What can you do with this server?

Search, resolve, and enrich scholarly literature across multiple databases, plus Scopus/SciVal metadata. * search_all: run parallel multi-source searches with source, year, tech-only, and per-source limit controls. * Search individual sources: Scopus, arXiv, OpenAlex, Semantic Scholar, Crossref, and DBLP. * get_paper: resolve DOI/arXiv/Scopus/OpenAlex identifiers, merge metadata, and attach open-access links. * get_citations: collect cross-source citing papers from Scopus, OpenAlex, and Semantic Scholar. * Scopus detail tools: fetch abstract details, author profiles, and API quota status. * SciVal tools: query author/institution metrics, author/institution lookups, and topic metrics. * The README also documents additional capabilities beyond this schema: PubMed/Garuda search, references, related works, citation networks, bibliometrics, exports, and the josc-web UI/API.

Which integrations are available for this server?

Searches arXiv for scholarly papers and retrieves metadata, abstracts, and open-access links. Searches DBLP for computer science publications and their metadata. Searches Scopus for scholarly articles and provides abstract details, author profiles, and quota status. Searches Semantic Scholar for papers, metadata, abstracts, citations, and open-access links.

How do I use journal-scout-mcp?

1. Click on "Deploy Server". 2. Wait a few minutes for the server to deploy. Once ready, it will show a "Started" state. 3. In the chat, type @ followed by the MCP server name and your instructions, e.g., "@journal-scout-mcp search for recent papers on CRISPR gene editing across all sources" That's it! The server will respond to your query, and you can continue using it as needed. Here is a step-by-step guide with screenshots.

journal-scout-mcp

Multi-source journal research MCP server. Searches Scopus, arXiv, OpenAlex, Semantic Scholar, Crossref, PubMed, DBLP, and Garuda, then merges duplicate results into one entry per paper (DOI-first dedup) and reports partial failures. Unpaywall resolves open-access copies and OpenCitations supplies citation links.

It also builds Connected-Papers-style citation networks (direct citations, bibliographic coupling, co-citation) and computes Publish-or-Perish style bibliometrics, and ships a browser UI (josc-web).

Citation links come from OpenCitations as well: 300M+ DOI-to-DOI links, free, no API key, no approval. It is not a searchable source — it only answers citation and reference queries for a known DOI or OpenCitations id.

Tools (25)

Unified	Per-source	Scopus detail
`search_all`	`search_scopus`	`get_abstract_details`
`search_author`	`search_arxiv`	`get_author_profile`
`get_paper`	`search_openalex`	`get_quota_status`
`get_citations`	`search_semanticscholar`	SciVal
`get_references`	`search_crossref`	`scival_author_metrics`
`get_related_works`	`search_pubmed`	`scival_institution_metrics`
`build_citation_network`	`search_dblp`	`scival_author_lookup`
`compute_metrics`	`search_garuda`	`scival_institution_lookup`
`export_results`		`scival_topic_metrics`

search_all accepts a topic filter. It runs after the merge and keeps records whose topics contain the text (case-insensitive substring). It is deliberately not pushed down to providers: OpenAlex concepts, Crossref subjects, and PubMed MeSH share no vocabulary, so a local pass costs zero extra requests and gives one consistent semantic.

Export

export_results renders any list of paper dicts in one of 17 formats: apa, bibtex, chicago, csiro, csv, csv_bom, csv_header, csv_plain, endnote, harvard, isi, json, mla, ris, vancouver, xls, xls_plain. The same engine is exposed over HTTP as POST /api/export.

Citation networks

build_citation_network resolves the seed paper, fetches its references and citing papers from every capable source, then fetches the reference lists of the top citing papers to derive three edge types:

Edge	Meaning
`cites`	Direct citation (seed → reference, citing paper → seed)
`coupled`	Bibliographic coupling: references shared with the seed
`cocited`	Co-citation: reference pairs appearing together in citing papers

Pass graph_format="graphml" to get a Gephi/VOSviewer file instead of JSON.

get_references exposes just the merged reference list of one paper.

Providers that answer citation queries: OpenAlex, Semantic Scholar, Crossref and OpenCitations. OpenCitations adds links the others miss (and vice versa), and its metadata is resolved through the OpenCitations Meta API with a Crossref batch fallback, so a paper is returned even when one of the two cannot describe it.

