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Research Square is a multidisciplinary preprint platform where researchers post manuscripts in the physical, biomedical, and social sciences ahead of, or independent of, formal journal peer review. It is owned by Springer Nature and is best known for two related things: hosting general preprints across a broad subject range, and powering In Review, a journal-integrated service that automatically posts a manuscript as a preprint at submission time for participating journals. This guide explains what Research Square is, who runs it, how its moderation process differs from peer review, how In Review works, and how it relates to eventual journal publication. For help deciding between Research Square and a comparable server for a specific submission, see arXiv vs. Research Square and Research Square vs. bioRxiv; this page instead focuses on how Research Square itself works, on its own terms.
What Research Square Is and Who Owns It
Research Square launched as a preprint platform in 2013, growing out of American Journal Experts (AJE), a manuscript-editing company that had partnered with Nature-family journals since 2008. Springer Nature built up its stake in the Research Square Company gradually — investing in AJE in 2016, becoming a minority owner of the Research Square platform in 2018, taking majority ownership in 2020, and completing full acquisition of the Research Square Company in December 2022. Research Square is therefore, like SSRN under Elsevier, a preprint platform operated inside a for-profit academic publisher’s infrastructure rather than by a university or an independent non-profit — though posting and reading remain free to authors and users. The platform carries an ISSN (2693-5015) and, as of its most recently reported figures, hosts well over 200,000 preprints.
Scope: what kind of work goes on Research Square
Research Square is deliberately multidisciplinary rather than subject-specific: it accepts manuscripts from the physical sciences, biomedical sciences, and social sciences, in contrast to a narrowly-scoped server such as bioRxiv (life sciences) or ChemRxiv (chemistry). This breadth is a direct consequence of how most Research Square preprints arrive: rather than researchers seeking out a general preprint server the way they might seek out arXiv or bioRxiv, the large majority of postings come through In Review, meaning Research Square’s subject mix tracks the subject mix of the hundreds of Springer Nature and partner journals that offer the service.
Moderation, not peer review
This is the single most important thing to understand about Research Square: posting to it is not peer review, and Research Square does not describe it that way. Every submission goes through a moderation step — not evaluation of scientific soundness or significance, but a check for appropriate ethics and consent statements, disclosure of competing interests, absence of patient identifiers, and the absence of inappropriate, alarming, highly controversial, or pseudoscientific claims. Research Square’s editorial policies also note that a submission already published at a journal will not be posted as a preprint, and that a submission with missing figures, an incomplete reference list, or other critical components may be rejected outright. Moderated preprints are typically posted within about 72 hours of passing these checks. None of this substitutes for peer review: a Research Square preprint has not been vetted for methodological soundness, validity of conclusions, or significance the way a journal’s peer reviewers would vet it.
In Review: journal-integrated preprint posting
In Review is Research Square’s most distinctive feature relative to other general preprint servers. Authors submitting to one of the 1,000+ participating journals — including Nature, the Nature research journals, Nature Communications, the Communications journals, and BMC and other Springer Nature open-access titles — can opt in (with all co-authors’ agreement) to have their manuscript posted as a preprint on Research Square automatically, at the point the manuscript is sent out for review, after the same quality-control moderation described above. The In Review posting is explicitly labeled, for example “Under Review at Nature Portfolio,” and receives its own DOI. At participating BMC and Springer open-access journals, In Review goes further and displays a public peer-review timeline, and can support public release of the peer-reviewed reports once a decision is made. In Review gives authors earlier visibility, a citable DOI ahead of formal publication, and a way to demonstrate research progress to funders, while giving readers a transparent view of where a manuscript stands in review.
DOIs and licensing
Every preprint posted to Research Square, whether posted directly or through In Review, receives its own DOI, making it a citable part of the scientific record independent of any eventual journal publication. Research Square requires preprints to be posted under a CC-BY license; content submitted under an incompatible license cannot be posted. As with other preprint servers, a Research Square DOI resolves to the preprint itself and is distinct from any DOI later assigned to the peer-reviewed, published version of the same work.
How a Research Square preprint relates to eventual journal publication
Posting to Research Square, whether as a standalone preprint or automatically through In Review, does not compete with journal publication; the two are designed to work together, and In Review in particular exists specifically to sit alongside a normal journal submission rather than replace it. As with other preprint servers, most journals following ICMJE-aligned policies do not treat a preprint posting as prior or duplicate publication, provided it is disclosed at submission — see CASRAI’s guide on preprint posting and the “prior publication” conflict for the conditions that generally apply. Research Square may withdraw a preprint if there is reason to believe there are research-conduct or ethics issues associated with the work, or if a later published version of the article is retracted from a journal; withdrawal notices are posted rather than the content being silently removed, consistent with how other major preprint servers handle retractions (see CASRAI’s guide on how preprint servers handle misconduct and retraction).
How Research Square compares to other preprint servers
Research Square’s combination of broad multidisciplinary scope and journal-integrated posting through In Review makes it a different kind of platform than a discipline-specific server. See CASRAI’s direct comparisons: arXiv vs. Research Square (physics/math/CS culture vs. multidisciplinary, publisher-run platform) and Research Square vs. bioRxiv (general scope vs. life-sciences-specific, non-profit-run). For the broader landscape of preprint servers and how to choose among them, see Preprint Servers Explained and How to Choose a Preprint Server.
Frequently asked questions
Is Research Square peer reviewed?
No. Research Square preprints go through moderation — checking ethics and consent statements, competing-interest disclosure, absence of patient identifiers, and the absence of inappropriate or pseudoscientific claims — not peer review. Research Square’s own editorial policies state explicitly that it does not conduct peer review on preprints prior to posting.
Who owns Research Square?
Research Square is owned by Springer Nature, which built up its ownership stake between 2016 and 2022 before completing full acquisition of the Research Square Company (which also includes the manuscript-editing service American Journal Experts) in December 2022.
What is In Review, and is it the same thing as Research Square?
In Review is a free, journal-integrated preprint service, developed in partnership with Springer Nature and powered by the Research Square platform. Authors submitting to a participating journal can opt in to have their manuscript posted automatically as a preprint on Research Square at the point it is sent for review, alongside a DOI and, at some journals, a public peer-review status timeline.
Does a Research Square preprint have a DOI I can cite?
Yes. Every preprint posted to Research Square, including those posted through In Review, receives its own citable DOI, typically within about 72 hours of passing moderation.
Can I still publish in a journal after posting to Research Square?
In almost all cases, yes. Most journals, including those following ICMJE recommendations, do not treat a preprint as prior publication provided it is disclosed at submission. In Review postings are specifically designed to accompany a journal submission rather than substitute for one. See Preprint Posting and the “Prior Publication” Conflict for specifics and exceptions.
Related CASRAI content
See also CASRAI’s guides on preprint servers explained, how to choose a preprint server, preprint posting and the “prior publication” conflict, and how preprint servers handle misconduct and retraction; the dictionary term preprint; and CASRAI’s comparisons arXiv vs. Research Square and Research Square vs. bioRxiv.
