paper-search-mcp and scholar-mcp
These are **competitors** — both provide overlapping core functionality (academic paper search and download from similar sources like arXiv), though B adds supplementary features like citation graph analysis and AI-based recommendations that A lacks.
About paper-search-mcp
openags/paper-search-mcp
A MCP for searching and downloading academic papers from multiple sources like arXiv, PubMed, bioRxiv, etc.
Implements a two-layer architecture with unified high-level tools (`search_papers`, `download_with_fallback`) that coordinate concurrent searches across 20+ academic platforms while deduplicating results, backed by modular platform-specific connectors using intelligent DOI extraction. Follows a free-first design philosophy prioritizing open metadata sources (Crossref, OpenAlex, dblp) and full-text repositories (arXiv, PMC, CORE, OpenAIRE) with optional API keys for rate-limit improvement, and chains fallback strategies for PDF retrieval across multiple OA sources before optional Sci-Hub access. Integrates as an MCP server compatible with LLM clients like Claude Desktop via the MCP Python SDK.
About scholar-mcp
45645678a/scholar-mcp
Local paper tool MCP server for AI IDEs - search, download (Sci-Hub/arXiv/Unpaywall), AI analysis, code-based recommendation, citation graph
Related comparisons
Scores updated daily from GitHub, PyPI, and npm data. How scores work