Unpaywall

io.github.SMABoundlessPublished by GitHub account SMABoundlessv1.0.1Updated Oct 24, 2026

Open-access availability for 120M+ scholarly articles via the Unpaywall API

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Server details

Identifier: io.github.SMABoundless/unpaywall
Transport: STDIO
Runtime: Desktop only
Trust: Verified
Published: Sep 16, 2026

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Overview

AI-generated overview

A local MCP server that queries the Unpaywall API so an assistant can check open-access availability for scholarly articles by DOI or title.

What you can do: Look up open-access status, OA type, license and all OA locations for a DOI, including the best PDF link and landing page URLs, plus journal, ISSN, publisher, author and date details from the response data shown in the README examples and field list (the README lists these as returned fields).
When to use it: Useful when you need to find free, legally available versions of paywalled papers, check whether a journal or article is open access, or build a reference list of OA articles for research.
Requirements: Runs locally as a Python package (unpaywall-mcp-server) launched with uvx or pip; requires the UNPAYWALL_EMAIL environment variable set to your email address as the API identifier; no API key needed; network access to the Unpaywall API.

Before you install

Sends your email address to the Unpaywall API as an identifier; the server only reads public metadata and does not modify data; results depend on Unpaywall's coverage and may not reflect the latest availability.

Installation

In SourceWeft

Open Unpaywall in the dashboard and add it to a workspace.
Enable the server for the chats that should use its tools.

Desktop only via STDIO. STDIO servers start a local process, so they need the SourceWeft desktop host.

Other MCP clients

Follow the launch instructions in the repository.

README

Unpaywall MCP Server

An MCP (Model Context Protocol) server for the Unpaywall API — open-access availability for 120M+ scholarly articles.

Built with FastMCP.

Tools

Tool	Description
`unpaywall_lookup`	Look up open-access availability by DOI — returns OA status, PDF/landing page URLs, license, all OA locations
`unpaywall_search`	Search 120M+ article titles with OA filtering and pagination
`unpaywall_export_ris`	Export results as RIS (for Zotero, EndNote, etc.)
`unpaywall_export_bibtex`	Export results as BibTeX

What you get

Open-access status and OA type (gold, green, hybrid, bronze)
Best OA location with direct PDF link
All OA locations across repositories and publishers
Journal OA status, ISSN, publisher info
Author lists, publication dates, DOIs
License information per location

Setup

1. Get your email ready

Unpaywall requires an email address as your API identifier (no API key needed). See the Unpaywall API docs.

2. Install

Or install from source:

bash

cd unpaywall-mcp-serverpython3 -m venv venvsource venv/bin/activatepip install -r requirements.txt

cd unpaywall-mcp-serverpython3 -m venv venvsource venv/bin/activatepip install -r requirements.txt

3. Add to Claude Desktop

Add this to your claude_desktop_config.json:

json

{  "mcpServers": {    "unpaywall": {      "command": "uvx",      "args": ["unpaywall-mcp-server"],      "env": {        "UNPAYWALL_EMAIL": "[email protected]"      }    }  }}

{  "mcpServers": {    "unpaywall": {      "command": "uvx",      "args": ["unpaywall-mcp-server"],      "env": {        "UNPAYWALL_EMAIL": "[email protected]"      }    }  }}

Or if using Claude Code CLI:

Usage examples

"Is there an open-access version of DOI 10.1038/nature12373?"
"Search Unpaywall for open-access papers on CRISPR gene editing"
"Export these results as RIS for Zotero"
"Find OA articles about climate change mitigation"

License

MIT

Source: README.md at commit aae46a9

Tools

SourceWeft has not started this package in its sandbox yet, so its tools are not known.

Version history

v1.0.1LatestSep 16, 2026

Score

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