Search Semantic Scholar for papers with citation counts and influence metrics. Provides academic impact analysis.
AI agents call search_semantic_scholar to retrieve information from Research Paper Ingestion MCP Server without modifying anything — typically the context-gathering step in research, monitoring, and reporting workflows, before the agent takes action elsewhere.
This tool retrieves and queries academic metadata (papers, citation counts, influence metrics) from a public database. It has no side effects, does not modify data, execute code, delete records, or move money. It is a straightforward search/retrieval function typical of Read-category tools.
From the tool's definition Tool description explicitly states it "search[es] Semantic Scholar for papers" and "provides academic impact analysis" — both read-only operations that query and retrieve data without modification, deletion, or execution of external code.
Attacks that exploit this kind of access
Search Semantic Scholar for papers with citation counts and influence metrics. Provides academic impact analysis. It is categorised as a Read tool in the Research Paper Ingestion MCP Server MCP Server, which means it retrieves data without modifying state.
Register the Research Paper Ingestion MCP Server MCP server in PolicyLayer and add a rule for search_semantic_scholar: allow, deny, rate-limit, or require approval. Point your MCP client at the PolicyLayer proxy URL and the rule is enforced on every call, before it reaches Research Paper Ingestion MCP Server. Nothing to install.
search_semantic_scholar is a Read tool with low risk. Read-only tools are generally safe to allow by default.
Yes. Add a rate_limit block to the search_semantic_scholar rule in your PolicyLayer policy. For example, setting max: 10 and window: 60 limits the tool to 10 calls per minute. Rate limits are tracked per agent session and reset automatically.
Set action: deny in the PolicyLayer policy for search_semantic_scholar. The AI agent will receive a policy violation error and cannot call the tool. You can also include a reason field to explain why the tool is blocked.
search_semantic_scholar is provided by the Research Paper Ingestion MCP Server MCP server (marc-shade/research-paper-mcp). PolicyLayer sits as a proxy in front of this server to enforce policies before tool calls reach the server.
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