ReferenceMCP

Academic Reference Manager MCP server for Claude Desktop. Search papers, manage references, and format citations in 10,000+ styles.

Features

• Search across Crossref, Semantic Scholar, OpenAlex, and PubMed
• Save references to a local SQLite database
• Organize with collections and tags
• Format citations in APA, MLA, Chicago, IEEE, Harvard, and thousands more CSL styles
• Export to BibTeX, RIS, or CSL-JSON

Installation

Using uv (Recommended)

git clone https://github.com/eduardofarina/ReferenceMCP.git
cd ReferenceMCP
uv sync

Using conda

conda env create -f environment.yml
conda activate reference-mcp
pip install -e .

Configuration

1. Copy .env.example to .env:

   cp .env.example .env
   

2. Edit .env with your settings (all optional but recommended):

   CONTACT_EMAIL=your@email.com
   

3. Add the server to your MCP client config.

   Claude Desktop (%APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json on Windows):

   {
     "mcpServers": {
       "reference-mcp": {
         "command": "uv",
         "args": [
           "--directory",
           "<path-to-ReferenceMCP>",
           "run",
           "server.py"
         ]
       }
     }
   }
   

   Replace <path-to-ReferenceMCP> with the full path to your clone (e.g. C:\Users\You\ReferenceMCP on Windows or /home/you/ReferenceMCP on Linux/macOS).

   Cursor (.cursor/mcp.json): use the same command and args, with your project path in --directory.

Available Tools

Search Tools

Tool	Description
search_papers	Search across sources by query
search_by_doi	Look up a paper by DOI
get_paper_details	Get full metadata for a saved reference
get_citations	Get papers that cite a given paper
get_references	Get papers cited by a given paper

Library Management

Tool	Description
save_reference	Save a paper by DOI
list_references	List saved references
delete_reference	Remove a reference
create_collection	Create a collection
add_to_collection	Add reference to collection
tag_reference	Add tags to a reference
list_collections	List all collections
list_tags	List all tags

Citation Formatting

Tool	Description
format_citation	Format a reference in a style
format_bibliography	Format multiple references
list_styles	List available styles
set_default_style	Set default citation style

Export

Tool	Description
export_bibtex	Export as BibTeX
export_ris	Export as RIS
export_csl_json	Export as CSL-JSON

Example Usage

User: "Find papers about transformer architectures and save the top result"

Claude:

1. Searches with search_papers(query="transformer architectures")
2. Saves with save_reference(doi="10.48550/arXiv.1706.03762")

User: "Format my saved papers as an APA bibliography"

Claude:

1. Lists with list_references()
2. Formats with format_bibliography(reference_ids=[1,2,3], style="apa")

Testing

Test with MCP Inspector:

uv run mcp dev server.py

Citation Styles

Popular styles included:

• APA (7th Edition)
• MLA (9th Edition)
• Chicago (Author-Date & Notes-Bibliography)
• IEEE
• Harvard
• Vancouver
• Nature, Science, Cell
• And 10,000+ more from the CSL repository

Data Storage

References are stored in data/references.db (SQLite). Citation styles are cached in styles/.

License

MIT