MCP For Claude Marketplace
Unpaywall (Open Access Papers)

Unpaywall (Open Access Papers) MCP Connector for Claude

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Access millions of open-access scholarly articles. Check OA status and retrieve full-text PDF links using DOIs.

1 tools Official Updated Jun 28, 2026 Official Vinkius Partner
More Details Connect to Claude

Connect to the Unpaywall database to instantly find legal, open-access versions of scholarly papers. This server allows your AI agent to bypass paywalls by locating freely available PDFs and repository versions of research articles using their Digital Object Identifier (DOI).

What you can do

  • OA Status Verification — Instantly check if a specific scholarly article is available for free under an Open Access license.
  • PDF Retrieval — Get direct links to legal, full-text PDF versions of research papers hosted on publisher sites or institutional repositories.
  • Metadata Inspection — Retrieve information about the type of Open Access (gold, green, bronze, etc.) and the hosting source.
  • Research Automation — Streamline literature reviews by letting your agent automatically find accessible versions of cited works.

How it works

  1. Subscribe to this server
  2. Enter your email address (required by Unpaywall's API policy)
  3. Start searching for open-access papers in Claude, Cursor, or any MCP-compatible client

Who is this for?

  • Researchers & Academics — quickly find full-text versions of papers without navigating multiple library portals
  • Students — access required reading materials that are legally available for free
  • Data Scientists — automate the collection of open-access research data and papers for analysis
open-accessscholarly-articlesacademic-researchdoi-lookuppdf-retrievalresearch-database

1 tools expose this connector's capabilities to your AI agent.

get_article_oa_status

Retrieve Open Access status and locations for a specific DOI

See how to talk to your AI agent using Unpaywall (Open Access Papers).

Check the Open Access status for DOI 10.1038/nature12345.

I've checked the Unpaywall database for DOI 10.1038/nature12345. This article is available via Open Access. You can download the full PDF here: [Link].

Find a free version of the paper with DOI 10.1126/science.1234567.

Searching... I found a legal, open-access version of this paper hosted on a university repository. Here is the link to the full text.

Is the article 10.1016/j.cell.2021.01.001 behind a paywall?

According to Unpaywall, this specific DOI is currently not available as a free Open Access version. It appears to be behind a publisher paywall.

Use the `get_article_oa_status` tool with the paper's DOI. Your agent will query the Unpaywall database and return the Open Access status along with direct links to the PDF if available.

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