Best for
- Researchers needing to search and download papers from multiple open-access sources
- Developers wanting to integrate paper retrieval into MCP clients like Claude Desktop
- Cost-conscious users who prefer free public data sources
P
Paper Search MCP
Community
MCP server for searching and downloading academic papers from multiple sources
GitHub source repository ↗
62FMRS · C
This project is feature-rich, supporting multiple academic sources with a free-first approach and various installation methods. However, it has some upstream dependencies and optional key configuration complexity, suitable for users with moderate technical background.
Paper Search MCP is a Python-based tool for searching and downloading academic papers from various platforms like arXiv, PubMed, bioRxiv, and more. It provides tools for searching papers, downloading PDFs, and extracting text, making it ideal for researchers and AI-driven workflows. It can be used as an MCP server (for Claude Desktop and other MCP clients) or as a Claude Code skill with a CLI interface. The project follows a free-first strategy: prioritize open and public data sources, support optional API keys when they improve stability or coverage, and keep source-specific connectors extensible.
Tools
search_papers
Performs concurrent searches across multiple academic sources (e.g., arXiv, PubMed, bioRxiv) with deduplication, returning a standardized list of papers.
download_with_fallback
Downloads PDFs of papers, prioritizing publisher open-access links with sequential fallbacks to other sources, optionally ending with Sci-Hub.
Setup
Recommended installation via uvx (requires uv). Add the configuration to your Claude Desktop config (see install_config), or use Smithery one-liner: npx -y @smithery/cli install @openags/paper-search-mcp --client claude. Alternatively, install via pip, Docker, or run from source. API keys can be stored in ~/.config/paper-search-mcp/.env.
claude_desktop_config.json
{
"mcpServers": {
"paper-search-mcp": {
"command": "uvx",
"args": [
"paper-search-mcp"
],
"env": {
"PAPER_SEARCH_MCP_UNPAYWALL_EMAIL": "[email protected]",
"PAPER_SEARCH_MCP_CORE_API_KEY": "",
"PAPER_SEARCH_MCP_SEMANTIC_SCHOLAR_API_KEY": "",
"PAPER_SEARCH_MCP_ZENODO_ACCESS_TOKEN": "",
"PAPER_SEARCH_MCP_GOOGLE_SCHOLAR_PROXY_URL": "",
"PAPER_SEARCH_MCP_IEEE_API_KEY": "",
"PAPER_SEARCH_MCP_ACM_API_KEY": ""
}
}
}
}
Fit and risk
Not for
- Users needing full features from commercial databases (e.g., IEEE, ACM)
- Users requiring complete full-text downloads without configuring optional API keys or proxies (some sources are limited)
- Users running in environments without network access or strict firewalls
Required permissions
- Requires network access to call multiple academic APIs
- May need to write to the local filesystem to download PDFs
- Optional environment variables for API keys, stored in the user config directory
Risks and side effects
- Dependency on external API stability; some sources may fail due to upstream limitations
- Google Scholar may trigger bot detection and require proxy settings
- Use of Sci-Hub carries legal and policy risks; users are responsible
Troubleshooting
- Check environment variables, especially `PAPER_SEARCH_MCP_UNPAYWALL_EMAIL` (required for Unpaywall)
- If Google Scholar returns empty results, set a proxy URL
- If Semantic Scholar hits 429 rate limits, configure an API key
- If downloading PMC/Europe PMC PDFs fails with proxy errors, disable proxy or use `download_with_fallback`
Use cases
Researchers quickly finding and downloading academic papers
Integrating paper search and full-text retrieval into AI workflows
Conducting literature reviews across multiple databases (e.g., arXiv, PubMed)
Supported clients
Claude DesktopFull support