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Scholar Sidekick MCP

by mlava

Resolve scholarly identifiers, verify citations, check retractions and open access, and format or export bibliographies.

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Install Scholar Sidekick MCP

Pick your client, then add it in one click or paste the config.

STDIONode.js
~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json
claude_desktop_config.json
{
  "mcpServers": {
    "mlava-scholar-sidekick-mcp": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "scholar-sidekick-mcp@latest"
      ]
    }
  }
}

Settings → Developer → Edit Config, merge this into mcpServers, then fully quit and reopen Claude Desktop.

Automated check passed— started and listed 7 tools correctly (1mo ago).

Overview

mlava/scholar-sidekick-mcp MCP server resolves scholarly identifiers into CSL JSON, formatted citations, or bibliography files. It verifies individual citations and audits bibliographies for identifier-title mismatches, while also checking retraction and open-access status. The server uses the public Scholar Sidekick API anonymously with rate limits, with optional keys for higher limits and LLM screening. Reach for it when an agent needs citation validation, metadata conversion, reference formatting, or bibliography export.

Use cases

  • Verify whether a pasted citation matches its DOI or PMID
  • Audit a BibTeX, RIS, or CSL JSON bibliography
  • Format identifiers in APA, Vancouver, or another CSL style
  • Export references for Zotero, EndNote, BibTeX, or spreadsheets
  • Check a paper's retraction and open-access status

Key features

  • Resolve eight scholarly identifier types to CSL JSON
  • Detect identifier-title citation mismatches
  • Audit bibliographies with retraction checks
  • Format citations in 10,000+ CSL styles
  • Export references to common bibliography formats
  • Check open-access locations and publication status

Tools7

What Scholar Sidekick MCP lets your agent do. Expand a tool for its parameters.

Verified live~5.9k tokens of context

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Scanned 9d ago via OSV.dev · scholar-sidekick-mcp@latest (npm)

Adoption & maintenance

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GitHub stars11Stargazers on the source repository.
npm downloads771Package downloads in the last 30 days.
Last commit13d agoMost recent push to the default branch.
Availability100%Our rolling endpoint + install checks that succeeded.
Install checkPassedOur sandbox started it and listed its tools.
Tools exposed7Callable tools this server registers over MCP.
Directory activity6 viewsConfig copies, upvotes, and views on AllMCPs.

How Scholar Sidekick MCP works

What mlava/scholar-sidekick-mcp MCP server does

The mlava/scholar-sidekick-mcp MCP server gives an AI assistant tools for working with scholarly references. It accepts DOIs, PMIDs, PMCIDs, ISBNs, arXiv identifiers, ISSNs, NASA ADS bibcodes, and WHO IRIS URLs. Prefixes such as DOI: or arXiv: are tolerated, as are DOI URLs, ISBN hyphens, and batches separated by commas or newlines where the tool supports batching.

Its main workflows are metadata resolution, citation formatting, bibliography export, citation verification, retraction checking, and open-access discovery. Responses are read-only and idempotent, so repeated requests do not modify source records. The service calls the Scholar Sidekick API, which handles registry lookups and related provider queries server-side.

How it works

resolveIdentifier returns structured CSL JSON with fields such as title, authors, publication year, container title, and available identifiers. Use formatCitation for a finished citation string, HTML, or structured JSON. It supports Vancouver, AMA, APA, IEEE, CSE, and CSL style IDs, including dependent-style and alias resolution. exportCitation returns complete bibliography content for formats such as BibTeX, RIS, CSL JSON, EndNote, RefWorks, MEDLINE, Zotero RDF, CSV, and plain text.

verifyCitation compares a supplied title with the record found through one identifier. It can report a match, mismatch, ambiguous result, or not-found result, with field-level differences and confidence information. auditBibliography applies the same identity check to raw BibTeX, RIS, or CSL JSON, or to parsed claims, and adds retraction checks. Each call accepts at most 25 bibliography entries.

checkRetraction handles one work at a time and reports retractions, corrections, or expressions of concern. checkOpenAccess reports OA status, license and version information, plus the best available legal location. Both tools resolve supported identifiers to a DOI before querying their underlying data sources.

Setup and configuration

The local package can run through npx using scholar-sidekick-mcp@latest. No credential is required for the anonymous, rate-limited public tier. Set SCHOLAR_API_KEY with a first-party ssk_ key to raise limits and enable the optional LLM screen for citation verification. RAPIDAPI_KEY is available for paid or managed RapidAPI tiers.

The server communicates over stdio and requires outbound HTTPS access to the Scholar Sidekick API. It can also be used without a local installation through the hosted Streamable HTTP endpoint at https://scholar-sidekick.com/api/mcp. Configuration examples are provided for Claude Desktop, Claude Code, Cursor, VS Code, and Windsurf.

Tools and capabilities

The seven tools exposed by the mlava/scholar-sidekick-mcp MCP server are:

  • verifyCitation for single-citation identity checks.
  • auditBibliography for whole-reference-list audits.
  • resolveIdentifier for CSL JSON metadata.
  • formatCitation for style-based citation output.
  • exportCitation for reference-manager and file formats.
  • checkRetraction for publication-status checks.
  • checkOpenAccess for legal access locations and OA details.

Formatted responses include provenance data such as the formatter, selected style, request ID, and warnings when available. The verification tools also expose processing and lookup provenance.

Limitations and notes

Single-item restrictions apply to verification, retraction, and open-access checks. verifyCitation accepts one title and one identifier per call, while the latter two tools reject comma- or newline-separated batches. auditBibliography is capped at 25 entries and reports truncated input. It checks citation identity and retraction status; it does not determine whether a source supports the claim for which it was cited.

The optional LLM screen is not available to anonymous callers and requires first-party authentication or a paid RapidAPI tier. ISBN-based retraction and open-access checks may return no_doi because those workflows depend on DOI resolution. Results also remain subject to the rate limits of the selected API tier.

Read the full README View source on GitHub

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Frequently Asked Questions about Scholar Sidekick MCP

Run it with `npx -y scholar-sidekick-mcp@latest`, or configure that command in an MCP client such as Claude Desktop, Cursor, or Windsurf.

Yes. The README provides Claude Desktop configuration using the `npx -y scholar-sidekick-mcp@latest` stdio command.

No. Anonymous use is supported through the rate-limited public tier. `SCHOLAR_API_KEY` raises limits and enables the optional LLM screen; `RAPIDAPI_KEY` is used for paid RapidAPI tiers.

Yes. `verifyCitation` compares a claimed title with the record resolved from its identifier, and `auditBibliography` performs the same check across a bibliography.

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