bioRxiv

Overview

bioRxiv is a free and not-for-profit preprint server for the biological sciences, operated by Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL). Launched in November 2013, it enables researchers to share manuscripts publicly before or alongside formal peer review, accelerating scientific communication and making findings immediately accessible. bioRxiv covers all biological disciplines, including neuroscience, genomics, cell biology, ecology, and bioinformatics. All submissions receive a DOI for persistent citation, preserve a full version history so revisions remain traceable alongside the original, and are freely accessible without registration or cost.

Submission and Screening

Submissions are screened for scientific soundness and ethical compliance but are not peer reviewed. A basic screening checks for offensive content, non-scientific material, and known errors before posting, which typically occurs within 24–48 hours. Authors can submit to a journal directly from bioRxiv via affiliate journal submission systems, and many publishers accept bioRxiv DOIs as submission identifiers.

Open Science Role

bioRxiv is a Plan S compliant deposit route under the Rights Retention Strategy, since depositing the accepted manuscript version satisfies the cOAlition S immediate open access requirement. It integrates ORCID for author attribution. Preprint DOIs are assigned by DataCite.

Connections

• Preceded by: arXiv
• Author identification: ORCID
• DOI registration: DataCite
• Open access policy: cOAlition S (compliant deposit route)

Resources

• https://www.biorxiv.org
• https://www.biorxiv.org/about-biorxiv
• https://connect.biorxiv.org (API and data access)