MCP server directory

openalex-mcp-server

One of the ways to connect Openalex

Access the OpenAlex academic research catalog — 270M+ publications.

Other ways to connect
  • MCP (community)

Access the OpenAlex academic research catalog, containing over 270 million publications, through the Model Context Protocol (MCP).

Version:
hosted
Publisher:
cyanheads
Company:
OpenAlex
Docs:
openalex.caseyjhand.com/mcp
Summary written by google/gemini-2.5-flash-lite from the server’s own site and README; facts above come from the registries.

Install

Generated from the server’s transport data — never hand-written. Placeholders in angle brackets are yours to fill.

Run it with its own identity, a budget you set, and every call audited — no local config to keep in sync.

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What it can do

As declared by the publisher

Tools · 5

  • openalex_analyze_trends

    Aggregate OpenAlex entities into groups and count them. Use for trend analysis (group works by publication\_year), distribution analysis (group by oa\_status, type, country), and comparative analysis (group by institution or topic). Combine with filters to scope the analysis. Returns up to 200 groups per page — use cursor pagination for fields with many distinct values.

  • openalex_describe_fields

    List valid field names for an OpenAlex entity type and context (filter, group\_by, or select). Use proactively before constructing a filter or group\_by to avoid invalid-field 400 errors. Pass `query` to narrow the results by name similarity — useful when you have a partial or guessed field name.

  • openalex_get_citation_graph

    Walk the citation graph one hop from a seed work. Direction picks the edge: incoming citations (`cites`), the seed's own references (`cited_by`), or OpenAlex's algorithmically-related works (`related_to`). Note: `direction` follows OpenAlex's filter convention, which inverts the common English reading — `cites` returns works that cite the seed; `cited_by` returns works the seed cites. Results use the works schema; combine with filters/sort to narrow further.

  • openalex_resolve_name

    Resolve a name or partial name to an OpenAlex ID. Returns up to 10 matches with disambiguation hints. ALWAYS use this before filtering by entity — names are ambiguous, IDs are not. Also accepts DOIs directly for quick lookup.

  • openalex_search_entities

    Search, filter, sort, or retrieve by ID. Covers all OpenAlex entity types (works, authors, sources, institutions, topics, keywords, publishers, funders). Pass `id` to retrieve a single entity. Otherwise, use `query` and/or `filters` for discovery. Supports keyword search with boolean operators, exact phrase matching, and AI semantic search. Use openalex\_resolve\_name to resolve names to IDs before filtering. Searches and ID lookups return a curated set of fields by default; pass `select` to override with specific fields, or `["*"]` for the full record.

Prompts · 2

  • openalex_literature_review

    Guides a systematic literature search: formulate query, search, filter, analyze citation network, synthesize findings.

  • openalex_research_landscape

    Analyzes the research landscape for a topic: volume trends, top authors/institutions, open access rates, funding sources.