Paper Search

mcp

MCP, CLI, Skills for searching and downloading academic papers from multiple sources like arXiv, PubMed, bioRxiv, etc.

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Overview Tools (57)

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About

Paper Search MCP Server

MCP, CLI, Skills for searching and downloading academic papers from multiple sources like arXiv, PubMed, bioRxiv, etc.

What is an MCP Server?⁠

MCP Info

Attribute	Details
Docker Image	mcp/paper-search⁠
Author	openags⁠
Repository	https://github.com/openags/paper-search-mcp⁠

Image Building Info

Attribute	Details
Dockerfile	https://github.com/openags/paper-search-mcp/blob/c8b642183bb725f0a7faec89e58b558df09079d1/Dockerfile⁠
Commit	`c8b642183bb725f0a7faec89e58b558df09079d1`
Docker Image built by	Docker Inc.
Docker Scout Health Score
Verify Signature	`COSIGN_REPOSITORY=mcp/signatures cosign verify mcp/paper-search --key https://raw.githubusercontent.com/docker/keyring/refs/heads/main/public/mcp/latest.pub`
Licence	MIT License

Available Tools (57)

Tools provided by this Server	Short Description
`download_arxiv`	Download PDF of an arXiv paper.
`download_base`	Download PDF for a paper from BASE.
`download_biorxiv`	Download PDF of a bioRxiv paper.
`download_citeseerx`	Download PDF for a paper from CiteSeerX.
`download_crossref`	Attempt to download PDF of a CrossRef paper.
`download_dblp`	Download PDF for a paper from dblp.
`download_doaj`	Download PDF for a paper from DOAJ.
`download_hal`	Download PDF for a paper from HAL.
`download_iacr`	Download PDF of an IACR ePrint paper.
`download_medrxiv`	Download PDF of a medRxiv paper.
`download_openaire`	Download PDF for a paper from OpenAIRE.
`download_openalex`	Download PDF for a paper from OpenAlex.
`download_pubmed`	Attempt to download PDF of a PubMed paper.
`download_scihub`	Download paper PDF via Sci-Hub (optional fallback connector).
`download_semantic`	Download PDF of a Semantic Scholar paper.
`download_ssrn`	Download PDF for a paper from SSRN.
`download_with_fallback`	Try source-native download, OA repositories, Unpaywall, then optional Sci-Hub.
`download_zenodo`	Download PDF for a paper from Zenodo.
`get_crossref_paper_by_doi`	Get a specific paper from CrossRef by its DOI.
`read_arxiv_paper`	Read and extract text content from an arXiv paper PDF.
`read_base_paper`	Read and extract text content from a BASE paper.
`read_biorxiv_paper`	Read and extract text content from a bioRxiv paper PDF.
`read_citeseerx_paper`	Read and extract text content from a CiteSeerX paper.
`read_crossref_paper`	Attempt to read and extract text content from a CrossRef paper.
`read_dblp_paper`	Attempt to read and extract text content from a dblp paper.
`read_doaj_paper`	Read and extract text content from a DOAJ paper.
`read_hal_paper`	Read and extract text content from a HAL paper.
`read_iacr_paper`	Read and extract text content from an IACR ePrint paper PDF.
`read_medrxiv_paper`	Read and extract text content from a medRxiv paper PDF.
`read_openaire_paper`	Attempt to read and extract text content from an OpenAIRE paper.
`read_openalex_paper`	Attempt to read and extract text content from an OpenAlex paper.
`read_pubmed_paper`	Read and extract text content from a PubMed paper.
`read_semantic_paper`	Read and extract text content from a Semantic Scholar paper.
`read_ssrn_paper`	Read paper content from SSRN.
`read_zenodo_paper`	Read and extract text content from a Zenodo paper.
`search_arxiv`	Search academic papers from arXiv.
`search_base`	Search academic papers from BASE (Bielefeld Academic Search Engine).
`search_biorxiv`	Search academic papers from bioRxiv.
`search_citeseerx`	Search academic papers from CiteSeerX digital library.
`search_core`	Search academic papers from CORE.
`search_crossref`	Search academic papers from CrossRef database.
`search_dblp`	Search academic papers from dblp computer science bibliography.
`search_doaj`	Search academic papers from DOAJ (Directory of Open Access Journals).
`search_europepmc`	Search academic papers from Europe PMC.
`search_google_scholar`	Search academic papers from Google Scholar.
`search_hal`	Search academic papers from HAL open archive.
`search_iacr`	Search academic papers from IACR ePrint Archive.
`search_medrxiv`	Search academic papers from medRxiv.
`search_openaire`	Search academic papers from OpenAIRE European Open Access infrastructure.
`search_openalex`	Search academic papers from OpenAlex.
`search_papers`	Unified top-level search across all configured academic platforms.
`search_pmc`	Search academic papers from PubMed Central (PMC).
`search_pubmed`	Search academic papers from PubMed.
`search_semantic`	Search academic papers from Semantic Scholar.
`search_ssrn`	Search metadata records from SSRN.
`search_unpaywall`	Lookup a DOI via Unpaywall and return OA metadata.
`search_zenodo`	Search academic papers from Zenodo open repository.

