UniArticles MCP Server

中文版本 (Chinese)

Overview

UniArticles(亿文通) is a unified academic literature retrieval server implementing the Model Context Protocol (MCP). Integrates multiple scholarly databases (Scopus, ArXiv) and literature APIs (PubMed) into a single, standardized API for LLM agents (like Claude).

Features

• Unified Interface: Single search structure for all sources.
• Multi-Source Support:
  • Scopus: Search, abstract details, journal/serial title lookup by ISSN, quota check.
  • ScienceDirect: Full-text article retrieval, article object (figures/tables/supplementary materials) metadata retrieval.
  • ArXiv: Search papers, list recent papers, read paper metadata by ID.
  • Paperscraper APIs: PubMed search.
• Standardized Returns: Consistent JSON structure (ok, source, query, count, items, error).
• Secure Configuration: API keys managed via environment variables.

⚠️ API Key Requirements

This server integrates multiple data sources, and some advanced features require API keys:

1. Elsevier API (Scopus database, Required):
   • How to get: Apply at Elsevier Developer Portal.
   • Restriction: A basic, non-commercial Elsevier API key (no institutional subscription or Insttoken required) is sufficient to use all remaining Elsevier-related tools in this server — apply for free with a personal account at the Elsevier Developer Portal. (Verified against the current 11 tools using a real non-commercial key.)
   • Clarification: Scopus is an Elsevier database. The ELSEVIER_API_KEY configured here is an Elsevier API key and may also be used for other Elsevier API services allowed by your subscription and key scope. (The legacy variable name SCOPUS_API_KEY is still accepted for backward compatibility but is deprecated and will be removed in a future major version.)

Note: Even without the above API key, you can still use other functions normally.

Installation & Usage

Method 1: Direct Integration with LLM Clients (Recommended)

Suitable for Cherry Studio, LM Studio, Claude Desktop, Trae, etc.

This project is published on PyPI, so you can configure it directly without downloading the full source code. Since these LLM clients are already configured with Python and uv environments, no additional downloads are required.

Simply add the following configuration to your client's MCP settings (e.g., claude_desktop_config.json):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "uniarticles-mcp-server": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": [
        "--refresh", 
        "uniarticles-mcp"
      ],
      "env": {
        "ELSEVIER_API_KEY": "your_elsevier_api_key_here"
      }
    }
  }
}

If you do not want to force refresh the cache package every time you restart, then instead add the following content: (but this will cause you to need to manually update the package when the package is updated)

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "uniarticles-mcp-server": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": [
        "uniarticles-mcp"
      ],
      "env": {
        "ELSEVIER_API_KEY": "your_elsevier_api_key_here"
      }
    }
  }
}

📖 Troubleshooting? See: Step-by-Step Configuration Guide

If you encounter MCP error -32000: Connection closed when starting the service, please find the solution in the related Cherry Studio issue: https://github.com/CherryHQ/cherry-studio/issues/3264

Method 2: Local Installation (Advanced)

Requires Python 3.10+ and uv (recommended) or pip. Useful for developers or those who want to modify the source code.

Using uv:

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/your-username/UniArticles_MCPserver.git
cd UniArticles_MCPserver

# Sync dependencies and run
uv sync
uv run uniarticles-mcp

Using pip:

# Clone and setup venv
python -m venv .venv
source .venv/bin/activate  # Windows: .venv\Scripts\activate

# Install dependencies
pip install -e .

# Run
python -m uniarticles

Configuration

Create a .env file in the project root:

ELSEVIER_API_KEY=your_elsevier_api_key

Project Structure

src/
└── uniarticles/
    ├── server.py        # MCP Server entry point
    └── sources/         # Data source modules
        ├── arxiv.py
        ├── paperscraper.py
        ├── scopus.py
        └── ...
pyproject.toml           # Project metadata and dependencies

Verifying the Installation

This project does not ship a separate test suite; verify the installation by launching the server. It communicates over stdio, so on a successful start it stays running and waits silently for JSON-RPC input from a client (press Ctrl+C to exit):

uv run uniarticles-mcp     # if installed via uv
# or
python -m uniarticles      # if installed via pip

If the process starts without import or configuration errors, the installation is working.

Available Tools

Scopus

• search_scopus(query, count, sort, view): Search for documents.
• get_abstract_details(eid, view): Get detailed abstract information.
• get_serial_title(issn, view): Look up journal/serial metadata (publisher, Open Access status, coverage years, subject areas, homepage) by ISSN.
• get_quota_status(): Check Elsevier API quota (via Scopus endpoint).

ScienceDirect

• retrieve_article(identifier, identifier_type, view): Retrieve full-text article record.
• get_article_objects(identifier, identifier_type, view): Retrieve metadata (filename, mimetype, type, download link) for an article's figures/tables/supplementary materials. Returns the object list and links only — does not download the binary content.

ArXiv

• search_arxiv(query, max_results): Search papers.
• list_papers(max_results): List recent papers.
• read_paper(paper_id): Get paper metadata.

Paperscraper

• search_pubmed_papers(query, max_results): Search papers from PubMed.

🤝 Call for Contributions

Due to the author's background in Chemistry, I am less familiar with databases and API developments in other research fields. I warmly welcome contributions and Pull Requests (PRs) from the community to add more data sources!

⚖️ License & Acknowledgments

License

AGPL-3.0 License with Commercial Restriction

This project is licensed under the GNU Affero General Public License v3.0 (AGPL-3.0).

🔴 Commercial Use Restriction: Commercial use of this software is permitted ONLY with explicit written authorization from the author.

Special Acknowledgments

• ScopusMCP: ScopusMCP is the first literature retrieval MCP tool the author successfully developed, but initially it was quite bloated and difficult to port.Thanks to my roommate (https://github.com/qwe4559999) for the suggestion to use pypi and uv for packaging.

• ArxivMCPserver: Integrated directly from the ArxivMCPserver project.

Special Declaration

This project uses AI-generated content.