EarthArXiv is a free, discipline-specific preprint repository for the earth sciences — geology, geochemistry, geophysics, hydrology, atmospheric and ocean science, planetary science, and related fields. Like other preprint servers, it lets authors post a manuscript publicly, with a timestamp and a citable DOI, before or independent of formal peer review at a journal. This guide covers what EarthArXiv actually is, who runs it, how it has changed platforms since launch, how submission and screening work, and how it compares to other options an earth scientist might consider. For the underlying concept, see CASRAI’s definition of preprint; for the fuller landscape of servers, see Preprint Servers Explained and How to Choose a Preprint Server.
Origins and governance
EarthArXiv launched in October 2017, founded by Tom Narock (then at Notre Dame of Maryland University) and Christopher Jackson (Imperial College London), in response to a gap the physical sciences had already closed: physics, mathematics, and computer science had normalized preprinting through arXiv since 1991, but earth science had no discipline-specific equivalent. The service is community-run rather than commercially operated, governed by an EarthArXiv Advisory Council that sets policy and retains ownership and editorial control of the server, independent of whichever organization hosts the underlying technical infrastructure.
A platform change worth knowing about: EarthArXiv is no longer on OSF
EarthArXiv launched as one of the branded, discipline-specific community servers built on the Open Science Framework (OSF) Preprints infrastructure, the same model used by PsyArXiv and SocArXiv. That changed in 2020: the Center for Open Science (COS), which had been hosting the OSF-based branded servers at no cost to the communities running them, could no longer sustain that arrangement, and EarthArXiv’s Advisory Council moved the service to a new host. EarthArXiv stopped accepting submissions in August 2020 and relaunched on October 1, 2020 on Janeway, an open-source publishing platform built by the Centre for Technology and Publishing and the Open Library of Humanities at Birkbeck, University of London, hosted through the University of California’s California Digital Library (CDL) as part of its eScholarship Publishing program. This matters for anyone citing older descriptions of EarthArXiv (including general preprint-landscape write-ups) as an OSF-branded server — that was accurate at launch but has not been the current architecture since 2020.
What EarthArXiv covers
Submissions span the full range of solid-earth and surface-earth sciences: sedimentology, geochemistry, structural geology, stratigraphy, geophysics, hydrology, geomorphology, volcanology, and adjacent areas of planetary and environmental science. It does not cover biology, chemistry, or the social sciences generally — those have their own community servers within the broader preprint ecosystem (bioRxiv, ChemRxiv, SocArXiv, and others).
How submission and screening work
As with every legitimate preprint server, posting to EarthArXiv is not peer review and does not imply endorsement of a manuscript’s findings. A volunteer team of moderators drawn from the earth-science community screens each submission for scope fit (is this actually earth science), basic scholarly form, and the absence of plagiarism or non-scholarly content, rather than evaluating the soundness of the methodology or conclusions the way a journal’s peer reviewers would. A preprint typically becomes publicly readable within a short turnaround of submission once it clears that screening step.
DOIs, licensing, and cost
Every EarthArXiv submission is assigned a Crossref-registered DOI, making the preprint version citable and trackable independent of whatever DOI its eventual peer-reviewed version of record carries. Authors choose the license applied to their preprint at submission — a Creative Commons license (CC BY is the option EarthArXiv highlights) or, if the author opts out, standard copyright applies by default. Posting to EarthArXiv is free for authors, consistent with essentially every major disciplinary preprint server; there is no author-facing submission fee.
EarthArXiv, EGU, and AGU: related but separate
EarthArXiv is not operated by a scholarly society. It engages with the earth-science community’s major societies — it has held public town-hall-style sessions alongside meetings of the European Geosciences Union (EGU) and the American Geophysical Union (AGU) — but it remains an independently governed, community-run service. It is a genuinely different thing from EGUsphere, the preprint and open-review service EGU itself operates for its own journals: EGUsphere is tied to EGU’s publishing workflow and journal submission process, while EarthArXiv is a standalone, journal-agnostic repository an author can post to regardless of where the work will eventually be submitted. Authors sometimes use both for different purposes, or choose one over the other based on whether they want a preprint tied to a specific journal’s review pipeline.
Where this fits for research offices
For a research administrator rather than an individual author, an EarthArXiv deposit behaves like any other preprint in a research-output inventory: it carries a Crossref DOI that is machine-discoverable through the same metadata-harvesting routes a CRIS (current research information system) uses for journal articles, and it should be captured and later linked forward to the version-of-record DOI once the peer-reviewed article publishes, rather than left as an orphaned record. See CASRAI’s guide on how to cite a preprint for citation formatting across styles, and How to Choose a Preprint Server for the broader set of selection criteria (screening rigor, versioning, withdrawal handling) that apply across servers generally, EarthArXiv included.
Frequently asked questions
Is EarthArXiv part of OSF?
Not anymore. EarthArXiv launched in 2017 as a branded community server on OSF Preprints infrastructure, but it moved off OSF in 2020 after the Center for Open Science could no longer sustain free hosting for the branded-server network. It has run on the Janeway platform, hosted by the California Digital Library, since October 2020.
Is EarthArXiv peer-reviewed?
No. Submissions go through a lighter moderator screening step for scope and scholarly form, not the substantive methodological and conclusions review a journal’s peer reviewers perform. A preprint on EarthArXiv has not been peer-reviewed unless and until it is separately published in a peer-reviewed journal.
Is EarthArXiv free to use?
Yes. There is no charge to authors for submitting a preprint, consistent with essentially every major disciplinary preprint server.
Does EarthArXiv assign a DOI?
Yes, every submission receives a Crossref-registered DOI at posting, separate from any DOI the eventual peer-reviewed version of record will carry.
How is EarthArXiv different from EGUsphere?
EGUsphere is the preprint and open-review service the European Geosciences Union operates as part of its own journals’ submission workflow. EarthArXiv is an independently governed, journal-agnostic repository not tied to any single publisher’s review pipeline. Authors can use either, or both, depending on whether they want a preprint linked to a specific journal’s process.
Can journals reject a paper for having been posted to EarthArXiv first?
Most earth-science journals permit prior preprint posting, but policies vary by publisher and journal. Check the specific journal’s self-archiving and preprint policy — via Open Policy Finder or the journal’s own author guidelines — before submission, and disclose the preprint to the journal rather than assuming permission.
