Semantic Scholar MCP Server

Instructions

Get detailed information about a specific paper.

Args:
    paper_id: Paper ID (can be Semantic Scholar ID, DOI, ArXiv ID, etc.)
    fields: Comma-separated list of fields to return

Returns:
    Detailed paper information

Implementation Reference

• src/semantic_scholar_mcp/server.py:176-237 (handler)

  Core handler function for the 'get_paper' tool. Decorated with @mcp.tool() for automatic registration and schema inference. Fetches paper details from Semantic Scholar API endpoint /paper/{paper_id}, handles errors, extracts key fields, and formats a detailed text response including title, authors, abstract, citations, references count, and PDF info.

  @mcp.tool()
  async def get_paper(paper_id: str, fields: Optional[str] = None) -> str:
      """
      Get detailed information about a specific paper.
  
      Args:
          paper_id: Paper ID (can be Semantic Scholar ID, DOI, ArXiv ID, etc.)
          fields: Comma-separated list of fields to return
  
      Returns:
          Detailed paper information
      """
      params = {}
      if fields:
          params["fields"] = fields
      else:
          params["fields"] = (
              "paperId,title,authors,year,venue,citationCount,abstract,references,citations,openAccessPdf"
          )
  
      # URL encode the paper ID to handle DOIs and other special characters
      encoded_id = quote(paper_id, safe="")
  
      result = await make_api_request(f"paper/{encoded_id}", params)
  
      if result is None:
          return "Error: Failed to fetch paper"
  
      if "error" in result:
          return f"Error: {result['error']}"
  
      paper = result
      title = paper.get("title", "Unknown Title")
      authors = paper.get("authors", [])
      author_names = [author.get("name", "Unknown") for author in authors]
  
      year = paper.get("year", "Unknown")
      venue = paper.get("venue", "Unknown")
      citation_count = paper.get("citationCount", 0)
      abstract = paper.get("abstract", "No abstract available")
  
      references = paper.get("references", [])
      citations = paper.get("citations", [])
  
      open_access = paper.get("openAccessPdf")
      pdf_url = open_access.get("url") if open_access else "No open access PDF"
  
      result_text = f"""Title: {title}
  Authors: {', '.join(author_names)}
  Year: {year}
  Venue: {venue}
  Citations: {citation_count}
  Paper ID: {paper.get('paperId', 'Unknown')}
  
  Abstract:
  {abstract}
  
  References: {len(references)}
  Cited by: {len(citations)}
  Open Access PDF: {pdf_url}"""
  
      return result_text

• src/semantic_scholar_mcp/server.py:24-70 (helper)

  Key helper function used by get_paper to perform authenticated API requests to Semantic Scholar, with comprehensive error handling for rate limits, HTTP errors, and general exceptions.

  async def make_api_request(
      endpoint: str, params: Optional[Dict[str, Any]] = None, method: str = "GET"
  ) -> Optional[Dict[str, Any]]:
      """Make a request to the Semantic Scholar API."""
      url = f"{BASE_URL}/{endpoint.lstrip('/')}"
  
      headers = {
          "Accept": "application/json",
          "User-Agent": f"semantic-scholar-mcp/{USER_AGENT_VERSION}",
      }
  
      if API_KEY:
          headers["x-api-key"] = API_KEY
  
      try:
          async with httpx.AsyncClient(timeout=API_TIMEOUT) as client:
              if method == "GET":
                  response = await client.get(url, headers=headers, params=params)
              elif method == "POST":
                  response = await client.post(url, headers=headers, json=params)
              else:
                  raise ValueError(f"Unsupported HTTP method: {method}")
  
              response.raise_for_status()
              return response.json()
  
      except httpx.HTTPStatusError as e:
          if e.response.status_code == 403:
              if not API_KEY:
                  return {
                      "error": "Rate limit exceeded. The shared public rate limit (1000 req/sec) may be exceeded. Get a free API key from https://www.semanticscholar.org/product/api for dedicated limits."
                  }
              else:
                  return {
                      "error": f"API key may be invalid or rate limit exceeded: {str(e)}"
                  }
          elif e.response.status_code == 429:
              return {
                  "error": "Rate limit exceeded. Please wait a moment and try again, or get an API key for dedicated higher limits."
              }
          else:
              return {"error": f"HTTP error: {str(e)}"}
      except httpx.HTTPError as e:
          return {"error": f"HTTP error: {str(e)}"}
      except Exception as e:
          return {"error": f"Request failed: {str(e)}"}