Overview
What is crossref-MCP-Server?
crossref-MCP-Server bridges AI assistants to the Crossref database of academic literature through the Model Context Protocol (MCP). It enables programmatic search for scientific articles by DOI, title, or keywords, and access to metadata, journal, and funder information.
How to use crossref-MCP-Server?
Install Python 3.10+ and the required dependencies (FastMCP, requests, bs4, habanero). Clone the repository, run pip install -r requirements.txt, then start the server with python crossref_server.py. For use with Claude Desktop or Cline, add the server configuration to cline_mcp_settings.json or claude_desktop_config.json using the appropriate path to Python and the script.
Key features of crossref-MCP-Server
- Search works by query (keywords, titles, authors)
- Retrieve detailed metadata for a paper by DOI
- Search for journals in the Crossref database
- Discover funding organizations and their supported research
Use cases of crossref-MCP-Server
- AI assistants answering questions about academic papers by searching Crossref
- Getting full metadata (authors, publication date, journal, etc.) for a known DOI
- Finding journals related to a topic for literature review assistance
- Discovering funding agencies and their areas of support
FAQ from crossref-MCP-Server
What does crossref-MCP-Server search?
It searches the Crossref database of academic literature, which contains metadata for scholarly works, journals, and funders.
What are the prerequisites and dependencies?
Python 3.10+ is required. The server depends on FastMCP, requests, bs4, and habanero (installed via requirements.txt).
How do I configure it for Claude Desktop or Cline?
Add a JSON entry for the crossref MCP server to your claude_desktop_config.json or cline_mcp_settings.json, specifying the Python executable and path to crossref_server.py.
Is an API key or account needed?
No – the tool uses the publicly available Crossref API. For better API access priority, providing your email address when initializing the CrossrefSearch class is recommended (not required).
What license is crossref-MCP-Server released under?
MIT License.
