The hosted, remote Scholar Sidekick MCP server - connect over Streamable HTTP at `https://scholar-sidekick.com/api/mcp`. No npm install, no local process: point any MCP client at the URL and go. (Prefer to run it locally? Use the `scholar-sidekick/scholar-sidekick-mcp` npx package instead - same tools.) Works anonymously out of the box on a rate-limited free tier. Add a free first-party `ssk_` key (from scholar-sidekick.com/account) as a bearer token to raise limits and unlock the verifier's LLM screen. Turns scholarly identifiers into clean citations, bibliography files, and trust signals - all server-side, so your client stays light: - resolveIdentifier - DOI, PMID, PMCID, ISBN, arXiv, ISSN, NASA ADS bibcode, or WHO IRIS URL → structured CSL-JSON metadata - formatCitation - any of 10,000+ CSL styles (Vancouver, APA, AMA, IEEE, Nature, BMJ, Lancet...) as text, HTML, or JSON - exportCitation - BibTeX, RIS, CSL JSON, EndNote, RefWorks, MEDLINE/NBIB, Zotero RDF, CSV, or plain text - checkRetraction - retraction / correction / expression-of-concern status (Crossref + Retraction Watch) - checkOpenAccess - OA status and best legal full-text version (Unpaywall) - verifyCitation - catches the dominant AI fabrication pattern (real DOI + invented title) documented by Topaz et al., Lancet 2026 Same API that powers scholar-sidekick.com and the REST API - deterministic, provenance-headed, and free to start.
MCP readiness
Readiness is how fully this listing follows its protocol and how it behaved in our probes over 30 days. It is shown for reference and does not move it in search. Search order and leaderboards use the separate quality grade (here C+, 70.0/100), which weighs availability, conformance, p95 speed and descriptor. How the two differ
| Valid MCP handshake | 10/10 | initialize and tools/list both answered. |
| Live MCP endpoint | 24/25 | Endpoint answers the MCP initialize handshake (2672 ms); slow response -1. |
| Protocol revision | 8/10 | Speaks MCP 2025-11-25, 1 revision(s) behind 2026-07-28. |
| Signed descriptor | n/a | No MCP standard defines a signed server descriptor. |
| Uptime (30 days) | 15/15 | 30/30 probes succeeded over 30 days (100%). |
| Tool declaration | 10/10 | Lists 7 tool(s) with descriptions. |
| Verified identity | 5/10 | Publisher declared (repository, package or homepage); claim this listing to verify domain control. |
| Freshness + modern flags | 4/5 | seen in a source within 7 days. |
| Auth declaration | 2/5 | Declares credential scheme: smithery_api_key. |
Compared with peers
Against 53,039 reachable MCP servers in our daily snapshot (2026-11-12 06:46 UTC). Display only; it does not change search order.
- Readiness
- Higher than 88% of peers
- This listing 87 · peer median 81
- Latency
- Faster than 32% of peers
- This listing 483 ms · peer median 326 ms
Where it loses the most points, and how to win them back
- Verified identity −5
— Claim the listing and prove control of its domain.
Now: Publisher declared (repository, package or homepage); claim this listing to verify domain control.
- Auth declaration −3
— State how to authenticate (an auth scheme, or that none is needed).
Now: Declares credential scheme: smithery_api_key.
- Protocol revision −2
— Support the current protocol revision.
Now: Speaks MCP 2025-11-25, 1 revision(s) behind 2026-07-28.
Listed in
Directories this entry was found in.
How to connect
https://server.smithery.ai/scholar-sidekick/remote/mcpcurl -X POST https://server.smithery.ai/scholar-sidekick/remote/mcp \
-H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
-H 'Accept: application/json, text/event-stream' \
-d '{"jsonrpc":"2.0","id":1,"method":"initialize","params":{}}'