Vinkius

OpenAlex MCP. Map the global research landscape with natural conversation.

OpenAlex connects your AI agent directly to a massive, open index of global scholarly research. It lets you search millions of works, authors, institutions, and funding sources using natural conversation. Stop jumping between databases; find metadata on anything from academic papers to university affiliations instantly.

OpenAlex MCP is compatible with Claude Claude
OpenAlex MCP is compatible with ChatGPT ChatGPT
OpenAlex MCP is compatible with Cursor Cursor
OpenAlex MCP is compatible with Gemini Gemini
OpenAlex MCP is compatible with Windsurf Windsurf
OpenAlex MCP is compatible with VS Code VS Code
OpenAlex MCP is compatible with JetBrains JetBrains
OpenAlex MCP is compatible with Vercel Vercel
See Vinkius in Action

Give Claude and any AI agent real-world access

Search and filter academic papers

You can list, search, or filter scholarly works, including articles, books, and datasets based on criteria like author ID, publication year, or topic.

Identify researcher profiles

Retrieve detailed information about any academic author, showing their primary affiliations and overall impact metrics.

Map out institutional connections

List or fetch details on universities and research organizations globally, helping you understand the geographic spread of research.

Trace funding sources

Find single funder profiles or list multiple funders associated with specific research projects.

Explore source details

Get metadata for journals, conferences, and repositories (sources) or discover the core topics driving a field of study.

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AI Agent
OpenAlex

What AI agents can do with OpenAlex: 14 Tools for Academic Research

Use these tools to query the OpenAlex database directly. Search academic papers, profiles, organizations, and more with specific functions.

Make your AI actually useful.

Add this MCP to Claude, Cursor, or Windsurf and your AI stops guessing. It gets real tools to look things up, take action, and handle the stuff you keep doing by hand.

Start using OpenAlex MCP

Get Author

Retrieves all profile data for one specific author using their OpenAlex ID.

Get Funder

Gets the full profile of a single funder organization by its unique OpenAlex ID.

Get Institution

Pulls all available details for one university or research body using its OpenAlex...

Get Publisher

Retrieves the profile information for a single publishing house by its OpenAlex ID.

Get Source

Gets metadata about one specific journal, conference, or repository using its...

Get Topic

Retrieves detailed information for a single defined academic topic area by its OpenAlex ID.

Get Work

Fetches the full metadata record for one scholarly work, such as an article or dataset, using its unique ID.

List Authors

Searches and filters authors by name, affiliation, or other criteria to resolve...

List Funders

Lists, searches, and applies filters across multiple funding organizations.

List Institutions

Provides a searchable directory of academic institutions and research groups...

List Publishers

Searches and filters publishing entities by name or scope.

List Sources

Lists, searches, and filters academic sources like journals or conference proceedings.

List Topics

Provides a searchable list of recognized research topics and subject areas.

List Works

Searches, filters, sorts, and groups large sets of scholarly works (articles, books...

Security and governance baked right in.

Pick your AI client below to get set up. Just create a Vinkius account, subscribe, and you're instantly up and running. We handle the entire backend infrastructure, delivering out-of-the-box support for HTTPS Streamable, SSE, and OAuth2—zero messy routing required.

OpenAlex MCP is compatible with Claude

Claude AI

1

Open Claude Settings

Go to claude.ai, click your profile icon, then navigate to Customize → Connectors.

2

Add Custom Connector

Click the "+" button and select Add custom connector. Paste your Vinkius endpoint URL:

https://edge.vinkius.com/[YOUR_TOKEN_HERE]/mcp

Replace [YOUR_TOKEN_HERE] with your token from cloud.vinkius.com. For OAuth-protected servers, expand Advanced settings to add credentials.

3

Start a conversation

Open a new chat. The OpenAlex integration is available immediately — no restart needed.

Choose How to Get Started

Build a custom MCP for your own tools, or connect a ready-made integration from our catalog.

Build Your Own

Turn any API into an MCP. Import a spec, define Agent Skills, or deploy with MCPFusion.

