Openalex Research Mcp

No install snippet on purpose. A working MCP config is a command, its arguments and an environment block — the last two are where API keys live, so this catalogue never stores them and cannot publish them. Follow the link above for the authors' own instructions.

A Model Context Protocol (MCP) server that provides access to OpenAlex, a comprehensive open catalog of scholarly papers, authors, institutions, and more. Designed to empower AI assistants to conduct literature reviews, analyze research trends, and map the scholarly landscape.

Quick Install

npx openalex-research-mcp setup

This auto-detects your Claude Desktop config, prompts for your email and optional API key, writes the config, and verifies connectivity — all in one step. Restart Claude Desktop when done.

Flags:

--print — print the config JSON without writing anything
--config-path — print the detected config file path and exit
--email you@example.com --api-key YOUR_KEY — non-interactive / scripted mode

Features:

⚡️ In-memory caching with TTL for fast repeated requests
🔄 Retry logic with exponential backoff for resilient API calls
✅ Input validation with Zod schemas
🏥 Health check tool for monitoring
📊 31 specialized tools for research
🎓 Curated journal presets — UTD24, FT50, AJG/ABS tiers, top AI conferences, and more
🏛️ Institution group presets — Ivy League, Top US, INSEAD+London, and more

Use as a Claude Skill (lightweight alternative)

The same OpenAlex access is also packaged as a Claude Skill under skill/ — a token-frugal alternative to the always-on MCP server. A skill loads into the agent's context only when invoked and shells out to a small zero-dependency CLI, so it costs nothing while idle. Use the MCP server in MCP clients (Claude Desktop, TypingMind); use the skill in coding agents (Claude Code, etc.) that already have shell access.

chmod +x skill/bin/openalex && export PATH="$PWD/skill/bin:$PATH"
export OPENALEX_EMAIL="you@example.com"     # optional: faster polite pool
openalex works "supply chain network" -n 5

See skill/README.md for install and the MCP-vs-skill trade-off. (The industry is steadily shifting routine API access from always-on MCP servers toward on-demand skills — this repo ships both.)

Features

Access 240+ million scholarly works through 31 specialized tools:

Literature Search & Discovery

search_works: Advanced search with Boolean operators, venue/journal filters, institution filters, citation thresholds, and sorting
get_work: Get complete metadata for a specific work (all authors, full abstract, references)
get_related_works: Find similar papers based on citations and topics
search_by_topic: Explore literature in specific research domains
autocomplete_search: Fast typeahead search for all entity types

Credibility-Gated Search (Journal & Conference Presets)

list_journal_presets: List all available named journal/conference and institution group presets
search_in_journal_list: Search within a named preset list (UTD24, FT50, AJG 4*/4/3, top AI conferences, etc.) with optional institution filtering
search_works_in_venue: Search within a specific venue by name, ISSN, or OpenAlex ID
get_top_venues_for_field: Discover top journals/conferences in a field ranked by h-index
check_venue_quality: Inspect h-index, impact, and indexing status of any venue

Citation Analysis

get_work_citations: Forward citation analysis (who cites this work)
get_work_references: Backward citation analysis (what this work cites)
get_citation_network: Build complete citation networks for visualization
get_top_cited_works: Find the most influential papers in a field