Paper Finder MCP

Ask your AI to find real scholarly papers for an essay or research project, with authors, year, citation counts, DOIs and a free to read link when one exists. Results come straight from OpenAlex, a free open catalog of more than 250 million works, so the papers are real, not invented.

This is a free, open source MCP server. It works with Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor, VS Code Copilot and any other app that supports MCP. Searches go to the free public OpenAlex service and nothing else. There is no account or key, and nothing is stored.

Free forever. No account and no subscription.

Quick start

Add this to your AI app's MCP config. For Claude Desktop that is claude_desktop_config.json.

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "paper-finder": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "paper-finder-student-mcp"]
    }
  }
}

Restart your AI app, then try one of the questions below. You need Node.js 20 or newer.

For Claude Code, run claude mcp add paper-finder -- npx -y paper-finder-student-mcp.

What you can ask

• "Find recent open access papers on spaced repetition and exam performance."
• "Give me the abstract and a free link for 10.1038/nature14539."
• "What papers are related to that one?"
• "Who has cited that paper the most recently?"

Tools

Tool	What it does
search_papers	Search scholarly works by keywords, with optional year and open access filters
get_paper	Details for one paper from its DOI or OpenAlex id, including the abstract
related_papers	Papers OpenAlex marks as related to a paper
cited_by	Newer papers that cite a paper

Good to know

• Citation counts and open access links come from OpenAlex and can be a little behind the publisher.
• If you want faster, more reliable service for heavy use, set OPENALEX_EMAIL to your own email. OpenAlex asks for it so they can reach you, and it is sent only to OpenAlex.
• OPENALEX_BASE_URL points the server somewhere else, which the tests use.
• Always read the paper yourself before you cite it. A catalog entry is not the paper.

Development

npm install
npm run build
npm test

Tests run against a fake OpenAlex server, so they need no network.

More free student MCP servers

All free, open source and read only where they touch your accounts. Browse the full list at brightspacemcp.com/more-mcps.

Server	What it does
Brightspace MCP	D2L Brightspace for AI. Due dates with real submission status, grades, a target grade calculator and course files.
Canvas MCP	Read-only Canvas LMS for AI. Due dates, missing work, grades and announcements.
Moodle MCP	Read-only Moodle for AI. Due dates, overdue work, grades and announcements.
Google Classroom MCP	Read-only Google Classroom for AI. To-do, due dates, missing work and grades.
GPA Calculator MCP	GPA, grade conversion and what-do-I-need-on-the-final math for AI. Works offline, no account.
Citations MCP	APA, MLA and Chicago citations from a DOI, an ISBN or typed details. No account.
Study Planner MCP	Exam study schedules, spaced repetition dates, pomodoro plans and assignment milestones. Works offline.

License

MIT