# Stanford CrossRef MCP > Stanford CrossRef MCP connects your AI agent to global academic metadata. It lets you resolve Digital Object Identifiers (DOIs) and retrieve full publication details, citation counts, and funding information for millions of scholarly works. Use this MCP to quickly assess research impact, track institutional output, or build comprehensive bibliographies without leaving your chat window. ## Overview - **Category:** education - **Price:** Free - **Tags:** crossref, doi, metadata, journals, publishers, funders, orcid, bibliography ## Description This MCP gives your AI client access to the core infrastructure of academic publishing. Instead of visiting journal websites or using multiple databases, you connect once through Vinkius and gain immediate access to millions of scholarly records. You can resolve any DOI into complete bibliographic metadata, instantly identifying authors, journals, and publication dates. Need to know how influential a paper is? You can retrieve citation counts directly. Want to track where the money comes from? The MCP finds works funded by specific organizations like the NIH or NSF. It also lets you search for publications based on institutional affiliations or even find preprints before they hit a journal. This capability fundamentally changes research analysis, allowing your agent to build complex bibliographies and evaluate entire fields of study using structured data. ## Tools ### get_citations_count Quickly determines how many other academic works have cited a specific DOI, helping assess its influence. ### get_funder_works Retrieves all published articles linked to a specified funding organization ID, mapping research output back to the source of money. ### get_journal Pulls comprehensive metrics on an academic journal by its ISSN, including total article count and quality flags. ### get_journal_works Finds articles published within a specific journal, optionally allowing filtering by text search queries. ### get_publisher Gathers key metrics on an academic publisher, showing their total output count and metadata coverage score. ### get_reference_list Extracts the complete bibliography or list of cited references from a given DOI, including authors and titles. ### resolve_doi The primary tool that takes any DOI and returns all structured bibliographic information for that work. ### search_by_affiliation Locates academic works by searching using institutional names like 'MIT' or 'Stanford University'. ### search_by_orcid Finds a researcher’s entire publication history across all journals using their unique ORCID ID. ### search_funders Lists and searches for major global funding organizations, such as the National Institutes of Health (NIH). ### search_journals Searches for academic journals by title or ISSN to gather metrics and identify journal identifiers. ### search_preprints Finds early versions of research papers (preprints) registered across major preprint servers like bioRxiv. ### search_publishers Lists and searches for academic publishers, providing their DOI prefixes and total body of work counts. ### search_recent_works Monitors the stream of newly registered DOIs to keep track of the very latest publications across all domains. ### search_works Searches through 150M+ academic works using advanced filters, sorting, and text queries. ### validate_doi Confirms whether a DOI is active and registered in the system, providing basic metadata if it's valid. ## Prompt Examples **Prompt:** ``` Resolve DOI 10.1038/s41586-021-03819-2 ``` **Response:** ``` I've resolved this DOI via CrossRef. It is: "Highly accurate protein structure prediction with AlphaFold" by Jumper et al., published in Nature (2021). It has been cited over 15,000 times. ``` **Prompt:** ``` Find works funded by the National Institutes of Health on gene therapy ``` **Response:** ``` I've searched for NIH-funded works on gene therapy via CrossRef. Results include recent publications in Nature Medicine, Science, and Cell acknowledging NIH grants. ``` **Prompt:** ``` Look up all publications by ORCID 0000-0002-8350-519X ``` **Response:** ``` I've retrieved all DOI-registered works for this ORCID via CrossRef, showing titles, journals, publication dates, and citation counts for each. ``` ## Capabilities ### Resolving Full Paper Metadata Provide any DOI and receive immediate details including the title, authors, journal name, publication date, and subject areas. ### Assessing Research Influence Determine how often a paper has been cited by other researchers or how many sources it cites itself. ### Mapping Funding Sources Search and retrieve lists of academic works tied to specific funding organizations, like the National Science Foundation. ### Discovering Publication Details Look up journals or publishers by ISSN or name to check their quality metrics, total output count, and coverage. ### Finding Works by People or Institutions Search for publications using a researcher's universal ORCID identifier or an institution's name like Harvard University. ## Use Cases ### Writing a Literature Review on Gene Therapy A researcher needs to know all high-impact papers funded by the NIH. Instead of running multiple database queries, they ask their agent to use `get_funder_works` with the correct funder ID and then run `resolve_doi` on the resulting list to get full titles, saving hours. ### Evaluating a Journal for Publication A librarian needs to recommend a new journal. They ask the agent to use `search_journals`, which returns not just the title and ISSN, but also total DOI counts and quality metrics needed to make an informed recommendation. ### Attributing Work to a Specific Lab A research administrator needs to confirm all publications by a specific professor. They use `search_by_orcid` with the person's unique identifier, getting a complete and verifiable publication list across multiple journals. ## Benefits - You instantly assess a paper's influence by running `get_citations_count` on its DOI, seeing immediately how many other researchers have used it. This is much faster than manual database checks. - Map the financial backbone of research using `get_funder_works`. Instead of guessing funding sources, you can pull structured data showing which grants funded a specific body of work. - Build robust bibliographies effortlessly. Use `get_reference_list` to extract every source cited in a paper; it's perfect for literature reviews and deep dives into academic foundations. - Evaluate the quality of journals or publishers using `search_journals` or `get_publisher`. You get metrics like metadata coverage percentages, helping you select reliable sources quickly. - Track researcher output efficiently. If you know an ORCID ID, use `search_by_orcid` to pull every single publication associated with that person's career record. ## How It Works The bottom line is: your agent treats the entire academic publishing record like a searchable database accessible via conversation. 1. Give your agent a query, such as 'Find the citation count for DOI X' or 'List all works by NIH'. 2. The MCP sends that request to CrossRef and pulls structured data (titles, dates, counts) from their massive index. 3. Your AI client receives clean, actionable metadata that it can then summarize, format, and present back to you. ## Frequently Asked Questions **How can I find all papers by a specific professor using Stanford CrossRef MCP?** You use `search_by_orcid`. Providing the researcher's ORCID ID allows the MCP to pull every piece of published work linked to that unique identifier, regardless of which journal printed it. **Does Stanford CrossRef MCP include preprints from non-academic sources?** No. However, you can use `search_preprints` to find DOIs registered with major preprint servers (like bioRxiv). This ensures you capture cutting-edge research before it enters formal journals. **What is the difference between searching by ISSN and using get_journal?** Searching by `search_journals` helps you *find* the journal's metrics (like total output). Using `get_journal` then retrieves those specific, detailed quality flags and coverage percentages for a known ISSN. **Can I use Stanford CrossRef MCP to check if a DOI is real?** Yes. Running `validate_doi` checks the system's registry. It tells you immediately if the identifier exists, and provides basic metadata if it passes validation.