OpenAlex Institution Data — MCP Server for AI Agents

Access 120,000+ research institution profiles with h-index, citation metrics, research areas, and comparative analysis via OpenAlex — no API keys required.

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1. Purpose Statement

Institution Intelligence MCP is an MCP (Model Context Protocol) server that gives AI agents direct access to 120,000+ research institutions across OpenAlex — universities, government research agencies, hospitals, and corporate R&D labs. AI agents performing VC due diligence, academic benchmarking, talent sourcing, or institutional research query institution profiles, h-index metrics, research areas, and comparative analysis without requiring API keys.

Built for: AI agents doing VC due diligence on university technology transfer, academic librarians benchmarking institutions, recruiters sourcing talent from top research universities, corporate development scouting research partnerships, and institutional researchers building comparative reports.

This MCP server connects to OpenAlex, the most comprehensive open database of scholarly metadata, covering 26 million works and 120,000+ institutions worldwide. Every call returns structured institutional intelligence — h-index rankings, research output by field, citation counts, and sector comparisons — in seconds rather than hours of manual research.

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Features

• 120,000+ research institutions — universities, government labs, hospitals, corporate R&D
• H-index metrics — publication impact scores per institution from OpenAlex
• ROR lookup — standardized Research Organization Registry identifiers
• I10-index and citation counts — publication counts, citations, mean citedness
• Institutional comparisons — side-by-side analysis of 2-5 institutions
• Research area mapping — top fields per institution with field scores
• Sector analysis — aggregated metrics by country or institutional type
• No API keys required — OpenAlex is fully open access
• Structured JSON output — ready for AI agent consumption

Quick Start

Add to your MCP client:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "institution-intelligence-mcp": {
      "url": "https://red-cars--institution-intelligence-mcp.apify.actor/mcp"
    }
  }
}

AI agents can now search 120,000+ research institutions, retrieve h-index and citation metrics, compare institutional research output, map research areas by institution, and analyze research output by country or sector.

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Comparison

See how Institution Intelligence MCP compares to manual research and commercial platforms: ./COMPARISON.md

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Input

Parameter	Type	Description
query	string	Institution name to search (e.g., "Stanford University")
country	string	Filter by country code (e.g., "US", "GB", "DE")
maxResults	number	Maximum results to return (default: 10)
sortBy	string	Sort field: "h_index", "works_count", "cited_by_count"
institutionId	string	ROR ID (e.g., "https://ror.org/00f54p054")
institutions	array	List of institution names for comparison
metrics	array	Metrics to compare: works_count, cited_by_count, h_index
maxAreas	number	Maximum research areas to return

Tools

search_institutions

Search research institutions by name, country, or type. Returns institutions ranked by research output with h-index, works count, and citation metrics.

search_institutions(query="Stanford University", country="US", maxResults=10, sortBy="h_index")

get_institution_details

Get detailed metrics for a specific institution by ROR ID or exact name match. Returns full research profile with h-index, i10-index, citation metrics, and research areas.

get_institution_details(institutionId="https://ror.org/00f54p054")

compare_institutions

Compare 2-5 institutions side-by-side: works count, citations, h-index, i10-index, top research areas, and publication output with relative rankings.

compare_institutions(institutions=["Harvard University", "Stanford University", "MIT"], metrics=["works_count", "cited_by_count", "h_index"])

get_institution_research_areas

Get top research areas/concepts for an institution, with publication counts and field scores per area.

get_institution_research_areas(institutionId="https://ror.org/00f54p054", maxAreas=15)

analyze_research_output

Analyze research output by country, sector, or research area. Returns aggregated metrics for the given filter.

analyze_research_output(country="US", sector="education", maxResults=25)

Output

All tools return structured JSON with the following top-level fields:

Field	Type	Description
success	boolean	Whether the request succeeded
data	object	The requested institutional data
meta	object	Query metadata, pagination info

Pricing

Tool	Price
search_institutions	$0.03
get_institution_details	$0.02
compare_institutions	$0.05
get_institution_research_areas	$0.03
analyze_research_output	$0.05

All prices in USD per tool call. No API keys required — OpenAlex is fully open.

Troubleshooting

No results for institution search

• Check spelling or try a shorter query (e.g., "Stanford" instead of "Stanford University")
• Use the country filter to narrow results to a specific region
• Try removing special characters or punctuation from the query

Missing h-index for an institution

• Not all institutions have h-index data in OpenAlex — smaller institutions may lack citation metrics
• Use analyze_research_output for sector-level data when institution-level is unavailable

compare_institutions returns fewer results than expected

• Ensure institution names are exact matches from OpenAlex's database
• Some institutions may be merged or renamed — use ROR IDs where possible for more reliable results

Slow response times

• OpenAlex rate limiting may apply for very large queries
• Reduce maxResults or maxAreas parameters to speed up responses
• For production use, consider caching frequently-accessed institution data

"Institution not found" errors

• Verify the ROR ID format is correct (e.g., "https://ror.org/00f54p054")
• Some institutions are categorized as "company" rather than "education" — adjust sector filter

Setup

1. Clone or download this actor
2. Run: npm install
3. Start: npm start
4. Add to your MCP client using the URL above

No API keys required. OpenAlex's public API is freely accessible.

Comparison

See how Institution Intelligence MCP compares to manual research and commercial platforms: ./COMPARISON.md