OpenAlex MCP Server

What is OpenAlex MCP Server?

An MCP server that lets AI agents and MCP clients search and retrieve scholarly works from the OpenAlex database. It uses the pyalex library to communicate with the OpenAlex API and exposes tools for querying metadata, citations, and N-grams of academic publications.

How to use OpenAlex MCP Server?

Install dependencies with uv pip install ., set the OPENALEX_EMAIL environment variable to access the polite pool, and run server.py. Then add the server configuration to your MCP client’s settings file (e.g., cline_mcp_settings.json) with the uv command and the path to your installation directory.

Key features of OpenAlex MCP Server?

• search_works – keyword search with boolean operators, filters, pagination, and field selection.
• get_work_details – retrieve detailed metadata for a specific work by ID.
• get_referenced_works – get list of OpenAlex IDs cited by a work.
• get_citing_works – get list of works that cite a specific work (with pagination).
• get_work_ngrams – retrieve N‑grams (word proximity) for a work’s full text.

Use cases of OpenAlex MCP Server?

• Find the most cited papers that cite a foundational paper (e.g., on convolutional neural networks).
• Search for papers on a specific topic (e.g., self‑supervised visual odometry) and score their relevance.
• Discover the most influential papers on transformer models published since 2020.
• Identify papers co‑authored by researchers at specific institutions (e.g., MIT and Stanford).

FAQ from OpenAlex MCP Server

What data does it access?

It accesses the OpenAlex database of scholarly works, including titles, abstracts, authorships, citations, etc. Full text is generally not stored due to copyright reasons.

How do I get faster rate limits?

Set the OPENALEX_EMAIL environment variable to your email address before running the server. This uses the OpenAlex polite pool. Without it, the anonymous pool with stricter limits is used.

What are the runtime dependencies?

The server requires Python, uv, and the packages mcp[cli] and pyalex. It runs as a stdio‑based MCP server.

What transport and authentication does it use?

Transport is stdio. No authentication is required, but the polite pool uses an email header for rate‑limit priority.

Does the search cover full text?

No. OpenAlex’s search only covers title, abstract, and (where available) full‑text metadata; the N‑grams tool provides word proximity from full text when present.