mlava/scholar-sidekick-mcp

Overview

An MCP server that resolves scholarly identifiers (DOI, PMID, PMCID, ISBN, arXiv, ISSN, ADS, WHO IRIS) into formatted citations. It supports single or batch conversion to over 10,000 CSL styles or nine export formats.

Best for

Best for
Researchers and developers who need to automate citation formatting in MCP-compatible tools

Use cases

• Convert a batch of DOIs to APA or MLA citations for a reference list
• Resolve an arXiv ID to a BibTeX entry for a LaTeX paper
• Format a PMID into a Vancouver-style citation for a medical manuscript

How to use

Install

npx skills add mlava/scholar-sidekick-mcp

Tools exposed

• SCHOLAR_API_KEY
• RAPIDAPI_KEY
• RAPIDAPI_HOST
• SCHOLAR_SIDEKICK_URL
• SCHOLAR_SIDEKICK_TIMEOUT_MS

Tested with

Claude Desktop, Claude Code, Cursor, Windsurf, Cline, VS Code, ChatGPT

Example client config

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

Notes

An MCP server that resolves scholarly identifiers (DOI, PMID, PMCID, ISBN, arXiv, ISSN, ADS, WHO IRIS) into formatted citations. It supports single or batch conversion to over 10,000 CSL styles or nine export formats.

3 stars on GitHub. Last updated 2026-05-25. Licensed MIT.

Use cases

• Convert a batch of DOIs to APA or MLA citations for a reference list
• Resolve an arXiv ID to a BibTeX entry for a LaTeX paper
• Format a PMID into a Vancouver-style citation for a medical manuscript

Pros

• Supports a wide range of scholarly identifiers and export formats
• Batch processing saves time on large reference lists
• Integrates directly into MCP-compatible editors and workflows

Cons

• Requires an MCP client to use, limiting standalone utility
• Low GitHub star count suggests limited community adoption
• No offline mode; depends on network access to resolution services

Indexed from awesome-mcp-servers-punkpeye and enriched against its public facts.