Scholar Sidekick

io.github.mlava/scholar-sidekick-mcp

Catch AI-fabricated citations (real DOI + fake title). Retraction, open-access, 10,000+ CSL styles.

Yes, your AI can use this right now.Answered a live MCP handshake in 543 ms with no sign-in needed and exposes 7 tools.

Connect it

Settings → Connectors → Add custom connector
URL: https://scholar-sidekick.com/api/mcp

7 tools, verified live

Pulled straight from the server with tools/list on 2026-10-18.
verifyCitationread-only

Verify a claimed citation against the resolved record at its identifier. Detects the dominant AI-driven fabrication pattern documented by Topaz et al. (Lancet 2026): a real, resolvable identifier (DOI / PMID / PMCID / arXiv / etc.) paired with a title that does NOT correspond to the paper at that identifier. Use when the user pastes a citation and asks 'is this real?' or 'check this DOI' — most fa

auditBibliographyread-only

Verify a WHOLE bibliography in one call — the batch counterpart to verifyCitation. Each entry runs the same fabrication check (real, resolvable identifier paired with a title that does NOT match the resolved paper; Topaz et al., Lancet 2026) plus a retraction lookup, and the tool returns a per-entry verdict table and a corpus summary. Use when the user pastes a reference list, a .bib / .ris file,

checkRetractionread-only

Check whether a single scholarly work has been retracted, corrected, or had an expression of concern raised. Use when the user asks 'has this paper been retracted?' or wants to verify a paper's standing before citing it (clinical, regulatory, evidence-synthesis contexts). To check a WHOLE reference list for retractions (e.g. 'check all these citations for retractions' at the end of a literature re

checkOpenAccessread-only

Check whether a single scholarly work is openly accessible and where to find the best legal version. Use when the user asks 'is this open access?', 'where can I read this for free?', or wants the OA license/version before reusing or redistributing. Sourced from Unpaywall. Resolves DOI/PMID/PMCID/arXiv/ISBN/ADS inputs to a DOI before lookup; inputs that don't map to a DOI return doi=null and reason

resolveIdentifierread-only

Resolve scholarly identifiers to structured CSL JSON metadata (title, authors, journal, year, identifiers). Use when the user wants raw bibliographic data to inspect, transform, or feed into another tool — not a formatted citation. Common single-shot conversions: PMID → PMCID, arXiv → DOI, ISBN → CSL JSON, WHO IRIS URL → structured metadata. Accepts DOI, PMID, PMCID, ISBN, arXiv ID, ISSN, NASA ADS

formatCitationread-only

Format scholarly identifiers into a finished citation in a specific style. Use when the user wants a paste-ready citation string for a manuscript, slide, message, footnote, or in-line reference. Style defaults to vancouver if unspecified; ask the user before defaulting if any ambiguity exists (e.g. 'Harvard' and 'Chicago' have multiple variants — confirm which one). Supports five hand-tuned builti

exportCitationread-only

Export scholarly identifiers to a bibliography file format ready to write to disk or paste into a reference manager. Use when the user wants a file (.bib, .ris, .nbib, .xml, .rdf, .csv) for Zotero, Mendeley, EndNote, RefWorks, BibTeX/LaTeX, Pandoc, or Excel. Format parameter is required: bib (BibTeX — LaTeX), ris (RIS — most widely supported by reference managers), csl (CSL JSON — Pandoc/Quarto),

Alternatives in Developer Tools

Compare →
Try “Notion”, “Stripe”, “create invoice”, “browser”