search_sources
Search academic journals and sources in OpenAlex's scholarly database using queries, filters, and sorting to find relevant publications for research.
Instructions
Search journals and sources
Input Schema
TableJSON Schema
| Name | Required | Description | Default |
|---|---|---|---|
| search | No | Full-text search query | |
| filter | No | Key:value OpenAlex filters. Supports entity attributes (e.g., 'issn', 'country_code', 'is_oa'), IDs, and convenience filters (e.g., 'display_name.search'). Example: 'is_oa:true,type:journal' | |
| sort | No | Sort field with optional :desc | |
| page | No | Page number | |
| per_page | No | Results per page (max 200) | |
| cursor | No | Cursor for deep pagination | |
| group_by | No | Group results by field | |
| select | No | Fields to return | |
| sample | No | Random sample size | |
| seed | No | Random seed | |
| mailto | No | Email for rate limits | |
| api_key | No | Premium API key |
Implementation Reference
- src/tools/searchSources.ts:3-10 (handler)The core handler function that implements the logic for the 'search_sources' tool. It invokes the OpenAlex API for sources using makeOpenAlexRequest and formats the response as MCP content.
export async function searchSources(args: any) { return { content: [{ type: "text", text: JSON.stringify(await makeOpenAlexRequest("/sources", args), null, 2) }] }; } - src/index.ts:99-119 (schema)The input schema and metadata definition for the 'search_sources' tool, provided in the listTools response.
{ name: "search_sources", description: "Search journals and sources", inputSchema: { type: "object", properties: { search: { type: "string", description: "Full-text search query" }, filter: { type: "string", description: "Key:value OpenAlex filters. Supports entity attributes (e.g., 'issn', 'country_code', 'is_oa'), IDs, and convenience filters (e.g., 'display_name.search'). Example: 'is_oa:true,type:journal'" }, sort: { type: "string", description: "Sort field with optional :desc" }, page: { type: "number", description: "Page number" }, per_page: { type: "number", description: "Results per page (max 200)" }, cursor: { type: "string", description: "Cursor for deep pagination" }, group_by: { type: "string", description: "Group results by field" }, select: { type: "string", description: "Fields to return" }, sample: { type: "number", description: "Random sample size" }, seed: { type: "number", description: "Random seed" }, mailto: { type: "string", description: "Email for rate limits" }, api_key: { type: "string", description: "Premium API key" } } } }, - src/index.ts:285-286 (registration)Registers the handler by dispatching 'search_sources' tool calls to the searchSources function in the CallToolRequest handler.
case "search_sources": return await searchSources(args); - src/index.ts:24-24 (registration)Imports the searchSources handler function for use in the MCP server.
import { searchSources } from "./tools/searchSources.js";