Semantic Scholar MCP Server
Server Configuration
Describes the environment variables required to run the server.
| Name | Required | Description | Default |
|---|---|---|---|
| S2_API_KEY | No | Optional API key for higher rate limits from Semantic Scholar |
Instructions
Guidance the server publishes about itself, which clients place ahead of the tool catalog so the model reads it before choosing anything.
This server publishes no instructions, or was last inspected before Glama recorded them.
Capabilities
Features and capabilities supported by this server
Protocol revision2025-11-25
| Capability | Details |
|---|---|
| tools | {
"listChanged": false
} |
| prompts | {
"listChanged": false
} |
| resources | {
"subscribe": false,
"listChanged": false
} |
| experimental | {} |
Tools
Functions exposed to the LLM to take actions
| Name | Description |
|---|---|
| search_papersA | Search for academic papers on Semantic Scholar. Args: query: Search query (e.g. "transformer attention mechanism"). limit: Max results to return (1-100, default 10). year: Filter by year or range, e.g. "2020" or "2018-2023". fields_of_study: Comma-separated fields, e.g. "Computer Science,Mathematics". min_citation_count: Only include papers with at least this many citations. |
| get_paperA | Get detailed information about a specific paper. Args: paper_id: Semantic Scholar paper ID, DOI, ArXiv ID (prefix with "ArXiv:"), CorpusId (prefix with "CorpusId:"), PMID, ACL ID, or a URL. |
| get_citationsA | Get papers that cite a given paper. Args: paper_id: The Semantic Scholar paper ID (or DOI, ArXiv ID, etc.). limit: Max citations to return (1-1000, default 10). offset: Pagination offset. |
| get_referencesA | Get papers referenced by a given paper. Args: paper_id: The Semantic Scholar paper ID (or DOI, ArXiv ID, etc.). limit: Max references to return (1-1000, default 10). offset: Pagination offset. |
| search_authorsB | Search for authors on Semantic Scholar. Args: query: Author name to search for. limit: Max results (1-100, default 10). |
| get_authorB | Get detailed information about an author. Args: author_id: Semantic Scholar author ID. |
| get_author_papersA | Get papers written by a specific author. Args: author_id: Semantic Scholar author ID. limit: Max papers to return (1-1000, default 10). offset: Pagination offset. |
| recommend_papersB | Get paper recommendations based on a given paper. Args: paper_id: Semantic Scholar paper ID to get recommendations for. limit: Max recommendations to return (1-500, default 10). |
| batch_get_papersA | Look up multiple papers at once by their IDs. Args: paper_ids: List of paper IDs (S2 IDs, DOIs, ArXiv IDs, etc.). Max 500. fields: Comma-separated fields to return. Defaults to standard detail fields. |
Prompts
Interactive templates invoked by user choice
| Name | Description |
|---|---|
No prompts | |
Resources
Contextual data attached and managed by the client
| Name | Description |
|---|---|
No resources | |
TDQS
Scored across 9 tools
Each tool targets a distinct operation: search vs. lookup by ID, citation graph traversal, author retrieval, recommendations, and batch lookup. There is no meaningful overlap or ambiguity between the tools.
All tools follow a consistent snake_case verb_noun pattern: search_papers, get_paper, get_citations, get_author, recommend_papers, batch_get_papers. The naming is predictable and makes the action and target clear.
Nine tools is well-scoped for a scholarly literature and author discovery server. Each tool has a distinct purpose without the surface feeling bloated or sparse.
The server covers the core read-only academic search workflow: searching papers, retrieving details, batch lookups, citation/reference exploration, author search and paper lists, plus recommendations. No obvious gaps exist for its stated purpose.