  • Import from OpenAPI, Swagger, or YAML specs
  • Create Agent Skills with progressive disclosure
  • Deploy to edge with MCPFusion framework
  • Built in DLP, auth, and compliance on each call
  • Real time usage dashboard and cost metering
  • Publish to catalog or keep private
Start building

Make Your AI Do More

Start with OpenAlex, then connect any of our 5,200+ other servers whenever your AI needs more. One click, no limits.

  • Use this MCP plus 5,200+ others, all in one place
  • Add new capabilities to your AI anytime you want
  • Connections are secured and governed automatically
  • Track usage and costs across all your servers
  • Works with Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor, and more
  • New servers added to the catalog weekly
OpenAlex MCP server cover

Independent Platform Disclaimer: Vinkius is an independent platform and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, sponsored by, verified by, or otherwise authorized by OpenAlex. All third-party trademarks, logos, and brand names are the property of their respective owners. Their use on this website is strictly for informational purposes to identify service compatibility and interoperability.

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Cloud Hosted

Managed infra

V8 Isolated

Sandboxed per request

Zero-Trust Proxy

No stored credentials

DLP Enforced

Policy on each call

GDPR Compliant

EU data residency

Token Compression

~60% cost reduction

Your data is protected. See how we built it.

Keeping track of the full history of research sources is a nightmare.

Right now, if you want to know where a key academic paper came from, you have to jump through multiple portals: checking databases for authors, going to university websites for affiliations, and then searching journal sites just to see the source. You copy-paste identifiers dozens of times until you piece together who funded it, which institution published it, and if the data is even complete.

With this MCP, your agent handles all those hops. You tell it what you need—say, 'What sources are key for AI ethics?' The system runs complex queries across list_sources, get_topic, and list_institutions to build a comprehensive picture of the field's intellectual origins.

The OpenAlex MCP delivers complete academic profiles with get_author.

Manual profiling means opening one tab for affiliations, another for citation counts, and a third just to list the works. You lose hours cross-referencing these details, and you might miss key publications from secondary sources.

Using this MCP, your agent pulls everything together automatically. It resolves an author's name into their ID and executes get_author, giving you a single, clean summary of their entire career history without leaving the chat.

What OpenAlex MCP does for your AI

Need to map out the full landscape of a specific scientific field? OpenAlex gives your AI agent access to an open index of global research data, tracking everything published across academia. You can ask for works related to a topic and get back structured metadata, or you can identify key researchers by name and pull their entire academic profile, including all major affiliations.

This MCP lets you explore the connections between institutions, the people who work there, and the money that funds it. Whether you're tracking citation trends across different disciplines or just verifying an author's credentials, your agent handles the heavy lifting. Connect this MCP through Vinkius to give any compatible client access to this deep knowledge base.

Built · Hosted · Managed by Vinkius OpenAlex MCP - Search Global Scholarly Works
Server ID 019e38cd-4711-72f7-999e-65c2fd419828
Vinkius Inspector
Compliance Grade A+
Score 100/100
Vinkius Inspector Badge — Score 100/100

Frequently asked questions about OpenAlex MCP

How do I use OpenAlex MCP to find works by a specific university? +

You can list institutions first using list_institutions to get the ID for that university. Then, run list_works and filter results by including that institution's ID in your search query.

Can OpenAlex MCP help me track funding sources? +

Yes. You can use list_funders to search for organizations or get details on a specific funder using get_funder. This helps you map the financial support behind academic research.

What's the difference between list_works and get_work in OpenAlex MCP? +

list_works is for searching large sets of papers based on criteria like year or topic. get_work requires you to already have a specific work ID and retrieves its full metadata record.

Does the OpenAlex MCP support filtering by publication date? +

Yes, list_works supports advanced filtering, including setting minimum (:>) or maximum (:<) years for the publication year. This is critical for tracking research trends over time.

Do I need to know the OpenAlex ID to use get_author? +

While it's most accurate, you can first use list_authors to search by name or affiliation and retrieve the necessary author ID before running get_author.