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.
  • PubMed (NCBI Entrez): Keyword search, batch summary lookup, related-article discovery, and PMC full-text/citation linkage — direct NCBI E-utilities calls (no third-party wrapper).
  • General academic search (v3.0.0): OpenAlex, Crossref, Europe PMC, DOAJ, Zenodo, HAL, OpenAIRE, dblp, Semantic Scholar, and CORE keyword/DOI lookup across open scholarly catalogs.
  • Specialized sources (v3.0.0): bioRxiv/medRxiv preprint browsing by date range, and ChEMBL medicinal-chemistry bioactivity lookup by DOI.
• 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. (The 8 Elsevier-related tools have been verified against a real non-commercial key. As of v3.1.0 the server registers 28 tools total covering 15 data sources when SEMANTIC_SCHOLAR_API_KEY is not configured, or 30 tools when it is; the newer non-Elsevier sources do not require this 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
# Optional. NCBI Entrez works without it; setting it only raises the PubMed
# rate limit from 3 to 10 requests/sec (free from NCBI).
NCBI_API_KEY=your_ncbi_api_key

Project Structure

src/
└── uniarticles/
    ├── server.py        # MCP Server entry point
    └── sources/         # Data source modules
        ├── arxiv.py
        ├── pubmed.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

• scopus_document_search_by_query(query, count, sort, view): Search for documents.
• scopus_abstract_detail_by_eid(eid, view): Get a normalized abstract record (title, authors, affiliations, journal, identifiers) by EID. The abstract body is only populated under richer, subscription-gated views.
• scopus_serial_title_by_issn(issn, view): Look up journal/serial metadata (publisher, Open Access status, coverage years, subject areas, homepage) by ISSN.
• scopus_api_usage_status(): Check Elsevier API usage/rate-limit status (via Scopus endpoint).
• scopus_serial_title_search_by_criteria(title, issn, pub, subj, content, date, oa, start, count, view): Search journals/serials by title, publisher, subject, Open Access status, etc. (multiple optional criteria, no ISSN required; results include SNIP/SJR metrics). Sibling tool to scopus_serial_title_by_issn. Note: subj takes a subject abbreviation (e.g. COMP) not a numeric code; count max is 200.
• scopus_subject_classification_lookup_by_source(source, description, detail, code, abbrev, field): Look up Scopus/ScienceDirect subject classification codes to help build more precise search queries. source is required (scopus or scidir).

ScienceDirect

• sciencedirect_article_retrieve_by_identifier(identifier, identifier_type, view): Retrieve a normalized article record (title, authors, journal, identifiers, subjects) by identifier.
• sciencedirect_article_object_by_identifier(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

• arxiv_paper_search_by_query(query, max_results): Search papers.
• arxiv_latest_paper_list_by_category(category, max_results): List the most recently submitted papers in a given arXiv category. category is required and must be a valid arXiv category code (e.g. cs.AI); comma-separate multiple categories (e.g. cs.AI,cs.LG).
• arxiv_paper_detail_by_id(paper_id): Get paper metadata.

PubMed (NCBI Entrez)

These tools call the NCBI E-utilities directly. They work without a key; setting the optional NCBI_API_KEY (free from NCBI) only raises the rate limit from 3 to 10 requests/sec.

• pubmed_paper_search_by_query(query, max_results): Search PubMed by keyword (ESearch + EFetch), returning normalized records (title, abstract, authors, journal, doi, pmid, pmcid, keywords, date).
• pubmed_paper_summary_lookup_by_pmids(pmids): Batch lightweight metadata lookup (ESummary) for a list of PMIDs; carries fields the search tool lacks (pmcid, pubstatus, pmcrefcount, elocationid). Invalid PMIDs come back as items with a per-item error. Max 200 per call.
• pubmed_related_article_search_by_pmid(pmid, max_results): Find PubMed articles topically related to a PMID (ELink "Similar articles"). Returns related PMIDs (source PMID excluded).
• pubmed_pmc_linkage_lookup_by_pmid(pmid): Look up a PMID's PubMed Central linkages — own_pmc_fulltext (its own open-access PMC record, if any) and cited_by_pmc_articles (PMC articles citing it), kept as two distinct groups.

OpenAlex

• openalex_work_search_by_query(query, max_results): Search works by keyword (abstract reconstructed to readable text). No key needed.
• openalex_work_detail_by_doi(doi): Look up a single work by DOI. No key needed.

Crossref

• crossref_work_search_by_query(query, max_results): Search works by keyword. No key needed.
• crossref_work_detail_by_doi(doi): Look up a single work by DOI. No key needed.

Europe PMC

• europepmc_paper_search_by_query(query, max_results): Search Europe PMC (EBI life-sciences aggregator, distinct from NCBI PubMed) by keyword; first page of results only. No key needed.

DOAJ

• doaj_article_search_by_query(query, max_results): Search the Directory of Open Access Journals by keyword. No key needed.

Zenodo

• zenodo_record_search_by_query(query, max_results): Search Zenodo for publication-type records by keyword (datasets/software excluded); returns file metadata/links only. No key needed.

HAL

• hal_document_search_by_query(query, max_results): Search HAL (French/European open archive) by keyword. No key needed.

OpenAIRE

• openaire_research_product_search_by_query(query, max_results): Search OpenAIRE (European open science aggregator) by keyword. No key needed.

Semantic Scholar

• semantic_scholar_paper_search_by_query(query, max_results): Search Semantic Scholar by keyword. Only registered when SEMANTIC_SCHOLAR_API_KEY is configured (keyword search is unusable without a key).
• semantic_scholar_paper_detail_by_doi(doi): Look up a paper by DOI. Only registered when SEMANTIC_SCHOLAR_API_KEY is configured.

CORE

• core_work_search_by_query(query, max_results): Search CORE (global open-access aggregator) by keyword. Works without a key but is heavily rate-limited (~5 requests then a ~10-minute lockout); configuring CORE_API_KEY is strongly recommended.

dblp

• dblp_publication_search_by_query(query, max_results): Search dblp (computer science bibliography) by keyword. No key needed. Note: dblp.org may fail intermittently due to network path variance in some environments.

bioRxiv / medRxiv

• biorxiv_paper_list_by_date_range(server, start_date, end_date, cursor): Browse bioRxiv/medRxiv preprints within a date range (browse by date, NOT keyword search). server is biorxiv or medrxiv; dates are YYYY-MM-DD; 30 results per page (use cursor to page).

ChEMBL

• chembl_bioactivity_lookup_by_doi(doi): Look up whether a paper (by DOI) is indexed in ChEMBL and, if so, its structured SAR/bioactivity data (doi required, NOT keyword search). Most papers are not in ChEMBL; collected=false is a normal result.

🤝 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.