# OpenAlex MCP Server

An MCP (Model Context Protocol) server for accessing [OpenAlex](https://openalex.org/) — a free, open index of 250M+ academic papers, 90M+ authors, and 100K+ institutions.

No paid subscription required. Free API key available for higher rate limits.

## Tools

| Tool | Description |
|------|-------------|
| `search_works` | Search papers by keyword with boolean operators and filters |
| `search_authors` | Search for researchers by name |
| `get_author` | Get detailed author profile (h-index, affiliations, topics) |
| `get_author_works` | Get publications by a specific author |
| `find_similar_works` | Semantic search — find conceptually related papers using AI embeddings |
| `get_citations` | Get papers that cite a specific work (forward citations) |
| `get_references` | Get papers cited by a specific work (bibliography) |
| `search_institutions` | Search for universities, labs, and research organizations |
| `get_institution_works` | Get research output from a specific institution |

## Setup

### 1. Get an API key (optional but recommended)

Get a free key at [openalex.org/settings/api](https://openalex.org/settings/api). Without a key you get 100 credits/day (testing only); with a free key you get 100,000 credits/day.

### 2. Add to Claude Desktop

Add this to your `claude_desktop_config.json`:

```json
{
  "mcpServers": {
    "openalex": {
      "command": "python3",
      "args": ["/path/to/openalex-mcp-server/server.py"],
      "env": {
        "OPENALEX_API_KEY": "your-api-key",
        "OPENALEX_EMAIL": "your.email@example.com"
      }
    }
  }
}
```

Or if using Claude Code CLI:

```bash
claude mcp add openalex \
  python3 \
  /path/to/openalex-mcp-server/server.py \
  -e OPENALEX_API_KEY=your-api-key \
  -e OPENALEX_EMAIL=your.email@example.com
```

## Usage examples

- "Search OpenAlex for papers on curiosity in higher education from 2020-2024"
- "Find papers semantically similar to 'intrinsic motivation and student engagement'"
- "Look up the author profile for researcher A5023888391"
- "What papers cite DOI 10.1038/s41586-020-2649-2?"
- "Get recent publications from Northwestern University"

## License

MIT