Scholar Sidekick

MCP server for Scholar Sidekick — resolve, format, and export academic citations from any AI assistant.

Tools

Tool	Description
resolveIdentifier	Resolve DOIs, PMIDs, PMCIDs, ISBNs, arXiv IDs, ISSNs, ADS bibcodes to structured bibliographic metadata
formatCitation	Format identifiers into Vancouver, AMA, APA, IEEE, CSE, or 10,000+ CSL styles. Output as text, HTML, or JSON
exportCitation	Export to BibTeX, RIS, CSL JSON, EndNote (XML/Refer), RefWorks, MEDLINE, Zotero RDF, CSV, or plain text

Setup

Get a RapidAPI key

1. Subscribe to Scholar Sidekick on RapidAPI (free tier available)
2. Copy your RapidAPI key

Claude Desktop

Add to ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json (macOS) or %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json (Windows):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "scholar-sidekick": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "scholar-sidekick-mcp@latest"],
      "env": {
        "RAPIDAPI_KEY": "your-rapidapi-key"
      }
    }
  }
}

Claude Code

claude mcp add scholar-sidekick \
  -e RAPIDAPI_KEY=your-rapidapi-key \
  -- npx -y scholar-sidekick-mcp@latest

Cursor / VS Code / Windsurf

Add to .cursor/mcp.json or .vscode/mcp.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "scholar-sidekick": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "scholar-sidekick-mcp@latest"],
      "env": {
        "RAPIDAPI_KEY": "your-rapidapi-key"
      }
    }
  }
}

Environment Variables

Variable	Required	Description
RAPIDAPI_KEY	Yes	Your RapidAPI subscription key
RAPIDAPI_HOST	No	RapidAPI host (defaults to scholar-sidekick.p.rapidapi.com)
SCHOLAR_SIDEKICK_TIMEOUT_MS	No	Request timeout in milliseconds (default: 30000)

Supported Citation Styles

Scholar Sidekick supports 10,000+ CSL styles, including all major formats used in academic publishing:

Style	Keyword
Vancouver	vancouver
APA (7th ed.)	apa
AMA	ama
IEEE	ieee
CSE	cse
Chicago (author-date)	chicago-author-date
Harvard	harvard-cite-them-right
MLA	modern-language-association
Turabian	turabian-fullnote-bibliography
Nature	nature
BMJ	bmj
Lancet	the-lancet

Any CSL style ID can be passed as the style parameter.

Example Usage

Once connected, ask your AI assistant:

• "Format 10.1056/NEJMoa2033700 in Vancouver style"
• "Resolve PMID:30049270 and export as BibTeX"
• "Format these as APA: 10.1056/NEJMoa2033700, PMID:30049270, ISBN:9780192854087"
• "Give me a Chicago citation for arXiv:2301.08745"

Supported Identifiers

• DOIs (e.g. 10.1056/NEJMoa2033700)
• PubMed IDs (e.g. PMID:30049270)
• PubMed Central IDs (e.g. PMC7793608)
• ISBNs (e.g. ISBN:9780192854087)
• arXiv IDs (e.g. 2301.08745)
• ISSNs and eISSNs
• NASA ADS bibcodes
• WHO IRIS URLs

REST API

For programmatic access outside of MCP clients, Scholar Sidekick is also available as a REST API on RapidAPI. Your same RapidAPI key works for both.

Development

npm install
npm run build    # Bundle to dist/mcp-server.mjs
npm test         # Run tests
npm run typecheck

License

MIT