mcpField
U
unpaywall

unpaywall

Local
github.com/SMABoundlessSearch0Updated 17w ago
Repository

About unpaywall

An Unpaywall MCP server for researchers checking scholarly article access. It looks up open-access availability by DOI, searches article titles, returns locations and license details, and exports results as RIS or BibTeX.

Key features

  1. 01Look up open-access availability by DOI
  2. 02Search article titles with OA filters and pagination
  3. 03Return PDF links and open-access locations
  4. 04Provide license and journal details
  5. 05Export results as RIS or BibTeX

Use cases

  1. 01Check for an open-access copy of an article
  2. 02Find open-access articles on a topic
  3. 03Review available versions and their licenses
  4. 04Export search results for a reference manager

MCP support

Exposes Unpaywall lookup, search, and RIS/BibTeX export tools to MCP clients.

Configuration

Local server config is the same for every client. Copy it into your client’s MCP config file.

mcp.json · Universal config
{
  "mcpServers": {
    "smaboundless-unpaywall": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": [
        "unpaywall-mcp-server"
      ],
      "env": {
        "UNPAYWALL_EMAIL": "<UNPAYWALL_EMAIL>"
      }
    }
  }
}
Run commanduvx unpaywall-mcp-server
Environment variables to set
UNPAYWALL_EMAILYour email address — required by the Unpaywall API as an identifier (no API key needed). See https://unpaywall.org/products/api

Local servers need a runtime on your machine (e.g. Node.js 18+). Config file locations differ by client; see your client’s docs.

Packages
pypiunpaywall-mcp-server1.0.1

Tools

No tool list yet

Local servers expose tools only once running on your machine, and the maintainer has not provided a tool list.

Details

From the project README

Unpaywall MCP Server

An MCP (Model Context Protocol) server for the Unpaywall API — open-access availability for 120M+ scholarly articles.

Built with FastMCP.

Tools

ToolDescription
unpaywall_lookupLook up open-access availability by DOI — returns OA status, PDF/landing page URLs, license, all OA locations
unpaywall_searchSearch 120M+ article titles with OA filtering and pagination
unpaywall_export_risExport results as RIS (for Zotero, EndNote, etc.)
unpaywall_export_bibtexExport results as BibTeX

What you get

  • Open-access status and OA type (gold, green, hybrid, bronze)
  • Best OA location with direct PDF link
  • All OA locations across repositories and publishers
  • Journal OA status, ISSN, publisher info
  • Author lists, publication dates, DOIs
  • License information per location

Setup

1. Get your email ready

Unpaywall requires an email address as your API identifier (no API key needed). See the Unpaywall API docs.

2. Install
pip install unpaywall-mcp-server

Or install from source:

cd unpaywall-mcp-server
python3 -m venv venv
source venv/bin/activate
pip install -r requirements.txt
3. Add to Claude Desktop

Add this to your claude_desktop_config.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "unpaywall": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": ["unpaywall-mcp-server"],
      "env": {
        "UNPAYWALL_EMAIL": "[email protected]"
      }
    }
  }
}

Or if using Claude Code CLI:

claude mcp add unpaywall \
  uvx unpaywall-mcp-server \
  -e [email protected]

Usage examples

  • "Is there an open-access version of DOI 10.1038/nature12373?"
  • "Search Unpaywall for open-access papers on CRISPR gene editing"
  • "Export these results as RIS for Zotero"
  • "Find OA articles about climate change mitigation"

License

MIT

Comments

Markdown supported

New to MCP?

From what the protocol is to installing your first server, these answers cover most first questions.

An open protocol that defines how AI applications connect to external tools and data in a uniform way. Clients talk to the model; MCP servers provide tools, resources and prompt templates. They exchange standard messages, so one server can be reused by many clients.