Scopus Academic Search

An MCP (Model Context Protocol) server for searching academic papers on Scopus - helping AI assistants write papers without hallucinating citations.

MIT License Node.js Docker

Why This Matters

When AI assistants write academic papers or research content, they often hallucinate citations - inventing papers that don't exist, misattributing authors, or fabricating DOIs. This MCP server solves that problem by giving AI direct access to real academic data from Scopus, the world's largest abstract and citation database.

The Problem

• AI hallucinates non-existent papers
• Fabricated author names and affiliations
• Invented DOIs and citation counts
• Outdated or incorrect publication data

The Solution

• Real papers from Scopus database
• Accurate author information
• Verified DOIs and citation metrics
• Up-to-date publication details

Features

Paper Search & Retrieval

• search_papers - Search by keywords, title, author, abstract, year range
• search_papers_advanced - Structured search combining author, journal, affiliation, keywords, year range, and document type without needing Scopus query syntax
• get_paper_by_id - Get full details by Scopus ID
• get_paper_by_doi - Retrieve paper by DOI (full metadata including authors, affiliations, keywords)
• get_abstract - Fetch paper abstracts

Author Information

• search_authors - Find authors by name
• get_author_by_id - Get author profile with h-index, citations, subject areas, and top co-authors
• get_author_publications - List all publications by an author

Citation Analysis

• get_citations - Papers citing a specific work
• get_references - Bibliography of a paper (with pagination warnings for large reference lists)
• get_citation_overview - Year-by-year citation breakdown for a paper

Journal & Venue Intelligence

• get_journal_info - Get journal metrics: CiteScore, SJR, SNIP, subject areas
• search_journals - Search for journals by name, get ISSN and metadata

Institution & Domain Search

• search_by_affiliation - Find papers by university/organization (with year filtering)
• search_by_subject_area - Search within ASJC subject area codes for domain-specific literature reviews

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Installation

Prerequisites

• Node.js 18+ (required)
• A Scopus API Key (free for academic use)

Step 1: Clone & Build

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/andri-setiawan/MCP-scopus.git
cd MCP-scopus

# Install dependencies
npm install

# Build the project
npm run build

# Run tests
npm test

Step 2: Get Scopus API Key

1. Visit Elsevier Developer Portal
2. Create a free account
3. Apply for API access
4. Select "Scopus Search API"
5. You'll receive an API key via email

Note: Free API keys have rate limits. For production use, consider a paid subscription.

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Configuration (Choose One)

Option A: Direct Node.js (Recommended)

Most stable and reliable method. Uses stdio transport directly without network overhead.

Claude Desktop Configuration

Add to your claude_desktop_config.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "scopus": {
      "command": "node",
      "args": [
        "/path/to/MCP-scopus/dist/index.js"
      ],
      "env": {
        "SCOPUS_API_KEY": "your_api_key_here"
      }
    }
  }
}

Config file locations:

OS	Path
Windows	%APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json
macOS	~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json
Linux	~/.config/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json

Example: Windows Configuration

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "scopus": {
      "command": "node",
      "args": [
        "D:\\Documents\\MCP-scopus\\dist\\index.js"
      ],
      "env": {
        "SCOPUS_API_KEY": "your_api_key_here"
      }
    }
  }
}

Example: macOS/Linux Configuration

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "scopus": {
      "command": "node",
      "args": [
        "/home/username/MCP-scopus/dist/index.js"
      ],
      "env": {
        "SCOPUS_API_KEY": "your_api_key_here"
      }
    }
  }
}

Why This Method is Recommended

Aspect	Direct Node.js	HTTP/SSE (Docker)
Stability	Best	Good
Latency	Lower	Higher
Connection	Direct stdio	Network-based
Timeouts	No issues	Possible
Docker Required	No	Yes
Setup Complexity	Simple	More complex

---

Option B: Docker + HTTP/SSE (Alternative)

If you prefer containerization or need remote access:

# Build the image
docker build -t mcp-scopus .

# Run the container
docker run -d \
  --name mcp-scopus \
  --restart unless-stopped \
  -p 5566:5566 \
  -e SCOPUS_API_KEY=your_api_key_here \
  mcp-scopus

Claude Desktop Configuration (HTTP)

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "scopus": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "mcp-remote", "http://localhost:5566/sse"],
      "env": {}
    }
  }
}

Docker Management

docker logs mcp-scopus      # View logs
docker restart mcp-scopus   # Restart container
docker stop mcp-scopus      # Stop container
docker start mcp-scopus     # Start container

---

Usage Examples

Once configured, restart Claude Desktop and try:

"Search for recent papers about transformer architectures in NLP"
"Find papers by Geoffrey Hinton from the last 5 years"
"What papers cite the attention is all you need paper?"
"Get details about paper with DOI 10.1016/j.example.2023.01.001"
"Find publications from Stanford University about machine learning"
"What are the metrics for the journal Nature (ISSN 0028-0836)?"
"Search for conference papers about LLMs published between 2023 and 2024"
"Show me the citation trajectory of paper 2-s2.0-85012345678"
"Find papers in Computer Science (ASJC 1700) about reinforcement learning"

