openalex-research

The OpenAlex MCP Server provides access to a comprehensive OpenAlex catalog and a suite of 31 specialized tools for literature search, author and institution analysis, citation analysis, venue quality checks, and research landscape insights. It is designed to help AI assistants perform literature reviews, identify high-value sources, map collaboration networks, and track research trends. The server exposes modular tools such as search_works, get_work, get_related_works, search_by_topic, autocomplete_search, and more, including preset journal and institution groups to constrain queries to credible venues. Typical workflows include performing advanced literature discovery, evaluating venues and authors, and constructing citation networks for visualization. You can also query for top venues, trending topics, geographic distributions, and semantic connections among works and authors. Each tool is designed to return structured metadata suitable for downstream analysis in AI agents or dashboards.

Prerequisites:

• Node.js and npm installed on your machine (Node 14+ recommended)
• Git (optional but recommended for cloning)

Option A: Install from npm (recommended for quick start)

1. Install globally:

npm install -g openalex-research-mcp

2. Run using npx (no global install needed):

npx openalex-research-mcp

Option B: Install from source

1. Clone the repository:

git clone https://github.com/oksure/openalex-research-mcp.git
cd openalex-research-mcp

2. Install dependencies:

npm install

3. Build the TypeScript code (if applicable):

npm run build

4. Start the server (example if you have a start script):

npm run start

Configuration (optional):

• Set environment variables for rate limits and API keys as described in the README, such as OPENALEX_EMAIL and OPENALEX_API_KEY. You can export them in your shell before starting the server:

export OPENALEX_EMAIL="your.email@example.com"
export OPENALEX_API_KEY="your-api-key"

Tips and notes:

• The server includes in-memory caching with TTL and retry logic with exponential backoff to improve reliability for OpenAlex requests.
• Use the health check tool to monitor server status and responsiveness.
• Many presets are available for journals and institutions; use list_journal_presets to discover them and search_in_journal_list to constrain results.
• When using environment-based configuration, ensure OPENALEX_EMAIL is set to a valid email to benefit from improved OpenAlex rate limits. If you have a premium OPENALEX_API_KEY, set it as well.
• If running behind proxies or firewalls, ensure network access to OpenAlex endpoints is permitted. For long-running deployments, consider configuring TTL and retry parameters to balance freshness and resilience.