crossref-mcp-server
Resolve DOIs, search ~155M scholarly works, and fetch references via the Crossref REST API.
How to connect
https://crossref-mcp-server--cyanheads.run.tools
tools/list returns the expected tools before relying on them in production.Listing quality
Observable facts from our catalog and daily probe — not a safe-to-install badge.
- Surface
- Ready surface
- Live handshake
- Auth required
- Auth gate
- Auth gate
- Tools source
- tools/list (live)
Observable catalog + probe facts — not a safe-to-install badge.
Tools
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crossref_get_workResolves a DOI to its full Crossref metadata record: title, authors, affiliations, abstract (when deposited), journal or container, publication date, type, license, full-text links, funder acknowledgements, and outgoing reference list. The is_referenced_by_count field reports the total incoming citation count from Crossref; the citing works themselves are not available through Crossref — use OpenAlex for citation graphs.
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crossref_get_referencesReturns the outgoing reference list for a DOI — the works cited by this paper. Each reference includes the raw citation string and, where Crossref has resolved it, a DOI you can look up with crossref_get_work. Reference list coverage varies by publisher; many older works and non-participating publishers have no indexed references. Incoming citations — the works that cite this paper — are not available through Crossref; use OpenAlex for that.
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crossref_search_worksSearches the Crossref works index (~155M records) by free text and/or structured filters. Use the filter parameter for structured filtering (object with hyphen-separated Crossref keys). Sort options: relevance, score, is-referenced-by-count, published, deposited, indexed. Offset-based paging is capped at ~10K results; use cursor="*" to start cursor-based deep paging, then pass the nextCursor value from each response to continue. Cursor and offset cannot be combined.
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crossref_search_journalsFinds Crossref journal records by ISSN or title query. Provide issn for an exact single-journal lookup, or query for title-based search returning up to rows results. Set include_works to true to fetch the journal's most recent registered works in a second call (sequential — requires a resolved ISSN from step 1). Returns journal metadata: title, publisher, ISSN-L, subject areas, and total DOI count.
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crossref_search_fundersFinds funders registered in the Crossref Funder Registry by name or funder DOI. Provide funder_doi for an exact single-funder lookup (accepts the full DOI like "10.13039/100000001" or just the registry ID), or query for name-based search. Set include_works to true to fetch a paginated list of works funded by the first matched funder (adds a second upstream call). Returns funder name, DOI, country, and alternate names.
Tool source: tools/list (live) · last probed 2026-09-18