Using Python Cursor class to execute multimatch query with LIKE statement

Attempting to execute a select query matching 4 variables, one of which is checking for a string in the title. How do I execute a LIKE statement with the python cursor class? or another way?

stmt = "SELECT * FROM publication NATURAL JOIN journal NATURAL JOIN authors WHERE name = ? AND year = ? AND booktitle = ? AND title LIKE '%%%s%%'" % (input_names, input_year, input_booktitle, input_string) 
print(stmt)
cur.execute(stmt)

Edit: table schemas

%%sql
DROP TABLE IF EXISTS publication;
CREATE TABLE publication(
    ID INT PRIMARY KEY NOT NULL,
    title VARCHAR NOT NULL
);

/* Author Entity set and writes_for relationship */
DROP TABLE IF EXISTS authors;
CREATE TABLE authors(
    name VARCHAR(200) PRIMARY KEY NOT NULL,
    ID INT,
    title VARCHAR(200),
    FOREIGN KEY(id, title) REFERENCES publication(ID, title)
);

/* Journal Entity set and apart_of relationship */
DROP TABLE IF EXISTS journal;
CREATE TABLE journal(
    booktitle VARCHAR(200) PRIMARY KEY NOT NULL,
    pages INT,
    year INT(4),
    ID INT,
    title VARCHAR(200),
    FOREIGN KEY(ID, title) REFERENCES publication(ID, title)
);