Google Scholar MCP server

Registry name: io.github.johnisanerd/google-scholar. Maintained by AlphaOSINT (Apify developer johnvc, GitHub johnisanerd).

What it does

Search papers, get citation formats (MLA, APA, Chicago, BibTeX), author profiles with h-index and i10-index, an author’s publications, per-article citation history and co-author networks.

Academic literature and citation data in one server with six modes. Use it for research assistants, literature reviews and citation lookups.

Paid service on Apify’s hosted endpoint

This server is not self-hosted. It runs on Apify’s hosted MCP endpoint (mcp.apify.com), which starts the Apify Actor johnvc/google-scholar-api for each tool call. You need an Apify account, and every call is billed to that account at the Actor’s prices below. Apify’s own pricing and terms apply to the account.

Prices shown are Apify’s free-plan rates; paid Apify plans get lower per-event prices. Apify also bills a token amount per run start and per stored row ($0.00001, $0.00001). Prices change from time to time; the Actor’s page on Apify shows the current ones.

Data source and terms

Google Scholar public pages, collected by scraping. The server returns the data as published at the time of the call. You are responsible for using it in line with the source’s terms and the laws that apply to you. AlphaOSINT is not affiliated with the source.

Endpoint

• Transport: Streamable HTTP
• URL: https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=johnvc/google-scholar-api
• Auth: Apify OAuth, or Authorization: Bearer <APIFY_TOKEN>

Setup

Claude Code

claude mcp add --transport http google-scholar "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=johnvc/google-scholar-api"

VS Code (.vscode/mcp.json)

{
  "servers": {
    "google-scholar": {
      "type": "http",
      "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=johnvc/google-scholar-api"
    }
  }
}

Cursor (~/.cursor/mcp.json)

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "google-scholar": {
      "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=johnvc/google-scholar-api"
    }
  }
}

Claude Desktop (Settings → Connectors → Add custom connector, paste the URL). Older versions without remote connectors can bridge through mcp-remote in claude_desktop_config.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "google-scholar": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "mcp-remote",
        "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=johnvc/google-scholar-api"
      ]
    }
  }
}

Each client opens an Apify sign-in (OAuth) on first use. To use a token instead, send Authorization: Bearer <APIFY_TOKEN> as a header; create one under Apify Console → Settings → API & Integrations.

Tools

Apify’s endpoint adds the four helper tools automatically whenever an Actor tool is loaded.

Parameters of johnvc--google-scholar-api

Example arguments:

{
  "helloWorld": 123
}

Output

The tool returns JSON rows with these fields.

16 more fields are listed in the Actor’s dataset schema on Apify.

Links

• Actor on Apify: johnvc/google-scholar-api
• Data source page on AlphaOSINT: /sources/google-scholar/
• All AlphaOSINT MCP servers: /mcp/