Skip to content
ScholarMCP
Documentation menu

Research Workflows

End-to-end ScholarMCP workflows for literature review and manuscript support.

Workflow 1: Literature Review Sweep

  1. Run search_literature_graph with a focused query and year range.
  2. Refine with sources and fields_of_study if result quality is mixed.
  3. Use search_google_scholar_advanced when you need stricter author/year/phrase filtering.
  4. Save shortlisted papers for ingestion.

Both search tools accept year_range as an object. Arrays are no longer accepted by the MCP schema:

{
  "query": "retrieval-augmented generation",
  "year_range": { "start": 2022, "end": 2026 },
  "limit": 15
}

start must not exceed end. Federated search reports provider failures in providerErrors, so inspect that field before treating partial results as a complete search.

Prompt example:

Find 15 papers from 2022-2026 on retrieval-augmented generation evaluation methods. Prioritize benchmark-heavy studies.

Workflow 2: Full-Text Extraction Pipeline

  1. Start ingestion with ingest_paper_fulltext using DOI, paper URL, direct PDF URL, or local PDF path.
  2. Poll with get_ingestion_status until succeeded or failed; inspect error on failure.
  3. Extract structured outputs with extract_granular_paper_details.
  4. Use extracted claims, methods, and limitations in your notes or draft.

Prompt example:

Ingest DOI 10.1038/s41467-024-55563-6, wait until complete, then extract methods, datasets, and limitations.

Workflow 3: Citation Support for Drafts

  1. Feed manuscript text into suggest_contextual_citations.
  2. Generate formatted references via build_reference_list.
  3. Validate inline citations and references using validate_manuscript_citations.
  4. Iterate until missing/duplicate citation issues are resolved.

Citation validation checks supported numeric and parenthetical author-year patterns. It is a consistency check, not evidence that a paper supports a claim. Review the suggested sources and bibliography before using them in a manuscript.

Prompt example:

Suggest citations for this draft section in IEEE style, then build BibTeX and validate consistency.

Workflow 4: Author-Centric Discovery

  1. Use get_author_info to resolve the author and top publications.
  2. Expand from those publications using search_literature_graph.
  3. Ingest the highest-value papers and extract structured summaries.

Start typing to search