Academic Research MCP
OpenAlex, Crossref, arXiv, OpenCitations, and PubMed behind one MCP endpoint
What it does
Scholarly search for AI agents: OpenAlex works, Crossref metadata, arXiv preprints, OpenCitations citation graphs, and PubMed, as six tools behind one MCP server. literature_report runs all five sources for one topic and returns a single stitched report. Calls that return nothing are never charged.
Built in
- ✓ Six tools: OpenAlex works search, Crossref metadata, arXiv preprints, OpenCitations citation graphs, PubMed search, and a composite literature_report
- ✓ literature_report pulls all five sources for one topic into a single dossier
- ✓ Partial report and per-source billing, so one slow database never blocks the rest
- ✓ Citation graph lookups via OpenCitations for tracing who cites whom
- ✓ Calls that return nothing are never charged, on every tool
Guides & tutorials
Five Scholarly Databases in One Call: OpenAlex, Crossref, arXiv, PubMed and OpenCitations
One call across OpenAlex, Crossref, arXiv, PubMed and OpenCitations: works, preprints, biomedical abstracts, citation graphs, and every output field.
arXiv Scraper: Search AI, Physics, and Biology Preprints with PDF Links via API
Search arXiv preprints by keyword, category, or author. Returns title, abstract, authors, categories, and PDF links. Track AI research before peer review. No API key required.
NIH RePORTER API: Search Grant Funding, Award Amounts, and Principal Investigators
Search NIH grant awards by topic, agency, institution, or state. Returns project title, abstract, award amount, and PI data for research funding intelligence. No API key required.
Related scrapers
ClinicalTrials Scraper
Clinical studies, sponsors, and sites from ClinicalTrials.gov
OpenAlex Scholarly Works
250M+ research papers, authors, and citations as structured JSON
Crossref Scraper
150M+ scholarly works, DOIs, and citation metadata
Google Trends Scraper
Interest over time, regional breakdown, and related queries
Common questions
What is Academic Research MCP? +
A single MCP server over five scholarly databases: OpenAlex, Crossref, arXiv, OpenCitations, and PubMed. Six tools total, five single-source searches plus a composite literature_report.
What's the difference between search_papers and literature_report? +
search_papers queries OpenAlex alone. literature_report runs OpenAlex, Crossref, arXiv, OpenCitations, and PubMed for the same topic and returns one merged report, so you get five searches for one call instead of five.
What happens if one database is slow or down? +
literature_report has partial billing: partial_literature_report and literature_report_section only charge for the sources that actually returned data, so a single slow database does not block or overcharge for the rest.
Does it cover preprints as well as published papers? +
Yes. search_preprints reads arXiv directly, and OpenAlex and Crossref both index a mix of preprints and published work.
How is it priced? +
Per-tool pricing from $0.05 to $0.0625 per call for a single-source search, $0.03 for a report section, and $0.2375 for the full five-source literature_report. Nothing is charged for a call that returns no result.
Try it on Apify.
Pay only for results delivered. No credit card required to sign up.