod
      def from_list(cls, json_list: List[dict]) -> List["Work"]:
          return [cls.from_json(item) for item in json_list]
  
      @staticmethod
      def list_to_json(works: List["Work"]) -> List[dict]:
          return [work.model_dump(exclude_none=True) for work in works]
  
      def __str__(self) -> str:
          return self.model_dump_json(exclude_none=True)

• src/utils.py:4-10 (helper)

  Utility function to sanitize search query text by removing commas and normalizing whitespace, used in search_papers.

  def sanitize_search_text(s: str) -> str:
      """Remove commas and collapse whitespace for API search terms for OpenAlex to work"""
      if not s:
          return s
      s = s.replace(",", " ")
      s = re.sub(r"\s+", " ", s).strip()
      return s