Tools Details

Tool: `download_arxiv`

Download PDF of an arXiv paper.

Parameters	Type	Description
`paper_id`	`string`	arXiv paper ID (e.g., '2106.12345').
`save_path`	`string`optional	Directory to save the PDF (default: './downloads').

Tool: `download_base`

Download PDF for a paper from BASE.

Parameters	Type	Description
`paper_id`	`string`	BASE paper identifier.
`save_path`	`string`optional	Directory to save the PDF (default: './downloads').

Tool: `download_biorxiv`

Download PDF of a bioRxiv paper.

Parameters	Type	Description
`paper_id`	`string`	bioRxiv DOI.
`save_path`	`string`optional	Directory to save the PDF (default: './downloads').

Tool: `download_citeseerx`

Download PDF for a paper from CiteSeerX.

Parameters	Type	Description
`paper_id`	`string`	CiteSeerX paper identifier.
`save_path`	`string`optional	Directory to save the PDF (default: './downloads').

Tool: `download_crossref`

Attempt to download PDF of a CrossRef paper.

Parameters	Type	Description
`paper_id`	`string`	CrossRef DOI (e.g., '10.1038/nature12373').
`save_path`	`string`optional	Directory to save the PDF (default: './downloads').

Tool: `download_dblp`

Download PDF for a paper from dblp.

Note: dblp doesn't provide direct PDF access.
This function returns an informative message.

Parameters	Type	Description
`paper_id`	`string`	dblp paper identifier.
`save_path`	`string`optional	Directory to save the PDF (default: './downloads').

Tool: `download_doaj`

Download PDF for a paper from DOAJ.

Parameters	Type	Description
`paper_id`	`string`	DOAJ paper identifier.
`save_path`	`string`optional	Directory to save the PDF (default: './downloads').

Tool: `download_hal`

Download PDF for a paper from HAL.

Parameters	Type	Description
`paper_id`	`string`	HAL paper identifier.
`save_path`	`string`optional	Directory to save the PDF (default: './downloads').

Tool: `download_iacr`

Download PDF of an IACR ePrint paper.

Parameters	Type	Description
`paper_id`	`string`	IACR paper ID (e.g., '2009/101').
`save_path`	`string`optional	Directory to save the PDF (default: './downloads').

Tool: `download_medrxiv`

Download PDF of a medRxiv paper.

Parameters	Type	Description
`paper_id`	`string`	medRxiv DOI.
`save_path`	`string`optional	Directory to save the PDF (default: './downloads').

Tool: `download_openaire`

Download PDF for a paper from OpenAIRE.

Parameters	Type	Description
`paper_id`	`string`	OpenAIRE paper identifier.
`save_path`	`string`optional	Directory to save the PDF (default: './downloads').

Tool: `download_openalex`

Download PDF for a paper from OpenAlex.

