bioRxiv’s licence update, live via the platform’s Author Area since January 2026, lets authors request a change to a less-restrictive Creative Commons licence on a preprint already posted — without submitting a new version. The change can only move in one direction, towards more permissive reuse, and it exists chiefly to help authors bring older preprints into line with funder mandates that require CC BY.
bioRxiv is a free preprint server for the life sciences, operated by the non-profit organisation openRxiv, which also runs the companion server medRxiv for health-sciences preprints.
Contents
- What is the bioRxiv licence update, and why was it introduced?
- How do authors request a licence change?
- Licence options compared: what actually changed
- What this means for CC-BY reuse, text-and-data mining, and AI training
- Answer-first Q&A
What is the bioRxiv licence update, and why was it introduced?
The bioRxiv licence update is a self-service feature that lets a preprint’s corresponding or submitting author switch its Creative Commons licence to a less restrictive option after posting, without triggering a full revision. openRxiv documented the mechanics in a step-by-step guide published on 7 January 2026, and followed up with a policy explainer on 20 May 2026 setting out the rationale.
The trigger is compliance drift. Openrxiv’s own explainer states that a growing number of funders “require their grantees to apply specific licenses to their preprints, typically CC BY,” but that “many authors are unaware of this” and post under a more restrictive option by default. Before this update, the only remedy was submitting an entirely new version of the preprint and re-selecting a licence — a heavier process that also generates a fresh revision record. This is distinct from an earlier, smaller change in January 2025, when bioRxiv and medRxiv reordered their licence-selection menus to place CC BY at the top of the list; the 2026 update is the first mechanism that lets authors retroactively fix the licence on preprints they have already posted.
How do authors request a licence change?
The workflow runs entirely through the bioRxiv submission system’s Author Area and does not require re-uploading a manuscript. It applies only to the most recent version of a preprint, and only to preprints posted within the past two years.
- Log into the Author Area from the bioRxiv submit page.
- Locate the “Request License Update” box on the right-hand side of the page.
- Select “Update license choice on previously posted papers.”
- Choose the eligible preprint by its manuscript ID (only papers where the requester was corresponding or submitting author are listed).
- Select a new, less restrictive licence and submit the request; a confirmation email follows.
Two constraints apply strictly. First, the feature is unavailable if an incomplete revision is already in the submission system, or if a previous licence request is still pending. Second, a request can even be made after the preprint has been formally published in a journal, since the licence sits on the preprint record independently of the journal’s own copyright terms.
Licence options compared: what actually changed
bioRxiv preprints have long offered a choice of Creative Commons licences plus a “no licence” (all rights reserved) default, and a CC0 public-domain option for US federal employees such as NIH intramural researchers. What changed in 2026 is not the menu of options — it is that authors can now move an already-posted preprint from a more restrictive option to a less restrictive one after the fact.
| Licence | Commercial reuse | Attribution required | Text-and-data mining / AI training | Typical funder fit |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CC BY | Permitted | Yes | Unrestricted, including commercial use | HHMI, Gates Foundation, most cOAlition S funders |
| CC BY-ND | Permitted (no derivatives) | Yes | Mining permitted; no adapted/derivative outputs distributed | Rarely funder-compliant |
| CC BY-NC | Not permitted | Yes | Restricted to non-commercial use | Non-compliant with CC BY mandates |
| CC BY-NC-ND | Not permitted | Yes | Most restrictive; non-commercial, no derivatives | Rarely funder-compliant |
| CC0 | Permitted (public domain) | No | Unrestricted | US federal/NIH intramural authors only |
| No licence selected | Not permitted without separate permission | N/A | Reuse requires author permission | Non-compliant with most funder mandates |
Because Creative Commons licences are irrevocable once attached to a public copy of a work, the update only runs in the permissive direction. An author can move from CC BY-NC to CC BY; the system rejects a request to move from CC BY to a more restrictive licence, since existing downloaded and archived copies would remain under the original, broader terms regardless.
What this means for CC-BY reuse, text-and-data mining, and AI training
bioRxiv’s baseline terms of use already permit text-and-data mining of posted content, which is the legal hook that has made preprint corpora attractive training data for machine-learning systems. The licence attached to an individual preprint then determines the scope of onward reuse beyond that baseline — and this is where the 2026 update has practical bite.
Under CC BY, any party — including a commercial AI developer — may reproduce, adapt, and redistribute the work, provided the original authors are credited. Under CC BY-NC or CC BY-NC-ND, commercial reuse (which covers most AI model training conducted by for-profit developers) is not licensed, regardless of the platform-level text-mining consent. That gap is precisely what several funders have moved to close: the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s preprint requirement, effective 1 January 2026, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s preprint mandate, in force since 1 January 2025, both require grantee preprints to carry CC BY. The licence-update feature exists to let authors already out of step with those mandates fix a specific preprint without a full resubmission.
For institutions and research-integrity offices, the practical implication is that a preprint’s licence — not merely its posting on an open server — is the operative variable for downstream reuse and AI-training permissions. Auditing grantee preprints for licence compliance, not just for the fact of preprint deposit, is now a distinct compliance step.
Answer-first Q&A
How do I update a bioRxiv?
Authors can request a licence update from the Author Area of the bioRxiv submission system, using the “Request License Update” box, without submitting a full revision. The change applies only to preprints posted in the past two years and only to the most recent version, moving to a less restrictive licence.
What are the licence options for bioRxiv?
bioRxiv authors can choose CC BY, CC BY-ND, CC BY-NC, CC BY-NC-ND, or leave the preprint with no licence (all rights reserved). A CC0 public-domain option is also available specifically for US federal employees, such as NIH intramural researchers.
Does bioRxiv count as published?
No. A bioRxiv preprint is not peer reviewed and does not constitute formal journal publication; it is a publicly posted manuscript with its own DOI. Authors remain free to submit the same work to a journal afterward, and the preprint record persists independently of that later publication.
Who maintains bioRxiv?
bioRxiv is operated by openRxiv, a non-profit organisation dedicated to advancing science communication, which also runs the companion health-sciences server medRxiv. openRxiv is supported by institutions including Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, and the Sergey Brin Family Foundation.
Implications for institutions, funders, and authors
Research-administration offices tracking open-access compliance should treat the licence update as a remediation tool, not a substitute for correct licence selection at submission. It closes a specific gap — preprints posted before an author understood their funder’s CC BY requirement — but it does not apply to preprints older than two years, to superseded versions, or where a revision is already mid-process.
For anyone advising authors on authorship rights and responsibilities, the clearest guidance is to check funder licensing terms before first posting, since fixing a mismatched licence later depends on the preprint still being within the two-year eligibility window. Related open-research terminology, including licensing and reuse definitions, is tracked in the CASRAI open-research dictionary.
Expect other preprint servers to face similar pressure as CC BY mandates spread across research funders. The direction of travel — author-initiated, platform-mediated licence correction rather than manuscript resubmission — is a practical template other repositories are likely to adopt as funder compliance checks tighten.
