Direct comparison
Research Square vs bioRxiv Compared
Research Square (In Review, journal-linked, multidisciplinary) vs bioRxiv (independent, biology-only, openRxiv-run): scope, screening, journal integration.
Side-by-side comparison
| Dimension | Research Square | bioRxiv |
|---|---|---|
| Scope / discipline | Multidisciplinary (all fields) | Life sciences / biology only (medRxiv is the sister server for health & medical sciences) |
| Operated by | Research Square Company (commercial; also runs American Journal Experts) | openRxiv, an independent non-profit (took over from Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory March 11, 2025) |
| Launched | 2018 (In Review); Research Square platform earlier | 2013 |
| Posting mechanism | Primarily In Review: automatic posting on submission to a participating journal | Direct author upload; independent of any journal submission |
| Journal integration | Deep — 1,000+ participating journals (Springer Nature, BMC, others); peer-review status shown on the preprint page | None required to post; optional direct-transfer submission links to select partner journals |
| Screening before posting | Editorial screen for ethics/consent statements, competing interests, patient identifiers, pseudoscientific or unsupported claims | Scientist-moderator screen for non-scientific content, plagiarism, and biosecurity/health-risk (dual-use) concerns |
| Peer review shown on record | Optional — journal reviewer reports may be published on the page if the journal opts in | No — bioRxiv itself never carries peer-review reports; that happens at the destination journal |
| DOI assigned | Yes | Yes |
| Cost to author | Free to post via In Review as part of journal submission | Free |
| Typical audience | Authors already submitting to a participating journal, across any field | Life-sciences authors wanting an independent, field-standard preprint ahead of or alongside journal submission |
Common questions
FAQ
Is Research Square peer reviewed?+
No — like bioRxiv, the posted preprint itself is not peer reviewed. In Review tracks the manuscript's progress through the receiving journal's peer review and may display reviewer reports if that journal opts to publish them.
Does bioRxiv require a journal submission to post?+
No. Authors upload directly to bioRxiv with no requirement to be submitting to any specific journal — a key structural difference from Research Square's In Review.
Can the same manuscript go to both?+
Generally you'd pick one preprint record per manuscript version rather than post to both simultaneously, since journals and funders expect a single canonical preprint DOI. Check each platform's duplicate-posting policy before assuming portability.
Who runs bioRxiv now?+
As of March 11, 2025, bioRxiv and medRxiv moved from Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory to openRxiv, an independent non-profit created to operate both servers.
Going deeper