Parameters	Type	Description
`paper_id`	`string`	OpenAlex paper ID.
`save_path`	`string`optional	Directory to save the PDF (default: './downloads').

Tool: `download_pubmed`

Attempt to download PDF of a PubMed paper.

Parameters	Type	Description
`paper_id`	`string`	PubMed ID (PMID).
`save_path`	`string`optional	Directory to save the PDF (default: './downloads').

Tool: `download_scihub`

Download paper PDF via Sci-Hub (optional fallback connector).

Parameters	Type	Description
`identifier`	`string`	DOI, title, PMID, or paper URL.
`base_url`	`string`optional	Sci-Hub mirror URL.
`save_path`	`string`optional	Directory to save the PDF.

Tool: `download_semantic`

Download PDF of a Semantic Scholar paper.

Parameters	Type	Description
`paper_id`	`string`	Semantic Scholar paper ID, Paper identifier in one of the following formats:
`save_path`	`string`optional	Directory to save the PDF (default: './downloads').

Tool: `download_ssrn`

Download PDF for a paper from SSRN.

Note: SSRN connector is metadata-only and download is not supported.

Parameters	Type	Description
`paper_id`	`string`	SSRN paper identifier.
`save_path`	`string`optional	Directory to save the PDF (unused).

Tool: `download_with_fallback`

Try source-native download, OA repositories, Unpaywall, then optional Sci-Hub.

Parameters	Type	Description
`paper_id`	`string`	Source-native paper identifier.
`source`	`string`	Source name (arxiv, biorxiv, medrxiv, iacr, semantic, crossref, pubmed, pmc, core, europepmc, citeseerx, doaj, base, zenodo, hal, ssrn).
`doi`	`string`optional	Optional DOI used for repository/unpaywall/Sci-Hub fallback.
`save_path`	`string`optional	Directory to save downloaded files.
`scihub_base_url`	`string`optional	Sci-Hub mirror URL for fallback.
`title`	`string`optional	Optional title used for repository/Sci-Hub fallback when DOI is unavailable.
`use_scihub`	`boolean`optional	Whether to fallback to Sci-Hub after OA attempts fail.

Tool: `download_zenodo`

Download PDF for a paper from Zenodo.

Parameters	Type	Description
`paper_id`	`string`	Zenodo paper identifier.
`save_path`	`string`optional	Directory to save the PDF (default: './downloads').

Tool: `get_crossref_paper_by_doi`

Get a specific paper from CrossRef by its DOI.

Parameters	Type	Description
`doi`	`string`	Digital Object Identifier (e.g., '10.1038/nature12373').

Tool: `read_arxiv_paper`

Read and extract text content from an arXiv paper PDF.

Parameters	Type	Description
`paper_id`	`string`	arXiv paper ID (e.g., '2106.12345').
`save_path`	`string`optional	Directory where the PDF is/will be saved (default: './downloads').

Tool: `read_base_paper`

Read and extract text content from a BASE paper.

Parameters	Type	Description
`paper_id`	`string`	BASE paper identifier.
`save_path`	`string`optional	Directory where the PDF is/will be saved (default: './downloads').

Tool: `read_biorxiv_paper`

Read and extract text content from a bioRxiv paper PDF.

Parameters	Type	Description
`paper_id`	`string`	bioRxiv DOI.
`save_path`	`string`optional	Directory where the PDF is/will be saved (default: './downloads').

Tool: `read_citeseerx_paper`

Read and extract text content from a CiteSeerX paper.

Parameters	Type	Description
`paper_id`	`string`	CiteSeerX paper identifier.
`save_path`	`string`optional	Directory where the PDF is/will be saved (default: './downloads').

Tool: `read_crossref_paper`

Attempt to read and extract text content from a CrossRef paper.

Parameters	Type	Description
`paper_id`	`string`	CrossRef DOI (e.g., '10.1038/nature12373').
`save_path`	`string`optional	Directory where the PDF is/will be saved (default: './downloads').

Tool: `read_dblp_paper`

Attempt to read and extract text content from a dblp paper.

