Strato Scopus MCP

MCP server that connects Scopus to AI assistants for literature discovery. Tools are built around research workflows, not raw API endpoints. Works with Claude, Gemini CLI, OpenAI Codex, and any MCP-compatible client.

What it does

Find papers on a topic

explore_topic searches Scopus, sorts by citations, and returns titles, authors, journals, and abstract snippets.

"Find recent papers on transformer models for protein folding"

Find who's working on a topic

find_experts_in scans recent high-impact papers and returns ranked author profiles with affiliations and citation metrics.

"Who are the key researchers in single-cell RNA sequencing?"

Trace how an idea evolved

get_citation_network returns forward citations sorted by impact and flags highly cited follow-ups.

"What papers cite this one?"

Check against your Zotero library

The agent calls Zotero MCP's find_library_sources first, then explore_topic to surface gaps. See strato-mcp-zotero.

"Do I already have papers on diffusion models for drug discovery?"

Track field growth over time

analyze_trends fetches publication counts year by year and classifies the trajectory as growing, declining, stable, or peaked.

"Has research on quantum computing in chemistry grown over the past decade?"

Tools

Discovery

• explore_topic(topic, years_back=2, limit=15, sort_by="cited_by_count")
• advanced_search(title, author, affiliation, keywords, year, doc_type)

Documents

• get_document_details(identifier, identifier_type="doi")
• find_similar_documents(identifier, identifier_type="doi", limit=5)
• compare_documents(identifiers, identifier_type="doi")

Citations

• get_citation_network(identifier, identifier_type="doi", max_citations=50)
• get_citation_metrics(identifiers, identifier_type="doi")

Authors

• find_experts_in(topic, field=None, limit=5, years_back=3)
• search_author(author_name, affiliation=None)
• get_author_profile(author_id, include_publications=False)
• compare_authors(author_ids)

Trends

• analyze_trends(topic, timespan="2015-2025")

identifier_type accepts "doi", "eid", or "pii" throughout.

Setup

Get a Scopus API key at https://dev.elsevier.com/myapikey.html. A free Elsevier developer account is enough for most features. Full-text access requires institutional credentials.

Docker

docker compose build
cp .env.example .env   # add your SCOPUS_API_KEY
chmod 600 .env

Local

uv sync
cp .env.example .env   # add your SCOPUS_API_KEY
uv run scopus-mcp

Register with your AI assistant

Claude Desktop

Edit ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "scopus": {
      "command": "docker",
      "args": ["run", "--rm", "-i", "--env-file", "/absolute/path/to/.env", "scopus-mcp:latest"]
    }
  }
}

Use the absolute path to .env. Claude Desktop launches Docker from an unknown working directory.

Claude Code

claude mcp add --transport stdio scopus -- \
  docker run --rm -i --env-file /absolute/path/to/.env scopus-mcp:latest

Gemini CLI

Edit ~/.gemini/settings.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "scopus": {
      "command": "docker",
      "args": ["run", "--rm", "-i", "--env-file", "/absolute/path/to/.env", "scopus-mcp:latest"]
    }
  }
}

OpenAI Codex

Edit ~/.codex/config.toml:

[[mcp_servers]]
name = "scopus"
command = "docker"
args = ["run", "--rm", "-i", "--env-file", "/absolute/path/to/.env", "scopus-mcp:latest"]