Claude security directory

Scholar Sidekick

Low risk

Scholar Sidekick MCP resolves any scholarly identifier (DOI, PMID, PMCID, ISBN, arXiv, ISSN, NASA ADS bibcodes, WHO IRIS URLs) into structured bibliographic metadata, formats citations in 10,000+ CSL styles (Vancouver, APA, AMA, IEEE, Chicago, Harvard, MLA, Nature, BMJ, Lancet, and many more), and exports references to BibTeX, RIS, CSL JSON, EndNote (XML/Refer), RefWorks, MEDLINE, Zotero RDF, and CSV. The format/export/resolve tools accept a single identifier or a comma/newline-separated batch, so an assistant can chain resolveIdentifier → formatCitation → exportCitation in one prompt for an end-to-end 'raw IDs → exportable bibliography' workflow. Three single-citation checks complete the picture: checkRetraction surfaces retractions, corrections, and expressions of concern from Crossref / Retraction Watch; checkOpenAccess returns OA status and the best legal landing or PDF URL from Unpaywall; verifyCitation cross-checks the cited title against the resolved record at the cited identifier to detect the AI-driven fabrication pattern documented by Topaz et al. (Lancet 2026 — 1 in 277 biomedical papers in early 2026 contains at least one fabricated reference; the dominant pattern is real DOI + invented title, which simple identifier resolution cannot catch). Each formatted response carries a provenance metadata block (formatter, styleUsed, requestId, warnings) so users can see exactly which engine produced each citation.

Security assessment

Plutonium assessed this web connector for permissions, capabilities, and security-relevant behavior.

  • Reads your private information: The connector processes identifiers and batches you provide, which could include unpublished manuscript bibliographies or reading lists; however it primarily resolves public scholarly IDs into metadata.
  • Sends your data to outside companies: Identifier resolution and checks rely on external scholarly services (e.g., Crossref/Retraction Watch/Unpaywall), so the identifiers you submit may be disclosed to those third parties as part of normal operation.

Available capabilities

This add-on exposes 6 tools or capabilities.

  • resolveIdentifier
  • formatCitation
  • exportCitation
  • checkRetraction
  • checkOpenAccess
  • verifyCitation

The interactive security report will load automatically.