Note: dblp doesn't provide direct paper content access.
This function returns an informative message.

Parameters	Type	Description
`paper_id`	`string`	dblp paper identifier.
`save_path`	`string`optional	Directory where the PDF would be saved (unused).

Tool: `read_doaj_paper`

Read and extract text content from a DOAJ paper.

Parameters	Type	Description
`paper_id`	`string`	DOAJ paper identifier.
`save_path`	`string`optional	Directory where the PDF is/will be saved (default: './downloads').

Tool: `read_hal_paper`

Read and extract text content from a HAL paper.

Parameters	Type	Description
`paper_id`	`string`	HAL paper identifier.
`save_path`	`string`optional	Directory where the PDF is/will be saved (default: './downloads').

Tool: `read_iacr_paper`

Read and extract text content from an IACR ePrint paper PDF.

Parameters	Type	Description
`paper_id`	`string`	IACR paper ID (e.g., '2009/101').
`save_path`	`string`optional	Directory where the PDF is/will be saved (default: './downloads').

Tool: `read_medrxiv_paper`

Read and extract text content from a medRxiv paper PDF.

Parameters	Type	Description
`paper_id`	`string`	medRxiv DOI.
`save_path`	`string`optional	Directory where the PDF is/will be saved (default: './downloads').

Tool: `read_openaire_paper`

Attempt to read and extract text content from an OpenAIRE paper.

Parameters	Type	Description
`paper_id`	`string`	OpenAIRE paper identifier.
`save_path`	`string`optional	Directory where the PDF is/will be saved (default: './downloads').

Tool: `read_openalex_paper`

Attempt to read and extract text content from an OpenAlex paper.

Parameters	Type	Description
`paper_id`	`string`	OpenAlex paper ID.
`save_path`	`string`optional	Directory where the PDF is/will be saved (default: './downloads').

Tool: `read_pubmed_paper`

Read and extract text content from a PubMed paper.

Parameters	Type	Description
`paper_id`	`string`	PubMed ID (PMID).
`save_path`	`string`optional	Directory where the PDF would be saved (unused).

Tool: `read_semantic_paper`

Read and extract text content from a Semantic Scholar paper.

Parameters	Type	Description
`paper_id`	`string`	Semantic Scholar paper ID, Paper identifier in one of the following formats:
`save_path`	`string`optional	Directory where the PDF is/will be saved (default: './downloads').

Tool: `read_ssrn_paper`

Read paper content from SSRN.

Note: SSRN connector is metadata-only and read is not supported.

Parameters	Type	Description
`paper_id`	`string`	SSRN paper identifier.
`save_path`	`string`optional	Directory where the PDF is/will be saved (unused).

Tool: `read_zenodo_paper`

Read and extract text content from a Zenodo paper.

Parameters	Type	Description
`paper_id`	`string`	Zenodo paper identifier.
`save_path`	`string`optional	Directory where the PDF is/will be saved (default: './downloads').

Tool: `search_arxiv`

Search academic papers from arXiv.

Parameters	Type	Description
`query`	`string`	Search query string (e.g., 'machine learning').
`max_results`	`integer`optional	Maximum number of papers to return (default: 10).
`sort_by`	`string`optional	Sort criterion — 'relevance', 'submittedDate', or 'lastUpdatedDate' (default: 'relevance').
`sort_order`	`string`optional	Sort direction — 'descending' or 'ascending' (default: 'descending').

Tool: `search_base`

Search academic papers from BASE (Bielefeld Academic Search Engine).

Parameters	Type	Description
`query`	`string`	Search query string (e.g., 'machine learning').
`max_results`	`integer`optional	Maximum number of papers to return (default: 10).

Tool: `search_biorxiv`

Search academic papers from bioRxiv.

Note: bioRxiv API filters by category name within the last 30 days, not full-text
keyword search. Use a category keyword such as 'bioinformatics', 'neuroscience',
'cell biology', etc.

Parameters	Type	Description
`query`	`string`	Category name to filter by (e.g., 'bioinformatics', 'neuroscience').
`max_results`	`integer`optional	Maximum number of papers to return (default: 10).

