Academic Author Network MCP Server

A Model Context Protocol (MCP) server for analyzing academic author networks and research collaborations.

Features

• get_coauthors: Find all co-authors for a given researcher

• get_author_keywords: Extract research keywords from Google Scholar profile

Related MCP server: OpenAlex Author Disambiguation MCP Server

Installation

1. Clone or download this repository

2. Create a virtual environment:

   python -m venv venv
   source venv/bin/activate  # On Windows: venv\Scripts\activate

3. Install dependencies:

   pip install -r requirements.txt

Usage

Running the Server

python server.py

Example Tool Calls

Finding Co-authors

result = await get_coauthors(
    name="Yann", 
    surname="LeCun",
    institution="NYU"  # Optional
)

Getting Research Keywords from Google Scholar

keywords = await get_author_keywords(
    name="Yann",
    surname="LeCun"
)

Data Sources

The server uses:

• Semantic Scholar API: Primary source for author and publication data

• OpenAlex API: Open academic knowledge graph

• Crossref API: DOI resolution and metadata

• Google Scholar: Web scraping for research interests and keywords

Features

• Rate Limiting: Respects API rate limits and includes delays for web scraping

• Caching: Reduces redundant API calls and scraping requests

• Error Handling: Graceful handling of API failures and scraping issues

• Data Merging: Combines data from multiple sources for co-authors

• Async Operations: Parallel API requests for better performance

Configuration

The server includes built-in rate limiting and error handling. No additional configuration is required for basic usage.

Limitations

• Free tier API limits apply

• Google Scholar scraping includes respectful delays

• Results quality depends on author name uniqueness

• Web scraping may occasionally fail due to anti-bot measures

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please ensure all API integrations respect rate limits and terms of service.