scholar-mcp

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Search academic papers

search_papers

Read-onlyIdempotent

Find academic papers across multiple sources by topic, question, or partial title; results are deduplicated and reranked for relevance.

Instructions

Search for academic papers across many sources (OpenAlex, Semantic Scholar, arXiv, PubMed, OpenReview, Crossref and more), merge duplicates across DOI/arXiv/S2/OpenAlex identities, and rerank for relevance.

Use this to find papers from a topic, a question, or a half-remembered title. Use paper_info when you already hold an identifier, recommend_papers to expand from one known paper, and search_authors for people. Read-only. Each call fans out to live APIs under a time budget; sources that time out are reported as degraded coverage instead of failing the call. Put years, venues and filters in the parameters, not in the query text.

Input Schema

TableJSON Schema

Name	Required	Description	Default
`sort`	No	Hard final order. Use relevance normally; citations and date replace the reranker's ordering.	relevance
`year`	No	Filter by year or range (e.g., "2023", "2020-2024")
`debug`	No	Include per-source latency, provenance, and internal ranking diagnostics.
`limit`	No	Maximum results to return (1-100, default 10)
`query`	Yes	Search query (e.g., "attention is all you need", "CRISPR gene editing")
`venue`	No	Filter by venue (e.g., "NeurIPS", "Nature")
`intent`	No	Soft relevance focus used by reranking and expansion. Use balanced normally; alternatives are foundational, recent, survey, method, and dataset.	balanced
`paper_types`	No	Comma-separated types (e.g., "JournalArticle,Conference,Review,Book,Dataset"). Default: all types.
`min_citations`	No	Minimum citation count filter (default 0)
`fields_of_study`	No	Comma-separated fields (e.g., "Computer Science,Mathematics")
`open_access_only`	No	Only return papers with free PDF access

Output Schema

TableJSON Schema

Name	Required	Description	Default
No arguments

Schema Changelog

Changes observed during successful MCP inspections. Dates show when Glama detected each change.

Changed11 schema fields changedv0.8.3Sep 5, 2026

addedInput schema / properties / debug

Added value: +{
+  "default": false,
+  "description": "Include per-source latency, provenance, and internal ranking diagnostics.",
+  "type": "boolean"
+}

changedInput schema / properties / intent / default
```
Previous value: -""New value: +"balanced"
```

changedInput schema / properties / intent / description

Previous value: -"Ranking preference. \"foundational\" for seminal papers, \"recent\" for latest work, \"survey\" for reviews, \"method\" for specific techniques. Default: balanced relevance."New value: +"Soft relevance focus used by reranking and expansion. Use\nbalanced normally; alternatives are foundational, recent, survey,\nmethod, and dataset."

addedInput schema / properties / intent / enum

Added value: +[
+  "balanced",
+  "foundational",
+  "recent",
+  "survey",
+  "method",
+  "dataset"
+]

changedInput schema / properties / sort / default
```
Previous value: -""New value: +"relevance"
```

changedInput schema / properties / sort / description

Previous value: -"Sort results by \"citations\" (most cited first) or \"date\" (newest first). Default: relevance."New value: +"Hard final order. Use relevance normally; citations and date\nreplace the reranker's ordering."

addedInput schema / properties / sort / enum

Added value: +[
+  "relevance",
+  "citations",
+  "date"
+]

addedOutput schema / additionalProperties
```
Added value: +true
```

removedOutput schema / properties

Removed value: -{
-  "result": {
-    "type": "string"
-  }
-}

removedOutput schema / required
```
Removed value: -[
-  "result"
-]
```
removedOutput schema / x-fastmcp-wrap-result
```
Removed value: -true
```

First observedv0.6.0May 30, 2026

TDQS

A4.7/5.0

Behavior5/5

Does the description disclose side effects, auth requirements, rate limits, or destructive behavior?

Annotations already cover read-only, idempotent, open-world, and non-destructive behavior. The description adds meaningful behavioral detail: fan-out to live APIs under a time budget, degraded coverage reporting for timed-out sources, and duplicate merging across identities. No contradiction exists.

Agents need to know what a tool does to the world before calling it. Descriptions should go beyond structured annotations to explain consequences.

Conciseness5/5

Is the description appropriately sized, front-loaded, and free of redundancy?

The description is multi-sentence but every sentence earns its place: core function, usage routing, behavioral caveats, and a parameter-usage hint. It is organized and front-loaded without repetition or filler.

Shorter descriptions cost fewer tokens and are easier for agents to parse. Every sentence should earn its place.

Completeness5/5

Given the tool's complexity, does the description cover enough for an agent to succeed on first attempt?

The description covers purpose, sibling alternatives, failure-mode behavior, and parameter usage in a compact form. With an output schema present, return-value details are not needed. No critical information for correct invocation is missing.

Complex tools with many parameters or behaviors need more documentation. Simple tools need less. This dimension scales expectations accordingly.

Parameters3/5

Does the description clarify parameter syntax, constraints, interactions, or defaults beyond what the schema provides?

Schema description coverage is 100%, so every parameter is already documented. The description adds general guidance about where filters belong and the reranking behavior, which is helpful but does not need to re-explain individual parameters.

Input schemas describe structure but not intent. Descriptions should explain non-obvious parameter relationships and valid value ranges.

Purpose5/5

Does the description clearly state what the tool does and how it differs from similar tools?

The description names a specific verb and resource ('Search for academic papers across many sources') and lists concrete sources, duplicate merging, and reranking. It also distinguishes itself from siblings by routing paper_info to identifier lookups, recommend_papers to expansion, and search_authors to people.

Agents choose between tools based on descriptions. A clear purpose with a specific verb and resource helps agents select the right tool.

Usage Guidelines5/5

Does the description explain when to use this tool, when not to, or what alternatives exist?

The description explicitly states when to use this tool ('find papers from a topic, a question, or a half-remembered title') and gives alternatives for other cases. It adds practical advice to put years, venues, and filters in parameters rather than the query text.

Agents often have multiple tools that could apply. Explicit usage guidance like "use X instead of Y when Z" prevents misuse.

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