Search Syntax

The server supports Scopus advanced query syntax:

machine learning AND PUBYEAR > 2023
TITLE(deep learning) AND AUTHOR(lecun)
ABS(neural networks) AND KEY(transformer)
SRCTITLE(Nature) AND PUBYEAR = 2024

Or use search_papers_advanced for structured queries without learning Scopus syntax:

keywords: "transformer", author: "vaswani", journal: "NeurIPS", yearFrom: 2017, documentType: "conference-paper"

---

Available Tools

Tool	Description
search_papers	Search papers by query with filters and year range
search_papers_advanced	Structured multi-field search (author, journal, affiliation, keywords, year, doc type)
get_paper_by_id	Get paper details by Scopus ID
get_paper_by_doi	Get paper details by DOI (full metadata)
get_abstract	Get paper abstract
search_authors	Search for authors
get_author_by_id	Get author profile with co-authors
get_author_publications	List author's papers
get_citations	Get citing papers
get_references	Get paper's references
get_citation_overview	Year-by-year citation breakdown
get_journal_info	Journal metrics: CiteScore, SJR, SNIP
search_journals	Search journals by name
search_by_affiliation	Search by institution (with year filter)
search_by_subject_area	Search by ASJC subject code

---

API Reference

search_papers

{
  query: string,           // Required: Search query
  count?: number,          // Default: 10, Max: 200
  start?: number,          // For pagination
  sortBy?: string,         // 'relevance' | 'date' | 'citedby-count' | 'pub-name'
  sortOrder?: string,      // 'asc' | 'desc'
  yearFrom?: number,       // Filter from year (e.g., 2020)
  yearTo?: number          // Filter to year (e.g., 2024)
}

search_papers_advanced

{
  keywords?: string,       // Keywords for title/abstract/keywords search
  author?: string,         // Author name
  affiliation?: string,    // Institution name
  journal?: string,        // Source/journal title
  yearFrom?: number,       // Start year
  yearTo?: number,         // End year
  documentType?: string,   // 'article' | 'review' | 'conference-paper' | etc.
  count?: number,          // Default: 10
  sortBy?: string,         // Sort field
  sortOrder?: string       // Sort order
}

get_journal_info

{
  issn: string             // Required: ISSN of the journal
}

get_citation_overview

{
  scopusId: string         // Required: Scopus ID of the paper
}

search_by_subject_area

{
  subjectCode: string,     // Required: ASJC code (e.g., '1700' for Computer Science)
  keywords?: string,       // Additional keywords
  yearFrom?: number,       // Start year
  yearTo?: number,         // End year
  count?: number,          // Default: 10
  sortBy?: string,         // Sort field
  sortOrder?: string       // Sort order
}

---

Architecture

src/
  index.ts          # Stdio MCP server (recommended)
  http-server.ts    # HTTP/SSE MCP server (alternative)
  handlers.ts       # All tool execution logic (shared)
  tools.ts          # Tool definitions and schemas (shared)
  formatters.ts     # Response formatting helpers (shared)
  client.ts         # Scopus API client with rate limiting (shared)
  schemas.ts        # Zod input validation schemas (shared)
  types.ts          # TypeScript interfaces for Scopus API responses
  __tests__/        # Test suite

Both transport modes share identical logic via the registerHandlers() function, so any bug fix or feature applies to both.

---

Development

# Install dependencies
npm install

# Build TypeScript
npm run build

# Run tests
npm test

# Watch tests
npm run test:watch

# Run in development mode (stdio)
npm run dev

# Run HTTP server
npm run start:http

---

Project Structure

MCP-scopus/
  src/
    index.ts          # Stdio MCP server (recommended)
    http-server.ts    # HTTP/SSE MCP server (alternative)
    handlers.ts       # Shared tool execution logic
    tools.ts          # Shared tool definitions
    formatters.ts     # Response formatters
    client.ts         # API client with rate limiting
    schemas.ts        # Zod validation schemas
    types.ts          # TypeScript interfaces
    __tests__/        # Test files
  dist/               # Compiled JavaScript
  Dockerfile
  docker-compose.yml
  package.json
  tsconfig.json
  vitest.config.ts
  README.md

---

Troubleshooting

Connection Timeout Errors

If you see timeout errors with HTTP/SSE, switch to Option A (Direct Node.js) - it's more stable.

API Key Issues

# Test your API key
curl -H "X-ELS-APIKey: your_key" "https://api.elsevier.com/content/search/scopus?query=test"

Rate Limiting (429 Errors)

The server automatically retries on 429 responses with exponential backoff. If you still see issues, reduce your count parameter or space out requests.

Container Won't Start

# Check logs
docker logs mcp-scopus

# Rebuild
docker stop mcp-scopus && docker rm mcp-scopus
docker build -t mcp-scopus . --no-cache
docker run -d --name mcp-scopus -p 5566:5566 -e SCOPUS_API_KEY=your_key mcp-scopus

---

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details.

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Acknowledgments

• Model Context Protocol by Anthropic
• Scopus API by Elsevier

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Disclaimer

This project is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Elsevier or Scopus. Scopus is a registered trademark of Elsevier B.V. Use of the Scopus API is subject to Elsevier's terms of service.