Academic Research MCP

A Model Context Protocol server that lets AI agents search academic literature — arXiv preprints and OpenAlex/Crossref (an open alternative to Google Scholar — Google Scholar itself is not queried) — as callable tools. For research assistants and literature-review agents.

📊 Sample Output

status	message	how_to_connect	apify_url	transport	tools
MCP Server Running	This is an MCP server, not a scraper. It does not produce results whe…	Connect from an MCP-compatible AI client (Claude Desktop, Cursor, Win…	https://apify.com/nexgendata/academic-research-mcp-server	streamable-http	['search_arxiv', 'search_google_scholar']

Real rows from run B0wMSmZ2C7Yb4HI3x on build 0.0.22 (2026-09-04), unedited apart from masked emails/phones and shortened long text; fields the source does not publish are empty.

🔧 Input reference

Field	Type	Default	What it does
enableServer (required)	boolean	true	Enable MCP server mode
port	integer	5000	Port for MCP server

🧾 JSON sample record

One real record from run B0wMSmZ2C7Yb4HI3x (emails/phones masked, long text shortened):

{
  "status": "MCP Server Running",
  "message": "This is an MCP server, not a scraper. It does not produce results when run directly.",
  "how_to_connect": "Connect from an MCP-compatible AI client (Claude Desktop, Cursor, Windsurf, etc.)",
  "server_url": "https://nexgendata--academic-research-mcp-server.apify.actor/mcp",
  "apify_url": "https://apify.com/nexgendata/academic-research-mcp-server",
  "documentation": "See the README for setup instructions and example configurations.",
  "transport": "streamable-http",
  "endpoint": "/mcp",
  "tools": [
    "search_arxiv",
    "search_google_scholar"
  ]
}

💰 Pricing

Event	Price (USD)	When it is charged
Actor Start (apify-actor-start)	$5e-05	Charged when the Actor starts running. Number of events charged depends on Actor memory (one event per GB, minimum one event).
Tool call (tool-call)	$0.02	Per-tool invocation via MCP Standby

Pay-per-event: you pay only for what the run delivers. A run that delivers nothing bills no result events (only the actor-start event, when the actor defines one). Example: a run that delivers 100 results costs 100 × $0.02 = $2.00 plus the start fee.

🔗 Related Actors

More from the NexGenData MCP servers for AI agents family:

• Automotive MCP — Car Search & Market Data for AI Agents
• Banking & Financial Stability MCP — for AI Agents
• China A-Share Market MCP — Screener & Filings for AI Agents

32 more in this family on the NexGenData Store page.

🛠 Tools (2)

• search_arxiv — Search arXiv preprints by query.
• search_google_scholar — Search OpenAlex (~250M works, Crossref fallback) for papers, citation counts and DOIs. The tool keeps its name for client compatibility; it does not read Google Scholar.

🔌 Connect (Claude Desktop / Cursor / n8n / OpenAI Agents SDK)

Add this MCP server to your client config:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "academic-research": {
      "url": "https://nexgendata--academic-research-mcp-server.apify.actor/mcp"
    }
  }
}

Sample agent prompt:

Find the five most-cited 2024 arXiv papers on retrieval-augmented generation.

Pricing: $0.02 per tool call (Pay-Per-Event). Runs in Standby mode.

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Related NexGenData Actors

Use case	Actor
Underlying arXiv scraper	arxiv-scraper
Underlying paper search	OpenAlex API + Crossref API (keyless), same engine as Academic Paper Search
News MCP server	news-mcp-server
Web-scraping MCP server	web-scraping-mcp-server
26-server gateway	enterprise-mcp-gateway

FAQ

What tools does this server expose? Two: search_arxiv and search_google_scholar. Nothing else.

Which sources does it cover? arXiv and OpenAlex/Crossref.

Is the schema stable for AI agents? Yes — each tool returns a stable JSON shape your prompt can rely on.

Auth? Apify token only.

Cost? Pay-per-event — you only pay for the tool calls your agent actually makes.

About NexGenData

NexGenData publishes a large catalog of data and buyer-intent actors, all pay-per-result. Browse the full catalog at https://apify.com/nexgendata

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How NexGenData Pricing Works

Every NexGenData actor uses pay-per-event pricing — you only pay for results that actually land in your dataset. No monthly minimum, no seat fees, no surprise overage bills.

• Actor Start: a single-event charge each time you spin the actor up (scaled to memory size)
• Result / tool call: charged per MCP tool call
• No charge for retries, internal proxy rotation, or failed sub-requests — those are absorbed by the platform

Apify Platform Bonus

New to Apify? Sign up with the NexGenData referral link — you get free platform credits on signup and help fund the maintenance of this actor fleet.

Integration Surface

Every actor in the NexGenData catalog can be triggered from:

• Apify console — point-and-click run
• Apify API — REST + webhooks
• Apify Python / JS SDKs — programmatic batch
• Zapier, Make.com, n8n — official integrations
• MCP — exposed as MCP tools for Claude / ChatGPT / Cursor agents
• Schedules — built-in cron for daily / weekly / monthly runs
• Webhooks — POST results to any HTTPS endpoint on dataset write

Support

NexGenData maintains a large catalog of Apify actors and ships updates regularly. Bug reports via the Apify console issues tab get a response within 24 hours.

Home: thenextgennexus.com Full catalog: apify.com/nexgendata