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ociupitu

Academic Search MCP

by ociupitu

Server Configuration

Describes the environment variables required to run the server.

NameRequiredDescriptionDefault
SEMANTIC_SCHOLAR_API_KEYNoOptional API key for Semantic Scholar. Without it, requests go through the anonymous shared pool and may be rate-limited.

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

CapabilityDetails
tools
{
  "listChanged": false
}
prompts
{
  "listChanged": false
}
resources
{
  "subscribe": false,
  "listChanged": false
}
experimental
{}

Tools

Functions exposed to the LLM to take actions

NameDescription
search_papersB

Relevance search for papers on Semantic Scholar.

Args:
    query: the search query string.
    limit: maximum number of results (default 10, capped at 100).
    year: a single year or range, e.g. "2018", "2015-2022", "2016-", "-2015".
    fields_of_study: restrict to fields, e.g. ["Economics", "Business"].
    min_citation_count: drop papers with fewer citations than this.
    venue: restrict to venues, e.g. ["Marketing Science"].
    open_access_pdf: if True, only return papers that have an open-access PDF.
search_by_topicA

Search papers by topic with an optional year range and filters.

Thin wrapper over search_papers that maps a year_start/year_end pair to the
API's year-range string. See search_papers for the filter semantics.

Args:
    topic: the search query string.
    year_start: start year (inclusive).
    year_end: end year (inclusive).
    limit: maximum number of results (default 10, capped at 100).
    fields_of_study: restrict to fields, e.g. ["Economics", "Business"].
    min_citation_count: drop papers with fewer citations than this.
fetch_paper_detailsA

Get detailed information about a single paper.

Args:
    paper_id: a Semantic Scholar paper ID, or a DOI, arXiv ID, etc.
get_papers_batchA

Fetch details for many papers in ONE request (up to 500).

Far more efficient than calling fetch_paper_details in a loop: a single
request returns all of them, which matters under the 1 request/second limit.

Args:
    paper_ids: Semantic Scholar paper IDs (or DOIs, arXiv IDs, etc.).
recommend_papersA

Recommend papers similar to seed papers, via the citation graph.

Use this as a second discovery channel: keyword search finds papers that
share vocabulary, while recommendations surface structurally similar papers
in OTHER empirical domains that keyword search misses. Seed it with the
paper IDs of the best on-target hits from a search.

Args:
    positive_paper_ids: IDs the results should resemble (at least one required).
    negative_paper_ids: IDs to steer recommendations away from (optional).
    limit: maximum number of recommendations (default 10, capped at 100).

Prompts

Interactive templates invoked by user choice

NameDescription

No prompts

Resources

Contextual data attached and managed by the client

NameDescription

No resources

TDQS

A3.9/5.0

Scored across 5 tools

Disambiguation4/5

Tools have distinct purposes: single/batch fetch, search, and recommendation. The two search tools (search_by_topic, search_papers) have overlapping functionality, but the descriptions clarify that search_by_topic is a convenience wrapper with year range parameters, reducing ambiguity.

Naming Consistency5/5

All tools follow a verb_noun pattern in snake_case (e.g., fetch_paper_details, get_papers_batch, recommend_papers, search_papers). The slight deviation of search_by_topic (verb_preposition_noun) is minor and still predictable.

Tool Count5/5

Five tools cover the core operations of an academic search server: single/batch retrieval, two search variants, and recommendation. The scope is well-defined, and no tool feels redundant or missing for the stated purpose.

Completeness4/5

The tool set covers essential tasks: search, retrieve, and recommend. However, it lacks tools for fetching citations, references, or author details, which are common in academic search. This is a minor gap for a complete workflow.

Maintenance

ActivityInactive
ResponsivenessNo issues