To update a bioRxiv manuscript, an author logs into the Author Area, selects “Submit a revision” against the relevant submission ID, and uploads a revised PDF or Word file. The new version keeps the original DOI, the prior version stays visible in the article’s Info/History tab, and the revision is only permitted before the manuscript is formally accepted by a journal.
bioRxiv is a preprint server for the life sciences, operated by the non-profit openRxiv, that lets researchers share manuscripts before formal peer review and, when necessary, submit revised versions of that manuscript through its Author Area. For research offices tracking outputs pre-publication, understanding exactly how that revision process works — and how it links back to the eventual journal record — matters as much as the mechanics of the upload itself.
Contents
- What counts as an “update” on bioRxiv?
- Step-by-step: submitting a revision in the Author Area
- DOI continuity, version history and citation
- Aligning bioRxiv versions with the published record
- Common questions about updating a bioRxiv manuscript
What counts as an “update” on bioRxiv?
Not every change to a posted preprint requires the same action. bioRxiv’s submission guidance distinguishes several categories of change, each handled differently within the Author Area.
A full revision is reserved for substantive scientific change: new datasets, reanalysis, or expanded discussion and supplemental information. Cosmetic errors in the Title, Author names, affiliations or Abstract fields that are already correct in the uploaded PDF do not need a revision — bioRxiv’s system automatically replaces that metadata with data extracted from the PDF within roughly 48 hours. A silent name change (an individual author correcting their own first or last name, but not removals or reordering) can instead be requested by email without triggering a new version at all. If the content has changed enough that the paper is effectively a different article, bioRxiv’s guidance is explicit that it should be submitted as a new manuscript with its own DOI, not a revision.
| Type of change | How it is made | Effect on DOI / version record |
|---|---|---|
| Metadata typo already correct in PDF | No action needed | Self-corrects from PDF within ~48 hours |
| Author name spelling only | Email request (silent change) | No new version created |
| New data, reanalysis, expanded discussion | “Submit a revision” in Author Area | New version, same DOI, prior version retained |
| Content amounts to a different article | New submission | New DOI assigned |
| Author no longer stands by findings | “Submit a Withdrawal Statement” in Author Area | DOI retained; “Withdrawn” watermark applied to all versions |
Step-by-step: submitting a revision in the Author Area
The mechanics are the same whether the original manuscript was submitted directly to bioRxiv or reached it via a journal’s co-submission workflow, though the account set-up differs for the latter.
- Log in at submit.biorxiv.org using the registered account credentials.
- Open the Author Area, which lists every submission tied to that account.
- Locate the submission ID# for the preprint being revised, and select “Submit a revision”.
- Click “Submit a revised manuscript” and upload the updated PDF or Word/figure files — the same file-format rules as the original submission apply.
- Update metadata where genuinely necessary (title, abstract, author list, funder ROR IDs and grant numbers), and re-attach or reselect Supplemental Material, which must accompany every version even if unchanged.
- Submit for screening; the revision then passes through the same in-house screening as a new submission before it posts.
Authors whose preprint was submitted indirectly through a journal’s submission system (journal-to-bioRxiv, or J2B) cannot revise it from the journal side. The corresponding author must first register directly at submit.biorxiv.org using the same email address used for the journal submission, then complete revisions from their own bioRxiv Author Area.
DOI continuity, version history and citation
Every revised version retains the DOI assigned to the first submission — bioRxiv does not mint a new identifier for a routine revision. The original and all intermediate versions remain permanently accessible through the Info/History tab on the article page, so nothing is overwritten or hidden when a new version posts.
DOIs assigned by bioRxiv after 11 December 2019 include a date stamp for the day of submission approval, whereas earlier DOIs use a simple six-digit suffix. To cite a specific version rather than the preprint generically, authors append the version-specific URL, for example doi: 10.1101/2019.12.11.123456 version 2, https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2019.12.11.123456v2. Each version is independently available in PDF, HTML and XML formats, though the HTML/XML conversions typically take 24–48 hours to appear after a version’s PDF posts. bioRxiv preprints are indexed by Crossref, Google Scholar, Semantic Scholar, Europe PMC and the Preprint Citation Index in Web of Science, with NIH-funded work additionally indexed by PubMed — all of which pick up each revised version under the same shared DOI.
Aligning bioRxiv versions with the published record
Revisions do not exist in isolation from the eventual journal article, and this is the point most consumer-facing bioRxiv guidance leaves implicit. Two mechanisms connect the preprint’s version history to the version of record.
First, bioRxiv’s direct-transfer integration (bioRxiv-to-journal, B2J) lets authors submit a preprint straight to a participating journal or peer review service without re-uploading files or re-entering metadata; 249-plus journals and services currently participate. Second, once a preprint is formally published, bioRxiv usually adds a link to the published version within roughly two weeks, after the corresponding author confirms the match by email — a step distinct from, but downstream of, the revision history itself.
For research offices and institutional repositories, the more durable link is metadata-level rather than a webpage link. DataCite’s metadata schema defines relatedIdentifier relation types — including IsPreprintOf/HasPreprint and IsPreviousVersionOf/IsNewVersionOf — specifically to encode this chain machine-readably, and Crossref’s posted-content schema supports equivalent is-preprint-of/has-preprint relations. Where a revision also changes the author list or reallocates contributions, institutions increasingly expect that change to be documented using the CRediT contributor role taxonomy alongside the revised authorship record, rather than left to an updated PDF alone. CASRAI originated the CRediT taxonomy in 2014; the standard is now stewarded by NISO as ANSI/NISO Z39.104-2022. Research administration teams building or auditing a current research information system should treat preprint version history as part of the provenance chain, not a discardable draft state — see our broader guidance on research administration data practices.
Common questions about updating a bioRxiv manuscript
Can you update a bioRxiv manuscript?
Yes. Authors can submit a revised version of a bioRxiv preprint at any point before it is formally accepted for publication in a journal, using the “Submit a revision” link inside their Author Area. The revised file replaces the previous PDF as the current version while retaining the same DOI.
Can you edit a preprint?
Not in real time. bioRxiv does not support live editing of a posted PDF; instead, authors must submit an entirely new file as a revision. There is generally no limit on how many times a preprint can be revised before journal acceptance, though each revision re-enters the standard screening queue.
Can I upload a new version or replace bioRxiv content?
Authors can upload a new version through a revision, but they cannot replace or delete the original file. Because posted preprints carry a citable DOI, bioRxiv’s policy keeps every prior version permanently accessible via the Info/History tab, even after a newer version posts.
Can you submit to bioRxiv after submission?
A manuscript can be submitted to bioRxiv at any time up to the point it is published by a journal — including while it is simultaneously under journal review. Once a journal has formally published the article, bioRxiv will no longer accept a new submission or revision of that manuscript.
Revision mechanics on bioRxiv are simple by design — the same DOI, a persistent version history, and a screening step that treats every revision like a fresh submission. What is easy to miss is that this version history is not just a courtesy for readers: it is the provenance trail that DataCite and Crossref relation types, ORCID auto-updates, and institutional research information systems increasingly rely on to connect a preprint’s full editorial life to its published record. Treating the Author Area’s revision log as part of that formal record, rather than a purely administrative step, is what keeps a manuscript’s version history usable well beyond the day it is posted.
