io.github.SMABoundless/unpaywall
Open-access availability for 120M+ scholarly articles via the Unpaywall API
Open source Open in the app JSON README (API)
About
Open-access availability for 120M+ scholarly articles via the Unpaywall API
Details
- Kind
- MCP servers
- Topic
- No topic detected
- Publisher
- smaboundless
- Origin
- official
- Category
- ferramentas
- Transport
- local
- Version
- 1.0.1
- Last push
- 2026-07-04T20:09:14Z
- Repository state
- ativo
- Language
- Python
- License
- MIT
- Added
- 2026-08-29 03:02:13
- Updated
- 2026-08-29 03:02:13
- Origin id
io.github.SMABoundless/unpaywall
README
# Unpaywall MCP Server
An MCP (Model Context Protocol) server for the [Unpaywall](https://unpaywall.org/) API — open-access availability for 120M+ scholarly articles.
Built with [FastMCP](https://github.com/modelcontextprotocol/python-sdk).
## Tools
| Tool | Description |
|------|-------------|
| `unpaywall_lookup` | Look up open-access availability by DOI — returns OA status, PDF/landing page URLs, license, all OA locations |
| `unpaywall_search` | Search 120M+ article titles with OA filtering and pagination |
| `unpaywall_export_ris` | Export results as RIS (for Zotero, EndNote, etc.) |
| `unpaywall_export_bibtex` | Export 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](https://unpaywall.org/products/api).
### 2. Install
```bash
pip install unpaywall-mcp-server
```
Or install from source:
```bash
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`:
```json
{
"mcpServers": {
"unpaywall": {
"command": "uvx",
"args": ["unpaywall-mcp-server"],
"env": {
"UNPAYWALL_EMAIL": "your-email@example.com"
}
}
}
}
```
Or if using Claude Code CLI:
```bash
claude mcp add unpaywall \
uvx unpaywall-mcp-server \
-e UNPAYWALL_EMAIL=your-email@example.com
```
## 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
<!-- mcp-name: io.github.SMABoundless/unpaywall -->