Paper Search vs Claude Scholar
Claude Scholar is no longer listed on any marketplace we read: these are its last known data, as of 2026‑10‑19.
Paper Search is an MCP server published by openags. Marketplaces we read that list it: 1 (Docker MCP Catalog). Claude Scholar is a plugin bundle for AI coding tools published by Denis Mrvoljak. No marketplace we read lists it any more. As of our marketplace pass on 2026-10-24. A plugin in this pair is no longer listed on any marketplace we read, so search engines are asked not to index the page.
Where each is published
| Marketplace |  Paper Search | |
|---|---|---|
| Docker MCP Catalog | Listed Version: sha256:19d0af269a55 Forks (GitHub): 300 Pulls (Docker Hub): 45 800 Stars (Docker Hub): 5 Stars (GitHub): 2 896 Not marked · First seen |
Not listed |
| Community marketplace denismrvoljak/claude-scholar | Not listed | Removed on 2026-10-19 Version: 0.1.0 Forks (GitHub): 0 Stars (GitHub): 4 Not marked · First seen |
Each figure is the marketplace's own and is never added up across marketplaces. A marketplace that publishes no figure shows none: no number is not zero.
The facts side by side
| Fact | Paper Search | Claude Scholarno longer listed · |
|---|---|---|
| Marketplaces that list it (differs) | 1 | 0 |
| Stars (GitHub) (differs) | 2 896 | 4 |
| Pulls (Docker Hub) (differs) | 45 800 | No figure on Docker Hub |
| Forks (GitHub) (differs) | 300 | 0 |
| Last release | Not published | Not published |
| Where it runs (differs) | On your machine (mcp/paper-search) | Installs as a plugin bundle |
| Transport (differs) | stdio | Not stated |
| Tools it declares (differs) | 57 | Not published |
| Environment variables it asks for | Not published | Not published |
| Parts of the bundle (differs) | Not a bundle | 13 |
| Licence | MIT | MIT |
| Repository (differs) | github.com/openags/paper-search-mcp | github.com/denismrvoljak/claude-scholar |
| Changes in the last 7 days (differs) | 0 | 2 |
| First seen (differs) | 2026-10-11 | 2026-10-15 |
Lines where the two differ have a tinted background and bold values. No value is marked better or worse: a plugin no marketplace lists any more is shown with its last known data, which we do not rank against current figures.
What to use instead of Claude Scholar
Plugins still listed whose own names, descriptions, tools and skills are closest in meaning to it. Comparable, not endorsed.
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12 specialist agents and 30 writing principles for academic writing review, research, drafting, polishing, bibliography auditing, and literature surveys, coordinated by a…
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Write publication-ready research papers and reports.
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Modular 8-stage paper writing workflow: Planning → Literature → Writing → Citations → Figures → Review → Revision → Submission. Combines nature-skills + ARS + Omniscale best…
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Academic paper review, writing improvement and recommendation-letter skills for Claude Code
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Semi-automated research assistant with skills for literature review, experiments, analysis, writing, and project knowledge management
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A powerful AI skill for learning research paper
What each says it does
Paper Search
MCP, CLI, Skills for searching and downloading academic papers from multiple sources like arXiv, PubMed, bioRxiv, etc.
Claude Scholar
Skills and agents for writing a thesis, internship report, literature review, or course paper: onboarding, planning, drafting, source verification, and review.
How to run each
Paper Search As a local MCP server: Docker image
claude mcp add --transport stdio paper-search -- docker run -i --rm mcp/paper-searchClaude Scholar
No data for an automatic command: what its marketplaces declare does not say unambiguously how to connect it.
Commands built only from what the marketplaces declare; the full set for every client is on each card.
Tools each declares
The marketplaces of Claude Scholar publish no list of tools, so we do not compare tools.
Settings each asks for
Neither one's marketplaces publish the settings it asks for.
What it can do: Paper Search · What it can do: Claude Scholar · Compare two other plugins
Data comes from the Docker MCP Catalog (desktop.docker.com/mcp/catalog) and Docker Hub. Data comes from public marketplace files in GitHub repositories of their authors. Figures come from our own regular passes over the marketplaces, last read on . We publish no contact details for plugin publishers.