Content
# Google Scholar MCP Server
> Search Google Scholar for academic papers, citations, and author profiles.
This is a remote MCP server that lets Claude, Cursor, ChatGPT, or any MCP client query Google Scholar directly as a tool call. Review the documentation [here](https://apify.com/johnvc/google-scholar-api?fpr=9n7kx3).
## Login
You'll need an Apify API token to login. A free Apify account works. Get yours at [console.apify.com/account#/integrations](https://console.apify.com/account#/integrations?fpr=9n7kx3).
## Install in Claude Desktop
Claude Desktop currently requires a stdio bridge for remote MCP servers. Add this to your `~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json`:
```json
{
"mcpServers": {
"google-scholar": {
"command": "npx",
"args": [
"mcp-remote",
"https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=johnvc/google-scholar-api",
"--header",
"Authorization: Bearer <YOUR_APIFY_TOKEN>"
]
}
}
}
```
Replace `<YOUR_APIFY_TOKEN>` with your token. Restart Claude Desktop.
## Install in Cursor
Cursor supports remote MCP servers natively. Two ways to connect:
### Option A: OAuth (recommended, no token needed)
Add this to your `.cursor/mcp.json`:
```json
{
"mcpServers": {
"google-scholar": {
"url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=johnvc/google-scholar-api"
}
}
}
```
The first connection opens a browser to sign in to Apify.
### Option B: Bearer token
```json
{
"mcpServers": {
"google-scholar": {
"url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=johnvc/google-scholar-api",
"headers": {
"Authorization": "Bearer <YOUR_APIFY_TOKEN>"
}
}
}
}
```
## What it does
This MCP server lets Claude search Google Scholar for academic papers, retrieve citation counts, fetch author profiles, and pull abstracts. Useful for literature reviews, citation tracking, prior-art research, and "what's been written about X?" queries. Returns structured JSON with paper title, authors, citation count, abstract, PDF link, and publication year.
Example queries to try in Claude:
- "Find the 10 most-cited papers on transformer architecture published since 2023"
- "Get the author profile and h-index for Yoshua Bengio"
- "Search Google Scholar for recent papers on RAG retrieval performance"
## Built by
[johnvc on Apify](https://apify.com/johnvc?fpr=9n7kx3) | [Sign up for a free Apify account](https://apify.com/?fpr=9n7kx3).
## License
MIT
