Semanticscholar vs Openalex MCP Server

In-depth architectural comparison of the Semanticscholar and Openalex MCP Server MCP servers. Compare execution transports, security boundaries, tool capabilities, quality scores, and ready-to-paste client installation snippets for Claude, Cursor, Windsurf, and VS Code.

Which MCP Server Should You Choose?

Choose Semanticscholar when:

• You need dedicated capabilities in the Research domain.
• You prefer local stdio subprocess transport architecture.
• Your security boundary fits: No auth required (Free / Open Source).
• Primary tools included: paper_search, paper_search_bulk, paper_match.

Explore Semanticscholar Details

Choose Openalex MCP Server when:

• You need dedicated capabilities in the Research domain.
• You prefer local stdio subprocess transport architecture.
• Your security boundary fits: No auth required (Free / Open Source).
• Primary tools included: openalex_search_entities, openalex_analyze_trends, openalex_resolve_name.

Explore Openalex MCP Server Details

Feature & Specification Comparison

Specification	Semanticscholar Research	Openalex MCP Server Research
Summary	Search 200M+ papers, authors, citations, and recommendations via Semantic Scholar	Access the OpenAlex academic research catalog - 270M+ publications via MCP. STDIO & HTTP.
Category & Scope	Research	Research
Quality signal

Tools & Capabilities Breakdown

Ready-to-Paste Client Configurations

Paste either (or both) of these JSON server blocks into your client config file (e.g. claude_desktop_config.json or ~/.cursor/mcp.json).

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "semanticscholar": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "semanticscholar"
      ]
    }
  }
}

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "openalex-mcp-server": {
      "command": "bunx",
      "args": [
        "@cyanheads/openalex-mcp-server@latest"
      ]
    }
  }
}

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