About crossref
crossref is an MCP server for searching and retrieving scholarly metadata through the Crossref REST API. It supports work, author, journal, and funder searches, DOI lookups, reference retrieval, and RIS or BibTeX exports without an API key.
Key features
- 01Search works by keyword, title, or author
- 02Filter and sort search results
- 03Look up works by DOI
- 04Search journals and funders
- 05Retrieve cited references
- 06Export results as RIS or BibTeX
Use cases
- 01Find papers by topic, author, or year
- 02Retrieve metadata for a DOI
- 03Gather works and references from a journal
- 04Export citations for reference managers
MCP support
It exposes Crossref search, lookup, reference retrieval, and citation export tools to MCP clients. An API key is not required.
Configuration
Local server config is the same for every client. Copy it into your client’s MCP config file.
uvx crossref-mcp-serverCROSSREF_MAILTOYour email for Crossref polite pool (better rate limits, no key needed)Local servers need a runtime on your machine (e.g. Node.js 18+). Config file locations differ by client; see your client’s docs.
Tools
Local servers expose tools only once running on your machine, and the maintainer has not provided a tool list.
Details
From the project READMECrossRef MCP Server
An MCP (Model Context Protocol) server for searching and retrieving scholarly metadata from the CrossRef REST API — 150M+ records across all publishers and disciplines.
Built with FastMCP. No API key required.
Tools
| Tool | Description |
|---|---|
crossref_search | Search works by keyword with filtering by year, type, and sort options |
crossref_title_search | Search specifically by title for more precise matching |
crossref_author_search | Search for works by a specific author, optionally combined with keywords |
crossref_doi_lookup | Retrieve full metadata for a work by DOI |
crossref_journal_search | Search for journals by name |
crossref_journal_works | Get works published in a specific journal by ISSN |
crossref_funder_search | Search for funding organizations |
crossref_references | Get the reference list cited by a specific work |
crossref_export_ris | Export recent results as RIS (for Zotero, EndNote, etc.) |
crossref_export_bibtex | Export recent results as BibTeX |
Setup
1. Install
cd crossref-mcp-server
python3 -m venv venv
source venv/bin/activate
pip install -r requirements.txt
2. Configure environment (optional)
CrossRef doesn't require an API key, but setting a mailto address gives you access to their faster "polite" API pool:
cp .env.example .env
# Edit .env with your email address
3. Add to Claude Desktop
Add this to your claude_desktop_config.json:
{
"mcpServers": {
"crossref": {
"command": "/path/to/crossref-mcp-server/venv/bin/python",
"args": ["/path/to/crossref-mcp-server/server.py"],
"env": {
"CROSSREF_MAILTO": "[email protected]"
}
}
}
}
Or if using Claude Code CLI:
claude mcp add crossref \
/path/to/crossref-mcp-server/venv/bin/python \
/path/to/crossref-mcp-server/server.py \
-e [email protected]
Usage examples
Once connected, you can ask Claude things like:
- "Search CrossRef for recent papers on transformer architectures"
- "Find works by Jane Smith on educational psychology from 2020-2024"
- "Look up the metadata for DOI 10.1038/nature14539"
- "Search for journals about machine learning"
- "Get the reference list for this paper and export as RIS for Zotero"
License
MIT
Comments
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