bioRxiv: the preprint server for biology
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Abstract
The traditional publication process delays dissemination of new research, often by months, sometimes by years. Preprint servers decouple dissemination of research papers from their evaluation and certification by journals, allowing researchers to share work immediately, receive feedback from a much larger audience, and provide evidence of productivity long before formal publication. Launched in 2013 as a non-profit community service, the bioRxiv server brought preprinting to the life sciences and recently posted its 310,000th manuscript. The server now receives around ten million views per month and hosts papers spanning all areas of biology. Initially dominated by evolutionary biology, genetics/genomics and computational biology, bioRxiv has been increasingly populated by papers in neuroscience, cell and developmental biology, and many other fields. bioRxiv and its sister server, medRxiv, also played a critical role during the pandemic, rapidly disseminating new discoveries in immunology, virology and epidemiology related to the SARS-CoV-2 virus and its effects. Changes in journal and funder policies that encourage preprint posting helped drive adoption, as did the development of bioRxiv technologies that allow authors to transfer papers easily between bioRxiv and journals. A recent user survey found that 30% of authors post their preprints weeks to months before submitting to a journal whereas 55% post around the time of journal submission. Authors are motivated by a desire to share work early; they value the feedback they receive and very rarely experience any negative consequences of preprint posting. Rapid dissemination via bioRxiv is also encouraging new initiatives that experiment with the peer review process and the development of novel approaches to literature filtering and assessment.
Article activity feed
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Here's bioRxiv's survey (www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...) - fig 8 Preferred mode of feedback is private over public. I also summarised all of the studies on preprint attitudes (zenodo.org/records/2068...) and I'd say that conclusion could be drawn from the collective data too.
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Preprints are living documents! All versions remain under "Info/History" with the same DOI. Revise from "Author Area" > "Submit a Revision", anytime pre-publication. 🔗 Check out our recently (Feb '26) updated bioRxiv preprint: doi.org/10.1101/833400 (2019) #OpenScience #bioRxiv #medRxiv #openrxiv
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The original paper on bioRxiv was suitably posted on... well... bioRxiv: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
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Hey - there's a preprint about the bioRxiv preprint server published as a preprint on the bioRxiv preprint server: bioRxiv: the preprint server for biology www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
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✨ Updated preprint on bioRxiv preprints! A new version of our preprint summarizes #bioRxiv progress over the last 12 years. This is an update of our original 2019 preprint with new data & highlights from a more recent survey of >7000 users. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... #preprints #OpenScience
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New version of our preprint on bioRxiv about bioRxiv up. Now that’s what I call a revision – 6 years after the first version! It has new data about our progress and highlights from a massive user survey. 1/n www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
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Fig 8 here www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... provides data on feedback
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Excerpt
More than 64,000 research articles have been shared through the life sciences preprint server bioRxiv as changes in the scientific publication landscape gather pace.
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biorXiv: 64'000 manuscript-strong and counting! https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/833400v1
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