Tool: `search_citeseerx`

Search academic papers from CiteSeerX digital library.

Parameters	Type	Description
`query`	`string`	Search query string (e.g., 'machine learning').
`max_results`	`integer`optional	Maximum number of papers to return (default: 10).

Tool: `search_core`

Search academic papers from CORE.

Parameters	Type	Description
`query`	`string`	Search query string (e.g., 'machine learning').
`max_results`	`integer`optional	Maximum number of papers to return (default: 10).

Tool: `search_crossref`

Search academic papers from CrossRef database.

CrossRef is a scholarly infrastructure organization that provides 
persistent identifiers (DOIs) for scholarly content and metadata.
It's one of the largest citation databases covering millions of 
academic papers, journals, books, and other scholarly content.

Parameters	Type	Description
`query`	`string`	Search query string (e.g., 'machine learning', 'climate change').
`filter`	`string`optional	CrossRef filter string (e.g., 'has-full-text:true,from-pub-date:2020').
`max_results`	`integer`optional	Maximum number of papers to return (default: 10, max: 1000).
`order`	`string`optional	Sort order ('asc' or 'desc').
`sort`	`string`optional	Sort field ('relevance', 'published', 'updated', 'deposited', etc.).

Tool: `search_dblp`

Search academic papers from dblp computer science bibliography.

Parameters	Type	Description
`query`	`string`	Search query string (e.g., 'machine learning').
`max_results`	`integer`optional	Maximum number of papers to return (default: 10).

Tool: `search_doaj`

Search academic papers from DOAJ (Directory of Open Access Journals).

Parameters	Type	Description
`query`	`string`	Search query string (e.g., 'machine learning').
`max_results`	`integer`optional	Maximum number of papers to return (default: 10).

Tool: `search_europepmc`

Search academic papers from Europe PMC.

Parameters	Type	Description
`query`	`string`	Search query string (e.g., 'machine learning').
`max_results`	`integer`optional	Maximum number of papers to return (default: 10).

Tool: `search_google_scholar`

Search academic papers from Google Scholar.

Parameters	Type	Description
`query`	`string`	Search query string (e.g., 'machine learning').
`max_results`	`integer`optional	Maximum number of papers to return (default: 10).

Tool: `search_hal`

Search academic papers from HAL open archive.

Parameters	Type	Description
`query`	`string`	Search query string (e.g., 'machine learning').
`max_results`	`integer`optional	Maximum number of papers to return (default: 10).

Tool: `search_iacr`

Search academic papers from IACR ePrint Archive.

Parameters	Type	Description
`query`	`string`	Search query string (e.g., 'cryptography', 'secret sharing').
`fetch_details`	`boolean`optional	Whether to fetch detailed information for each paper (default: True).
`max_results`	`integer`optional	Maximum number of papers to return (default: 10).

Tool: `search_medrxiv`

Search academic papers from medRxiv.

Note: medRxiv API filters by category name within the last 30 days, not full-text
keyword search. Use a category keyword such as 'infectious_diseases',
'cardiovascular_medicine', 'oncology', etc.

Parameters	Type	Description
`query`	`string`	Category name to filter by (e.g., 'infectious_diseases', 'oncology').
`max_results`	`integer`optional	Maximum number of papers to return (default: 10).

Tool: `search_openaire`

Search academic papers from OpenAIRE European Open Access infrastructure.

Parameters	Type	Description
`query`	`string`	Search query string (e.g., 'machine learning').
`max_results`	`integer`optional	Maximum number of papers to return (default: 10).

Tool: `search_openalex`

Search academic papers from OpenAlex.

Parameters	Type	Description
`query`	`string`	Search query string (e.g., 'machine learning').
`max_results`	`integer`optional	Maximum number of papers to return (default: 10).

Tool: `search_papers`

Unified top-level search across all configured academic platforms.

