# Research Connect

> Research Connect gives your AI tool legitimate access to the full text of scholarly articles by DOI, with
> the provenance and version information it needs to use them as evidence.

Research Connect is an access and evidence broker. It is not a publisher, not a literature database and
not a search engine: do the literature discovery elsewhere, then hand Research Connect the DOIs of the
works you want (a PubMed ID is turned into a DOI with resolve_pmid). It checks which of them the reader
can access, and delivers the full text, or a link to the publisher's page when the text cannot be
retrieved. The only search it offers is inside a registered publisher's own collection, through that
publisher's connector.

It stands for three things:

- Legitimate access. Content comes only through authorized, rights-respecting channels: trusted sources of
  open-access content, publisher-provided interfaces, and the reader's own subscriptions and entitlements.
  Only when none of these delivers is the article fetched in the reader's own browser, with the reader's own
  access. Research Connect never grants access the reader does not already have.
- Trustworthy evidence. A delivered article comes with its citation, where that copy came from, and version
  and retraction information where the source provides it. A missing retraction notice is not a confirmation
  that an article is sound: Research Connect does not certify an article's findings.
- User control. Readers manage their account, their institutional affiliation and their personal research
  history. Incognito Mode pauses adding articles to an email account's research history; the privacy page
  says what is recorded.

Delivered full text is for the AI tool's own analysis. It is not permission to redistribute, republish or
commercially reuse it, and an article being open access does not by itself permit every kind of reuse.

## Connect

- MCP address (Streamable HTTP): https://research-connect.oliveturn.com/mcp
- Add that address as a custom connector in your AI tool. The AI tool opens the Research Connect sign-in
  page (OAuth, with dynamic client registration): sign in with an email address, or choose "Proceed with
  no login" for an account with no email.
- Optional: set your institution on the dashboard, so your institution's access is checked, and install
  the browser extension, so an article can be fetched in your own browser with your own access.

## Tools

What each tool takes and returns is in tools/list once connected, and in the MCP server card.

- `get_access_context`: Get access context
- `reset_session`: Reset session
- `get_setup_guidance`: Get setup steps
- `get_entitlements`: Check article access
- `resolve_pmid`: Convert PMIDs to DOIs
- `fetch`: Fetch article full text
- `read_document`: Read a document section
- `pair_extension`: Pair the browser extension
- `get_extension_status`: Check extension status
- `test_extension`: Test the browser extension
- `list_connectors`: List publisher connectors
- `invoke_tool`: Run a connector tool
- `authenticate_service`: Get a publisher sign-in link
- `submit_feedback`: Send feedback

## Links

- [About and setup steps](https://research-connect.oliveturn.com/about): what Research Connect does, and how to add it by hand
- [Privacy](https://research-connect.oliveturn.com/privacy): what is kept, and for how long
- [Terms](https://research-connect.oliveturn.com/terms)
- [Feedback](https://research-connect.oliveturn.com/feedback): report a problem or send an opinion
- [MCP server card](https://research-connect.oliveturn.com/mcp/server-card): the same facts as JSON

Version 0.19.6