MCP server · Research
Research Methods Library
by mikenguyen13
Your AI gets a library of research methods books, suggests study designs, and hands you runnable R and Python code.
This is a helper for people who do research and write papers, reports, or theses. It gives your AI assistant a big shelf of methods textbooks and articles about causal inference, econometrics, and statistics. Then, when you ask a research question, your AI can answer with suggested study designs, code you can run, and a proper citation for where the advice came from.
What is an MCP server? The 30-second version
On its own, your AI can only chat with what it already learned. An MCP server is a small helper program that gives it a new skill or a connection to something outside the chat. This one connects your AI to a research methods library of about 17,000 sections from 8 books, an R package, and some articles. So when you ask how to study something, your AI can look it up in that library and bring you back an answer with sources instead of guessing.
What this MCP server does
You type a research question in plain words, like how to estimate an effect when a law changed in different states at different times. Your AI sends that question to this helper. The helper searches its library and finds the methods that fit, along with the assumptions they rely on, the R and Python packages that do the work, and the readings behind them. Your AI then writes the answer for you and adds a citation for every source it used.
What you can do with it
- Get study design suggestions for a research question you describe
- Get runnable R, Python, or Julia code for a method or task
- Get the assumptions you should check before trusting a design
- Search the library for sections on a topic with links and snippets
- Get citations in APA, Chicago, MLA, Harvard, BibTeX, or RIS
- See the list of books and articles in the library
- Draft a methods section and get references for the sources
Try asking your AI
- “States raised the minimum wage in different years. How do I estimate the effect on teen employment?”
- “Give me Python code for a probability-of-default model with gradient boosting.”
- “Only California passed the law and I have 30 years of state data. What can I do?”
- “Write the methods section for my regression discontinuity and give me BibTeX for the sources.”
What it gives back to you
You get back a written answer in the chat: the suggested method, why it fits, the assumptions to check, code blocks you can copy, and the readings it came from. Each source comes with a formatted citation, in the style you asked for. If you ask for citations only, you get a clean list with duplicates removed.
Before you start
What you need
- An AI app that supports MCP servers, like Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor, or VS Code
- Nothing else: access is free and needs no account or API key
Good to know
It only reads and looks things up, it does not change anything, and the code it returns is a starting point you should check before you run it.
Install it with your AI
Add Research Methods Library to your AI, no technical skills needed
You don't install anything by hand. You copy one prompt, paste it into an AI that can work on your computer, and it checks, installs and connects the server for you, asking you when it needs something.
Sign in to get the install prompt
Members get a ready-made prompt that lets the Claude desktop app check Research Methods Library, install it and connect it for them, step by step. You don't need any technical skills: you copy, paste and answer a few questions. Your connected AI can also find and install any of the 4,609 MCP servers here for you.
Who it's for
Students, researchers, analysts, and anyone writing a paper or report who needs study design advice and references.
