# Unpaywall MCP Server

> Use this tool when you need to access scholarly literature for research and analysis tasks, as it enables searching, fetching metadata, and retrieving open access PDF links for academic papers. It solves problems of limited access to research papers by providing a seamless interface to the Unpaywall API. It takes DOIs or search queries as input and returns metadata, PDF links, and full text extracts as output.

Canonical page: https://skillsregistry.net/skills/elliotpadfield-unpaywall-mcp  
JSON: https://api.skillsregistry.net/v1/skills/elliotpadfield-unpaywall-mcp

## Description

Enables AI clients to search for academic papers, fetch metadata by DOI, retrieve open access PDF links, and extract full text from research papers using the Unpaywall API. Provides seamless access to scholarly literature for research and analysis tasks.

## Trust

- **Trust score (0–1):** 0.69
- **Verification tier:** scanned
- **Last scanned:** 2026-09-02

## Facts

- **Version:** 1.0.0
- **Skill type:** atomic
- **Execution layer:** mcp-remote
- **Runtime environment:** api
- **Category:** productivity
- **Updated:** 2026-09-02

## Source

- **Source listing:** [Glama](https://glama.ai/mcp/servers/p1j2zcgmb1)
- **Repository:** <https://github.com/ElliotPadfield/unpaywall-mcp>

## Use it

Resolve this record through the SkillsRegistry MCP server (no auth, read-only):

```
claude mcp add --transport http --scope user skillsregistry https://api.skillsregistry.net/mcp
```

```json
{
  "jsonrpc": "2.0",
  "id": 1,
  "method": "tools/call",
  "params": {
    "name": "get_skill",
    "arguments": {
      "slug": "elliotpadfield-unpaywall-mcp"
    }
  }
}
```

REST: `GET https://api.skillsregistry.net/v1/skills/elliotpadfield-unpaywall-mcp` · pull for local use: `GET https://api.skillsregistry.net/v1/skills/elliotpadfield-unpaywall-mcp/pull`

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SkillsRegistry indexes agent skills from public registries and GitHub. Skills we have analysed are scanned with Circle-IR and scored on six dimensions; each listing states its scan coverage. More: https://skillsregistry.net/llms.txt