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Openalex Research MCP

Search and analyze OpenAlex literature, citations, authors, institutions, venues, and research trends through 31 MCP tools.

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Install Openalex Research 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": {
    "openalex-research-mcp": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "openalex-research-mcp"
      ],
      "env": {
        "OPENALEX_EMAIL": "YOUR_VALUE_HERE",
        "OPENALEX_API_KEY": "YOUR_VALUE_HERE"
      }
    }
  }
}

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

Values are written into the snippet above so you can paste it as is. They never leave your browser.

Automated check passed— started and listed 31 tools correctly (Today).

Overview

openalex-research-mcp connects MCP clients to OpenAlex, an open catalog containing scholarly works, authors, institutions, venues, and related entities. Its 31 tools cover literature discovery, citation analysis, author and institution research, venue-quality checks, presets, and research-trend analysis. Use it for literature reviews, citation mapping, research landscaping, and searches constrained to named journal or institution groups. The setup command can configure Claude Desktop, while the repository also provides a separate command-line Claude Skill for on-demand access.

Use cases

  • Find papers for a literature review
  • Map citations and co-authorship networks
  • Compare research activity across fields
  • Search papers within ranked venue groups
  • Identify leading authors and institutions

Key features

  • 31 specialized OpenAlex research tools
  • Journal, conference, and institution presets
  • Citation and co-authorship analysis
  • In-memory TTL caching
  • Retry handling with exponential backoff
  • Health checks and Zod input validation

Tools31

What Openalex Research MCP lets your agent do. Expand a tool for its parameters.

Verified live~8.3k tokens of context

Security & health

What it can reach and how reliably it runs — from our own checks, not the maintainer’s claims.

ActiveLast checked Today

Recent health check succeeded.

What it can do

From the 31 tools this server returned when we ran it.

Read-only tools · 31
Network at startup3 connections
Files written at startupNone
Install scriptsNone
npm provenanceSigned build
Package age397 days
Maintainers1

Observed 2026-11-06 in an isolated sandbox. A description of reach, not a security audit.

Supply-chain signal

No high-severity advisories surfaced by our automated scan.

Critical 0High 0Medium 0Low 0

Scanned 11h ago via OSV.dev · openalex-research-mcp (npm)

Adoption & maintenance

Factual signals from GitHub, npm, and our automated checks — not a rating.

GitHub stars59Stargazers on the source repository.
npm downloads1.6kPackage downloads in the last 30 days.
Last commit1mo 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 exposed31Callable tools this server registers over MCP.

How Openalex Research MCP works

What openalex-research-mcp does

openalex-research-mcp exposes OpenAlex research data to MCP-compatible AI assistants. It is intended for work with a large scholarly catalog covering more than 240 million works, along with author, institution, source, topic, and citation information.

The server supports literature discovery and review tasks such as finding papers, retrieving work metadata, locating related studies, identifying review articles and seminal papers, and finding open-access versions. It also supports analysis across authors, institutions, venues, citations, geography, topics, and time.

A distinctive part of the server is its curated search presets. These presets represent journal and conference groups such as UTD24, FT50, AJG/ABS tiers, selected management and operations venues, leading AI and computer science conferences, and the Nature and Science families. Institution groups include Ivy League universities, selected US research universities, business schools, INSEAD and London schools, leading global business schools, and top Chinese universities.

How it works

The server communicates with OpenAlex through MCP tools. Search inputs are validated with Zod schemas before requests are made. An in-memory cache with time-to-live can reuse recent results, while retry handling with exponential backoff helps recover from transient API failures.

The tool set includes a health check for monitoring connectivity. Searches can use Boolean operators, venue and institution filters, citation thresholds, sorting, date ranges, and named presets. Citation tools can inspect forward citations, references, or broader citation networks.

The repository also includes a separate Claude Skill. That option uses a small command-line program and loads only when invoked, rather than keeping the MCP server active. The MCP server is intended for MCP clients such as Claude Desktop and TypingMind; the skill is positioned for coding agents that already have shell access.

Setup and configuration

The quickest installation path is:

Terminal
npx openalex-research-mcp setup

The setup command detects the Claude Desktop configuration, asks for an email address and optional API key, writes the MCP configuration, and checks connectivity. Claude Desktop must be restarted after setup.

Useful setup options include --print to output configuration JSON without modifying a file, --config-path to show the detected configuration path, and --email with --api-key for scripted or non-interactive setup. The package can also be installed globally with npm, run directly through npx, or built from a cloned source checkout.

For the separate skill, set OPENALEX_EMAIL if you want to use the faster polite request pool, then invoke the openalex command after placing its directory on PATH.

Tools and capabilities

  • Search works, topics, authors, institutions, and sources.
  • Retrieve complete work records, author profiles, publication histories, and entity details.
  • Find related, review, seminal, highly cited, and open-access papers.
  • Inspect references, forward citations, citation networks, and co-author relationships.
  • Search named journal, conference, and institution presets.
  • Compare research areas, track topic trends, find emerging topics, and analyze geographic distribution.
  • Resolve up to 20 DOI or identifier references in one request.

Limitations and notes

Preset definitions are curated in the source code. Additional journal groups can be requested through GitHub issues or contributed through pull requests. API access is subject to the configuration and connectivity used by OpenAlex, including the optional API key and email settings.

Read the full README View source on GitHub

Reviews

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Frequently Asked Questions about Openalex Research MCP

openalex-research-mcp is an MCP server that connects AI assistants to the OpenAlex scholarly catalog. Its main tools search works, authors, institutions, venues, and topics; retrieve metadata; analyze citations; inspect research trends; and filter searches through curated journal, conference, and institution presets.

Run `npx openalex-research-mcp setup` to configure it for Claude Desktop. The command detects the configuration path, prompts for an email and optional API key, writes the settings, and verifies connectivity. Restart Claude Desktop afterward. You can also install the npm package globally or build it from source.

Yes, openalex-research-mcp provides an automated Claude Desktop setup flow. Use the `setup` command, review or provide the email and optional API key, then restart Claude Desktop after the configuration is written.

Yes, it includes named journal, conference, and institution presets. Tools can search groups such as FT50, UTD24, AJG/ABS tiers, leading AI conferences, Ivy League universities, and selected top research institutions, with optional institution filtering for relevant searches.

Use the repository's separate Claude Skill and its `openalex` command. The skill loads when invoked and uses shell access instead of keeping the MCP server active. Set `OPENALEX_EMAIL` optionally for the faster polite request pool.

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