Scholar Sidekick MCP Server

MCP server for Scholar Sidekick — resolve any scholarly identifier (DOI, PMID, PMCID, ISBN, arXiv, ISSN, NASA ADS bibcode, WHO IRIS URL) into 10,000+ CSL styles or nine export formats, plus retraction, open-access, and citation-fabrication-detection checks, from any AI assistant.

Highlights

- Eight identifier types out of the box — DOIs, PMIDs, PMCIDs, ISBNs, arXiv IDs, ISSNs, NASA ADS bibcodes, and WHO IRIS URLs (rare in citation tooling).
- Batch-friendly resolve / format / export — each accepts a single identifier or a comma- or newline-separated list; the server normalises the list and resolves them in one round trip.
- 10,000+ citation styles — five hand-tuned builtins (Vancouver, AMA, APA, IEEE, CSE) plus any CSL style ID, with alias and dependent-style resolution.
- Nine export formats — BibTeX, RIS, CSL JSON, EndNote (XML/Refer), RefWorks, MEDLINE, Zotero RDF, CSV, plain text.
- Retraction & open-access checks — checkRetraction surfaces retractions, corrections, and expressions of concern (Crossref / Retraction Watch); checkOpenAccess returns OA status and the best legal landing or PDF URL (Unpaywall). Both accept any identifier type and resolve it to a DOI under the hood.
- Citation-fabrication detection — verifyCitation cross-checks a claimed citation against the resolved record at its identifier, detecting the dominant AI-driven fabrication pattern documented by Topaz et al. (Lancet 2026)00603-3) — real DOI + invented title — that simple identifier resolution cannot catch. Long-form explainer at scholar-sidekick.com/citation-integrity.
- Composable workflow — chain resolveIdentifier → formatCitation → exportCitation in one prompt for an end-to-end "raw IDs → exportable bibliography" pipeline.
- Provenance metadata on every response — formatted output is followed by a metadata block (requestId, formatter, styleUsed, warnings) so the assistant can show users which engine produced each citation.
- No key required — works anonymously against the public Scholar Sidekick API (rate-limited free tier); add a free first-party ssk_ key for higher limits, or a RapidAPI key for paid/managed tiers.
- Hosted HTTP endpoint (no install) — prefer not to run a local stdio server? Connect any HTTP-capable MCP client straight to https://scholar-sidekick.com/api/mcp (Streamable HTTP, same 6 tools). See Hosted HTTP endpoint.
- REST API twin — the same endpoints are available as the Scholar Sidekick REST API for non-MCP integrations.

Tools

| Tool | Description |
| --- | --- |
| resolveIdentifier | Resolve DOIs, PMIDs, PMCIDs, ISBNs, arXiv IDs, ISSNs, ADS bibcodes, and WHO IRIS URLs to structured bibliographic metadata (CSL JSON). Accepts a single identifier or a comma/newline-separated batch. |
| formatCitation | Format one or many identifiers into Vancouver, AMA, APA, IEEE, CSE, or any of 10,000+ CSL styles. Output as text, HTML, or JSON. Returns formatted citations plus a provenance metadata block. |
| exportCitation | Export one or many identifiers to BibTeX, RIS, CSL JSON, EndNote (XML/Refer), RefWorks, MEDLINE, Zotero RDF, CSV, or plain text — ready to write to disk or hand to a reference manager. |
| checkRetraction | Check whether a single work has been retracted, corrected, or had an expression of concern raised. Sourced from Crossref updated-by (Retraction Watch). Resolves DOI/PMID/PMCID/arXiv/ADS inputs to a DOI before lookup. One identifier per call. |
| checkOpenAccess | Check whether a single work is openly accessible and where to find the best legal version. Sourced from Unpaywall. Returns OA status (gold/green/hybrid/bronze/closed), best landing/PDF URL, license, and version. Resolves DOI/PMID/PMCID/arXiv/ISBN/ADS inputs to a DOI before lookup. One identifier per call. |
| verifyCitation | Verify a claimed citation against the resolved record at its identifier. Detects the Topaz et al. (Lancet 2026) fabrication pattern — real DOI + invented title — that resolveIdentifier alone cannot catch. Returns one of four verdicts (matched / mismatch / ambiguous / not_found) plus per-field similarity scores and the resolved record so the user can see where the cited title and the actual paper diverged. Optional Stage 3 LLM screen rescues informal-abbreviation false positives (paid plans / first-party authentication only). One citation per call. |

Setup

No key required. The server works anonymously against the public Scholar Sidekick API
(https://scholar-sidekick.com) at a rate-limited free tier — just install and go. To raise
your limits, create a free first-party ssk_ key at
scholar-sidekick.com/account and set SCHOLAR_API_KEY.
For paid/managed tiers, subscribe on
RapidAPI and
set RAPIDAPI_KEY (which routes calls through the RapidAPI gateway).

> Prefer zero install? There's also a hosted HTTP endpoint at
> https://scholar-sidekick.com/api/mcp (Streamable HTTP) — connect any HTTP-capable MCP
> client directly, no npx needed. See Hosted HTTP endpoint
> below. The stdio package documented here is the local-install alternative (and the path for
> RapidAPI-keyed users).

Claude Desktop

Add to ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json (macOS) or %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json (Windows). The env block is optional — omit it to run anonymously:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "scholar-sidekick": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "scholar-sidekick-mcp@latest"],
      "env": {
        "SCHOLAR_API_KEY": "ssk_your-first-party-key"
      }
    }
  }
}

Claude Code

```bash