semantic-scholar-mcp-server
Server Configuration
Describes the environment variables required to run the server.
| Name | Required | Description | Default |
|---|---|---|---|
| SEMANTICSCHOLAR_API_KEY | No | Optional API key for higher rate limits. Get a free key at https://www.semanticscholar.org/product/api#api-key-form. |
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": true
} |
Tools
Functions exposed to the LLM to take actions
| Name | Description |
|---|---|
| paper_searchB | Search for academic papers by keyword across 200M+ papers in the Semantic Scholar corpus. Supports filtering by year range, venue, field of study, open access, citation count, and publication type. Results are ranked by relevance. |
| paper_search_bulkA | Bulk-search papers with cursor-based pagination for retrieving large result sets (up to 10M results). Returns a continuation token to fetch subsequent pages. Use for systematic literature collection. |
| paper_matchA | Find the single best paper matching a given title string. Useful for resolving a known paper title to its Semantic Scholar ID and metadata. More precise than keyword search when you know the exact title. |
| paper_autocompleteA | Autocomplete a partial paper title, returning up to 10 suggestions. Use for title disambiguation or quick lookup of papers by partial title. |
| paper_getB | Retrieve full details for a single paper by its identifier. Returns title, abstract, authors, venue, year, citation counts, external IDs, open access PDF link, and more. |
| paper_batchA | Retrieve details for multiple papers in a single request (up to 500). More efficient than calling paper_get repeatedly. Pass a list of paper IDs in any supported format. |
| paper_citationsA | Get papers that cite a given paper (forward citations / 'cited by'). Shows which papers reference this work, with influential citation annotations and citation context snippets. |
| paper_referencesA | Get papers cited by a given paper (its bibliography / reference list). Shows what this paper references, with influential citation annotations. |
| paper_authorsA | Get the list of authors for a specific paper with author-level details (affiliations, h-index, paper count, citation count). |
| author_getC | Retrieve full profile for a Semantic Scholar author. Returns name, affiliations, homepage, h-index, paper count, and citation count. |
| author_batchA | Retrieve profiles for multiple authors in a single request (up to 1000). More efficient than calling author_get repeatedly. |
| author_searchA | Search for authors by name. Returns matching author profiles with h-index, paper count, and affiliation. |
| author_papersA | Get all papers published by a specific author, paginated. Returns the author's publication list with title, year, venue, and citation counts. |
| recommendations_for_paperA | Get papers recommended as similar or related to a given paper, using Semantic Scholar's machine learning recommendation engine. Choose 'recent' pool for latest papers or 'all-cs' for all Computer Science papers. |
| recommendations_from_listsA | Get paper recommendations based on a list of positive example papers (papers you like) and optional negative examples (papers to avoid). Useful for discovering papers in a specific research niche or building a reading list. |
| snippet_searchA | Search for text snippets from within paper bodies (not just titles and abstracts). Returns matching text passages with section labels and the papers they come from. Useful for finding papers that discuss specific methods, datasets, or concepts in detail. |
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 16 tools
Each tool has a clear, distinct purpose. Author tools (batch, get, papers, search) and paper tools (authors, autocomplete, batch, citations, get, match, references, search, bulk search, recommendations, snippet) are cleanly separated with no overlapping functionality.
All tool names follow a consistent pattern: resource prefix (author_ or paper_) followed by a descriptive verb (e.g., get, search, batch). Exceptions like recommendations_for_paper and snippet_search still fit the overall style with underscores.
16 tools is well-scoped for the academic paper and author domain. The set covers search, retrieval, batch operations, recommendations, and advanced features like snippet search without unnecessary bloat.
The tool set provides comprehensive coverage for the intended use case: author and paper retrieval, search (including bulk), recommendations, and citation exploration. Missing create/update/delete is appropriate for a read-only API, and no obvious gaps exist.