# crossref [Health: Active]

**Category:** 🔬 Research  
**Repository:** https://github.com/pipeworx-io/mcp-crossref  
**GitHub Stars:** 0  
**npm Downloads (last month):** 418  
**Views:** 3  
**Installs:** 0  
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**Directory Page:** https://allmcps.com/mcp/crossref-2

## Description
Crossref MCP — wraps the Crossref REST API (academic papers, free, no auth)

## Tools
Capabilities this server exposes over MCP:

- **search_works** — Search academic papers, books, and datasets via Crossref. For "search works titled X" / finding a SPECIFIC paper by its title, pass `title` (title-scoped — ranks the exact paper first). Beyond keyword search you can SORT by citation count or publication date and FILTER by date range, work type, author, and JOURNAL (`journal` = a journal name like "Progress in Materials Science" or an ISSN; results are restricted to that journal only) — e.g. "most-cited papers on transformers" (sort=citations), "papers on LLMs since 2024" (from_date=2024-01-01), "recent journal articles by an author". Returns titles, authors, journal, DOIs, citation counts, and dates.
- **get_work** — Get full metadata for a publication by DOI (e.g., "10.1038/nature12373"). Returns title, authors, abstract, journal, publisher, citations, and subjects.
- **get_journal** — Get the 5 most recent works from a journal by ISSN (e.g., "2041-1723"). Returns titles, authors, DOIs, and publication dates.

## Claude Desktop Quick Installation
Install path detected from listing signals. Uses `npx` (confidence: high):

```json
"mcpServers": {
  "crossref": {
    "command": "npx",
    "args": ["-y","@pipeworx/mcp-crossref"]
  }
}
```

## Documentation

## What crossref MCP server does

The crossref MCP server connects an MCP client to Crossref, a DOI registration agency with metadata for scholarly works such as journal articles, books, chapters, datasets, and proceedings. It is part of the 🔬 Research category and is intended for agents that need structured publication information rather than full-text documents.

The service can search for works, retrieve a publication by DOI, and inspect a journal’s latest publications. Crossref records may include titles, authors, ORCIDs when supplied by publishers, abstracts where available, journal and publisher details, publication dates, subjects, references, citation counts, funder information, open-access links, and relationship data.

## How it works

The crossref MCP server exposes three pack-specific tools over MCP:

- `search_works` searches academic papers, books, and datasets. Searches can target a title, sort by citations or publication date, and filter by date range, type, author, or journal. A journal filter accepts a journal name or ISSN.
- `get_work` retrieves metadata for a publication using its DOI. DOI inputs should be passed in bare form, such as `10.1038/nature12373`, rather than with a URL or `doi:` prefix.
- `get_journal` returns the five most recent works associated with a journal ISSN, including titles, authors, DOIs, and publication dates.

The hosted endpoint is available at `https://gateway.pipeworx.io/crossref/mcp`. The gateway endpoint also lists shared Pipeworx meta-tools, including `ask_pipeworx`, `discover_tools`, and related functions. A local package exposes only the Crossref tools over standard input and output. The same data source can also be called through the gateway’s HTTP tool endpoint.

## Setup and configuration

For a hosted MCP connection, add the Crossref endpoint to an MCP client configuration:

```json
{
  "mcpServers": {
    "crossref": {
      "url": "https://gateway.pipeworx.io/crossref/mcp"
    }
  }
}
```

The hosted route does not require an account for initial calls. Crossref itself is public and free to access, and the gateway identifies requests for its polite-pool handling.

To run locally without a gateway account, use the npm package with an MCP client that supports stdio:

```json
{
  "mcpServers": {
    "crossref": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@pipeworx/mcp-crossref"]
    }
  }
}
```

The package can also be started directly with `npx -y @pipeworx/mcp-crossref`.

## Tools and capabilities

The crossref MCP server fits DOI-to-metadata workflows, searches for a particular paper by title, and queries recent content from a known journal. It can help an agent find an author’s works, compare citation counts, restrict results to a publication period, or distinguish publication types such as journal articles and book chapters.

Crossref is often useful as a canonical DOI metadata source. Citation and reference coverage depends on publisher submissions, so an apparently empty reference list may not represent the complete published list.

## Limitations and notes

ORCID data is not universal, particularly for older or smaller-publisher records. A work can also have multiple DOIs, such as a preprint and an accepted version. Check relationship fields for links between versions and for retraction notices before relying on a record in a citation workflow.

Crossref accepts normalized bare DOIs. Reference lists and citing-paper information vary by publisher, and exhaustive citation analysis may require another research source for comparison.

_Full upstream README: https://allmcps.com/mcp/crossref-2/readme_