Google Scholar
Enables academic research through Google Scholar by searching for papers, finding author publications, discovering recent research, and identifying highly cited works through web scraping with natural language queries.
What is Google Scholar?
Google Scholar is a Model Context Protocol (MCP) server that allows AI assistants like Claude, Cursor, and VS Code to enables academic research through google scholar by searching for papers, finding author publications, discovering recent research, and identifying highly cited works through web scraping with natural...
Enables academic research through Google Scholar by searching for papers, finding author publications, discovering recent research, and identifying highly cited works through web scraping with natural language queries.
This server falls under the Search & Data Extraction category on MCPgee, the world's largest MCP server directory with 33,000+ servers.
Features
- Enables academic research through Google Scholar by searchin
Use Cases
Maintainer
Works with
Installation
Manual Installation
npx google-scholar-mcp-serverConfiguration
Configuration Details
claude_desktop_config.json
Performance
Response Metrics
Resource Usage
How to Set Up and Use Google Scholar
The Google Scholar MCP Server brings academic literature search directly into AI assistants by wrapping the scholarly Python library in three focused tools: keyword-based paper search, advanced filtered search by author and year range, and detailed author profile lookup. It performs web scraping against Google Scholar so no API key is required, allowing researchers and students to query millions of academic papers, find citation counts, and pull author h-index data through natural language prompts. This server is particularly useful for literature reviews, identifying leading researchers in a field, and discovering highly cited foundational papers.
Prerequisites
- Python 3.10 or higher installed
- pip for installing Python dependencies (scholarly>=1.7.0, mcp[cli]>=1.4.1)
- An MCP-compatible client such as Claude Desktop
- Git to clone the repository
Clone the repository
Download the Google Scholar MCP Server source code from GitHub.
git clone https://github.com/JackKuo666/Google-Scholar-MCP-Server.git
cd Google-Scholar-MCP-ServerCreate a virtual environment and install dependencies
Using a virtual environment prevents version conflicts with other Python projects. The key dependencies are scholarly (for scraping Google Scholar) and the MCP CLI SDK.
python -m venv venv
source venv/bin/activate
pip install -r requirements.txtStart the server manually
Run the server script directly to confirm it starts without errors before wiring it to an MCP client.
python google_scholar_server.pyAdd the server to Claude Desktop configuration
Edit your claude_desktop_config.json to include the Google Scholar server. Use the full path to your virtual environment's Python binary to ensure the correct dependencies are used.
{
"mcpServers": {
"google-scholar": {
"command": "/path/to/venv/bin/python",
"args": ["google_scholar_server.py"],
"cwd": "/path/to/Google-Scholar-MCP-Server"
}
}
}Restart Claude Desktop and test a search
Reopen Claude Desktop. The google-scholar server should appear in the MCP panel. Test with a keyword search to confirm the scholarly scraper is working.
Google Scholar Examples
Client configuration
Claude Desktop configuration using the local Python environment to run the Google Scholar MCP Server.
{
"mcpServers": {
"google-scholar": {
"command": "/Users/yourname/Google-Scholar-MCP-Server/venv/bin/python",
"args": ["google_scholar_server.py"],
"cwd": "/Users/yourname/Google-Scholar-MCP-Server"
}
}
}Prompts to try
Example prompts that use the three tools: search_google_scholar_key_words, search_google_scholar_advanced, and get_author_info.
- "Search Google Scholar for the top 5 papers on 'transformer attention mechanisms'."
- "Find machine learning papers by Geoffrey Hinton published between 2018 and 2023."
- "Get the author profile for Yoshua Bengio including his h-index and citation count."
- "Search for recent papers on 'large language model hallucination' and show citation counts."
- "Do an advanced search for papers about 'protein folding' from 2020 to 2024 with at least 100 citations."Troubleshooting Google Scholar
scholarly raises a bot-detection error or returns empty results
Google Scholar aggressively rate-limits scrapers. Add delays between requests or use a proxy. The scholarly library supports a free proxy mode via scholarly.use_proxy() — see the scholarly docs for setup.
ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'scholarly'
Ensure your virtual environment is activated and requirements.txt has been installed. If running from Claude Desktop, use the full absolute path to the virtual environment's Python binary in the command field.
Author search returns no results for a well-known researcher
Try variations of the name or use the researcher's full name as it appears on their Google Scholar profile. Some profiles use middle initials or differ from common spellings.
Frequently Asked Questions about Google Scholar
What is Google Scholar?
Google Scholar is a Model Context Protocol (MCP) server that enables academic research through google scholar by searching for papers, finding author publications, discovering recent research, and identifying highly cited works through web scraping with natural language queries. It connects AI assistants to external tools and data sources through a standardized interface.
How do I install Google Scholar?
Follow the installation instructions on the Google Scholar GitHub repository. Clone the repo, install dependencies, and add the server config to your AI client.
Which AI clients work with Google Scholar?
Google Scholar works with all major MCP-compatible AI clients including Claude Desktop, Claude Code, Cursor, VS Code (GitHub Copilot), Windsurf, and Cline.
Is Google Scholar free to use?
Yes, Google Scholar is open source and available under the MIT License license. You can use it freely in both personal and commercial projects.
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