Unpaywall

Open-access availability for 120M+ scholarly articles via the Unpaywall API

Quick Install

Automated & IDE Setup

Copy the AI prompt to install this server into Claude Code, Cursor, or another agent — or use 1-click editor setup below.

Add to Cursor Add to VS Code

Not yet automatically verified

We haven't yet run this listing's install command through our automated sandbox check. This isn't a red flag — we're steadily working through the catalog.

Manual Client & Custom JSON ConfigExpand JSON ▾

Client Config & Setup

Choose your client or environment

Target File:~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json

claude_desktop_config.json

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "unpaywall": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": [
        "unpaywall-mcp-server"
      ]
    }
  }
}

💡 Paste the JSON block into your client's configuration file under mcpServers, then restart the application.

Capabilities & Tool Schemas (4)Self-reported

Inspect callable tools, capabilities, and parameters exposed to AI agents by Unpaywall.

unpaywall_lookup

Look up open-access availability by DOI — returns OA status, PDF/landing page URLs, license, all OA locations

unpaywall_search

Search 120M+ article titles with OA filtering and pagination

unpaywall_export_ris

Export results as RIS (for Zotero, EndNote, etc.)

unpaywall_export_bibtex

Export results as BibTeX

Documentation Overview

Unpaywall MCP Server

An MCP (Model Context Protocol) server for the Unpaywall API — open-access availability for 120M+ scholarly articles.

Built with FastMCP.

Tools

Tool	Description
`unpaywall_lookup`	Look up open-access availability by DOI — returns OA status, PDF/landing page URLs, license, all OA locations
`unpaywall_search`	Search 120M+ article titles with OA filtering and pagination
`unpaywall_export_ris`	Export results as RIS (for Zotero, EndNote, etc.)
`unpaywall_export_bibtex`	Export results as BibTeX

What you get

Open-access status and OA type (gold, green, hybrid, bronze)
Best OA location with direct PDF link
All OA locations across repositories and publishers
Journal OA status, ISSN, publisher info
Author lists, publication dates, DOIs
License information per location

Setup

1. Get your email ready

Unpaywall requires an email address as your API identifier (no API key needed). See the Unpaywall API docs.

2. Install

Terminal

pip install unpaywall-mcp-server

Or install from source:

bash

cd unpaywall-mcp-server
python3 -m venv venv
source venv/bin/activate
pip install -r requirements.txt

3. Add to Claude Desktop

Add this to your claude_desktop_config.json:

config.json

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "unpaywall": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": ["unpaywall-mcp-server"],
      "env": {
        "UNPAYWALL_EMAIL": "your-email@example.com"
      }
    }
  }
}

Or if using Claude Code CLI:

Terminal

claude mcp add unpaywall \
  uvx unpaywall-mcp-server \
  -e UNPAYWALL_EMAIL=your-email@example.com

Usage examples

"Is there an open-access version of DOI 10.1038/nature12373?"
"Search Unpaywall for open-access papers on CRISPR gene editing"
"Export these results as RIS for Zotero"
"Find OA articles about climate change mitigation"

License

MIT

Read the full README →View source on GitHub →

Related MCP Servers

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Adoption & maintenance

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

Last commit

2mo ago

Most recent push to the default branch.

Tools exposed

Callable tools this server registers over MCP.

Reviews

No reviews yet — be the first to share how this listing worked for you.

Frequently Asked Questions about Unpaywall

Add the following block to your claude_desktop_config.json under mcpServers: "mcpServers": { "unpaywall": { "command": "uvx", "args": ["unpaywall-mcp-server"] } }

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Technical Specs & Signals

CategoryDeveloper Tools

3/7 checks healthy over the last 46d

48Quality signal: Fair · 48/100How this signal is calculated ▾

Server availabilityNot measured

Not scored for repo-hosted servers — we can't reach the running server, only its GitHub page. Hosted MCP endpoints are health-checked live.

Verified ownership10/20

Documentation & tools24/30

Adoption & activity2/15

Community engagement0/10

A guidance signal from public completeness & health data — not a user rating. New listings start lower and rise as they add docs, get verified, and grow adoption. Signals we can't observe for a listing are skipped, not counted against it.

Supply-chain signal

No high-severity advisories surfaced by our automated scan.

Critical 0High 0Medium 0Low 0

Scanned 2d ago via OSV.dev · unpaywall-mcp-server (PyPI)

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Documentation Overview

Unpaywall MCP Server

An MCP (Model Context Protocol) server for the Unpaywall API — open-access availability for 120M+ scholarly articles.

Built with FastMCP.

Tools

Tool	Description
`unpaywall_lookup`	Look up open-access availability by DOI — returns OA status, PDF/landing page URLs, license, all OA locations
`unpaywall_search`	Search 120M+ article titles with OA filtering and pagination
`unpaywall_export_ris`	Export results as RIS (for Zotero, EndNote, etc.)
`unpaywall_export_bibtex`	Export results as BibTeX

What you get

Open-access status and OA type (gold, green, hybrid, bronze)
Best OA location with direct PDF link
All OA locations across repositories and publishers
Journal OA status, ISSN, publisher info
Author lists, publication dates, DOIs
License information per location

Setup

1. Get your email ready

Unpaywall requires an email address as your API identifier (no API key needed). See the Unpaywall API docs.

2. Install

Terminal

pip install unpaywall-mcp-server

Or install from source:

bash

cd unpaywall-mcp-server
python3 -m venv venv
source venv/bin/activate
pip install -r requirements.txt

3. Add to Claude Desktop

Add this to your claude_desktop_config.json:

config.json

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "unpaywall": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": ["unpaywall-mcp-server"],
      "env": {
        "UNPAYWALL_EMAIL": "your-email@example.com"
      }
    }
  }
}

Or if using Claude Code CLI:

Terminal

claude mcp add unpaywall \
  uvx unpaywall-mcp-server \
  -e UNPAYWALL_EMAIL=your-email@example.com

Usage examples

"Is there an open-access version of DOI 10.1038/nature12373?"
"Search Unpaywall for open-access papers on CRISPR gene editing"
"Export these results as RIS for Zotero"
"Find OA articles about climate change mitigation"

License

MIT