Google Scholar MCP Server

MCP server for academic research via Claude Code. Search Google Scholar and access Open Access full-text articles.

Features

Google Scholar Search via SerpAPI
- Search academic articles by query, year, language
- Get articles citing a specific paper
- Get all versions of an article from different sources
Full-text Access via CORE API
- Retrieve full text of Open Access articles
- Search specifically for articles with full-text available
- Answer research questions using evidence from papers (RAG pattern)

Tools

Tool	Description
`search_articles`	Search for academic articles on Google Scholar
`get_citations`	Get articles citing a specific paper
`get_article_versions`	Get all versions of an article
`get_fulltext`	Get full text of Open Access article
`search_open_access`	Search for articles with full-text
`ask_research_question`	Answer research questions using evidence from Open Access papers

Quick Start

1. Get API Keys

SerpAPI (Required)

Sign up at serpapi.com
Free tier: 100 searches/month
Paid plans from $75/month for 5,000 searches

CORE API (Optional, for full-text)

Register at core.ac.uk/api-keys/register
Free: 100,000 requests/day

2. Install

git clone https://github.com/alimov-andrey/google-scholar-mcp.git
cd google-scholar-mcp
uv pip install -e .

3. Configure Environment

cp .env.example .env
# Edit .env and add your API keys:
# SERPAPI_API_KEY=your_key_here
# CORE_API_KEY=your_key_here  # optional

4. Configure Claude Code

Option A: Global config (~/.claude/claude_mcp_config.json)

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "google-scholar": {
      "command": "bash",
      "args": ["-c", "cd /path/to/google-scholar-mcp && exec python -m src.main"]
    }
  }
}

Option B: Project config (.mcp.json in project root)

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "google-scholar": {
      "command": "bash",
      "args": ["-c", "cd /path/to/google-scholar-mcp && exec python -m src.main"]
    }
  }
}

Usage Examples

Search Articles

Search for "transformer neural networks" articles from 2023

Get Citations

Get articles citing this paper (use citation_id from search results)

Get Full Text

Get full text for article with DOI 10.1234/example

Project Structure

google-scholar-mcp/
├── src/
│   ├── main.py              # FastMCP server entry point
│   ├── config.py            # Pydantic settings
│   ├── clients/
│   │   ├── exceptions.py    # APIError, RateLimitError, AuthenticationError
│   │   ├── serpapi.py       # SerpAPI async client with retry
│   │   └── core_api.py      # CORE API async client with retry
│   ├── models/
│   │   └── scholar.py       # Pydantic response models
│   └── tools/
│       ├── scholar.py       # Google Scholar tools
│       └── fulltext.py      # Full-text access tools
├── tests/                   # Unit tests (86 tests)
├── pyproject.toml
└── .github/workflows/
    └── test.yml             # CI pipeline

Development

# Install with dev dependencies
uv pip install -e ".[dev]"

# Run tests
pytest tests/ -v

# Run server locally
python -m src.main

Tech Stack

Python 3.12+ with FastMCP 2.14
httpx for async HTTP with retry logic
Pydantic for data validation
stdio transport for MCP communication

License

MIT