Parameters	Type	Description
`query`	`string`	Search query string.
`max_results_per_source`	`integer`optional	Max results to fetch from each selected source.
`sources`	`string`optional	Comma-separated source names or 'all'.
`year`	`string`optional	Optional year filter for Semantic Scholar only.

Tool: `search_pmc`

Search academic papers from PubMed Central (PMC).

Parameters	Type	Description
`query`	`string`	Search query string (e.g., 'machine learning').
`max_results`	`integer`optional	Maximum number of papers to return (default: 10).

Tool: `search_pubmed`

Search academic papers from PubMed.

Parameters	Type	Description
`query`	`string`	Search query string (e.g., 'machine learning').
`max_results`	`integer`optional	Maximum number of papers to return (default: 10).
`sort`	`string`optional	Sort order — 'relevance' or 'pub_date' (default: 'relevance').

Tool: `search_semantic`

Search academic papers from Semantic Scholar.

Parameters	Type	Description
`query`	`string`	Search query string (e.g., 'machine learning').
`max_results`	`integer`optional	Maximum number of papers to return (default: 10).
`year`	`string`optional	Optional year filter (e.g., '2019', '2016-2020', '2010-', '-2015').

Tool: `search_ssrn`

Search metadata records from SSRN.

Note: SSRN connector is metadata-only and does not support direct PDF download.

Parameters	Type	Description
`query`	`string`	Search query string (e.g., 'machine learning').
`max_results`	`integer`optional	Maximum number of papers to return (default: 10).

Tool: `search_unpaywall`

Lookup a DOI via Unpaywall and return OA metadata.

Unpaywall is DOI-centric and does not support generic keyword search.
This tool extracts the first DOI from `query` and returns at most one record.

Parameters	Type	Description
`query`	`string`	DOI string or text containing a DOI.
`max_results`	`integer`optional	Kept for API consistency; Unpaywall returns max 1 record.

Tool: `search_zenodo`

Search academic papers from Zenodo open repository.

Parameters	Type	Description
`query`	`string`	Search query string (e.g., 'machine learning').
`max_results`	`integer`optional	Maximum number of papers to return (default: 10).

Use this MCP Server

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "paper-search": {
      "command": "docker",
      "args": [
        "run",
        "-i",
        "--rm",
        "mcp/paper-search"
      ]
    }
  }
}

Why is it safer to run MCP Servers with Docker?⁠

Paper Search

Use cases

About

Paper Search MCP Server

MCP Info

Image Building Info

Available Tools (57)

Tools Details

Tool: download_arxiv

Tool: download_base

Tool: download_biorxiv

Tool: download_citeseerx

Tool: download_crossref

Tool: download_dblp

Tool: download_doaj

Tool: download_hal

Tool: download_iacr

Tool: download_medrxiv

Tool: download_openaire

Tool: download_openalex

Tool: download_pubmed

Tool: download_scihub

Tool: download_semantic

Tool: download_ssrn

Tool: download_with_fallback

Tool: download_zenodo

Tool: get_crossref_paper_by_doi

Tool: read_arxiv_paper

Tool: read_base_paper

Tool: read_biorxiv_paper

Tool: read_citeseerx_paper

Tool: read_crossref_paper

Tool: read_dblp_paper

Tool: read_doaj_paper

Tool: read_hal_paper

Tool: read_iacr_paper

Tool: read_medrxiv_paper

Tool: read_openaire_paper

Tool: read_openalex_paper

Tool: read_pubmed_paper

Tool: read_semantic_paper

Tool: read_ssrn_paper

Tool: read_zenodo_paper

Tool: search_arxiv

Tool: search_base

Tool: search_biorxiv

Tool: search_citeseerx

Tool: search_core

Tool: search_crossref

Tool: search_dblp

Tool: search_doaj

Tool: search_europepmc

Tool: search_google_scholar

Tool: search_hal

Tool: search_iacr

Tool: search_medrxiv

Tool: search_openaire

Tool: search_openalex

Tool: search_papers

Tool: search_pmc

Tool: search_pubmed

Tool: search_semantic

Tool: search_ssrn

Tool: search_unpaywall

Tool: search_zenodo