Metrics

compute_metrics accepts either author or query and returns papers, total citations, h-index, i10-index, g-index, max/mean citations, and citation velocity over the merged multi-source result set. mode="extended" adds the Publish-or-Perish indices: hc_index, hI_index (Batista), hI_norm, hm_index (Schreiber), AWCR, AW_index, AWCRpA, plus citation ratios.

Related MCP server: paper-search

Config

Copy config.json.example to config.json. Only the Elsevier api_key is required; the other sources work without a key. semantic_scholar_api_key raises the Semantic Scholar rate limit, and polite_email improves rate limits on OpenAlex, Crossref, and Unpaywall.

josc-web

web/ is a Vite + React 19 + TanStack Router + Tailwind 4 app that talks to a thin Starlette API (src/josc/api/) over the same aggregator the MCP server uses.

pip install -e ".[web]"

cd web && npm install && npm run build && cd ..

josc-web        # serves the API and the built UI on :8793

For UI development, run npm run dev inside web/ (Vite proxies /api to 127.0.0.1:8793).

Endpoint	Purpose
`GET /api/health`	Provider list and capability flags
`GET /api/quota`	Scopus quota state
`GET /api/search?query=&topic=`	Fan-out search, optional post-merge topic filter
`GET /api/search-author?author=`	Author search
`GET /api/paper?identifier=`	Resolve one paper
`GET /api/citations?identifier=`	Citing papers
`GET /api/references?identifier=`	Reference list
`GET /api/related?identifier=`	Related works (OpenAlex)
`GET /api/network?identifier=&format=json\|graphml`	Citation network
`GET /api/metrics?author=\|query=&mode=basic\|extended`	Bibliometric summary
`GET /api/metrics/export`, `GET /api/metrics/report`	Metrics as CSV / report
`GET /api/searches?limit=`	Recorded search history
`POST /api/searches/import`, `GET /api/searches/export`	Import / export history archives
`POST /api/searches/{id}/replay\|split\|duplicate`	Re-run, split, or copy a saved search
`DELETE /api/searches/{id}`	Delete a saved search
`POST /api/import`	Import BibTeX / RIS / CSV records
`POST /api/cache/clear`, `GET /api/cache/info`	Cache control and telemetry
`POST /api/merge`	Merge an external record list
`GET /api/export/graphml?identifier=`	GraphML download
`POST /api/export`	Bibliography export (JSON body: `papers`, `format`)

The UI has four routes: / (search), /graph, /metrics, and /history (the recorded search list, with replay, split, duplicate, export, and import).

Objectives

Search 8 scholarly databases from one MCP server, plus OpenCitations for citation links on any DOI.
Merge duplicates by DOI-first dedup.
Report partial failures (per-source) so callers never get a 500 for one blackholed API.
Degrade gracefully where entitlements are missing (e.g. Scopus view=FULL).
Map citation structure with coupling/co-citation and export it to GraphML.

Development

uv venv
uv pip install -e ".[dev]"
pytest

License

MIT. See LICENSE.

Available Tools

17 tools

get_abstract_detailsC

Scopus abstract details for a Scopus id.

Inputs: scopus_id (required).

get_author_profileD

Scopus author profile.

Inputs: author_id (required).

get_citationsC

Collect the cross-source citation graph (Scopus + OpenAlex + Semantic Scholar) for one paper.

Inputs: identifier (required), limit.

get_paperA

Resolve a DOI/arXiv/Scopus/OpenAlex id across sources, merge metadata, and attach open-access links.

Inputs: identifier (required).

get_quota_statusC

Scopus API quota status.

Inputs: no named parameters.

scival_author_lookupB

SciVal author lookup by name.

Inputs: query (required), count.

scival_author_metricsD

SciVal author metrics.

Inputs: author_id (required), year_to, year_from.

scival_institution_lookupC

SciVal institution lookup by name.

Inputs: query (required), count.

scival_institution_metricsD

SciVal institution metrics.

Inputs: institution_id (required), year_to, year_from.

scival_topic_metricsD

SciVal topic metrics.

Inputs: topic_id (required), year_to, year_from.

search_allB

Search all journal sources in parallel and merge duplicate results by DOI/title.

Inputs: query (required), sources, year_to, tech_only, +2 more.

search_arxivB

Search arxiv only.