This privacy policy describes what information we collect from you when you visit openrxiv.org and our preprint servers bioRxiv and medRxiv, and how we use this information. This policy was last revised on May 27, 2026.

Introduction

openRxiv, home of bioRxiv and medRixiv, enables researchers to rapidly share research findings with the global scientific community as preprints.  Manuscripts posted on our servers are publicly available for access by the academic community, health professionals, and any reader with an internet connection. 

Manuscripts hosted by openRxiv servers are assigned Digital Object Identifiers (DOIs), are indexed in third-party search engines, may be submitted to academic journals by authors, and may be cited in other works. openRxiv screens submissions to minimize the likelihood they contain non-scientific, inappropriate, or potentially dangerous content.  All posted manuscripts are considered a permanent part of the scientific record and cannot be removed except in rare cases for legal reasons or danger to an individual or the public.

When you choose to submit a manuscript to openRxiv servers, you acknowledge and agree that it has lasting value for research as well as for understanding current and historical trends and that the article, including the names and affiliations of all authors and the email addresses of the submitter and corresponding author, will be permanently preserved online for the purpose of fulfilling openRxiv’s legitimate interests in archiving, maintaining the research record, ensuring author accountability, and statistical recordkeeping in the public interest.  We make reasonable efforts to avoid putting personal information online that may cause damage or distress to living individuals.

This privacy policy describes the personal data we collect from you when you visit and use openrxiv.org and our preprint servers bioRxiv and medRxiv, and how we use this information. References below to policies and practices at openrxiv.org include biorxiv.org and medrxiv.org unless specifically noted otherwise. Where the words “we,” “us,” or “our” are used below, they refer to openRxiv.  For the purposes of this policy, “personal data” is defined as information relating to an identified or identifiable individual.  An identifiable individual is one who can be identified, directly or indirectly, by use of any identifier or characteristic specific to that individual. 

Please read this privacy policy carefully so that you understand our privacy practices. We may change this policy at any time to reflect changes in the law, our data collection and use practices, the features of our services, or advances in technology. Please check this page periodically for changes. Your continued use of openRxiv and our preprint servers following the posting of changes to this policy will be deemed to mean you understand the applicability of those changes.

Types of Personal Data openRxiv May Collect About You

When you use our site to access the online content, create a user account, upload material to our websites, leave a comment, submit feedback, request help, or sign up to receive openRxiv news or participate in other activities sponsored or hosted by openRxiv, we may collect personal information about you.

We may collect the following information based on how you engage with openRxiv:

  • Browsing of the website by unregistered users – IP address, pathways navigated through the website, type of internet browser used. We do not make any attempt to identify you with the information collected.
  • Registered users – name, email address, secondary email addresses, institutional affiliation, country, additional contact information and/or online identifiers. Information associated with your user account can be viewed in your author area. When registered users take actions such as initiating submissions openRxiv will collect their IP address.
  • Users who submit manuscripts – registered users who submit manuscripts will also provide author names, author affiliations, corresponding author email address, ORCID, submitter IP address, additional contact information and/or online identifiers. Users who submit manuscripts or other content to our preprint servers must ensure that they have the right to distribute the work and that inclusion of the manuscript on our preprint servers does not violate the rights of any person or entity, including privacy rights, or the submission may be withdrawn.  We may also request a record of your affiliations and publication history. Information associated with your user account can be viewed in your author area.
  • Users who leave comments, submit feedback, or request help – name, email address, and information pertaining to the operating environment.
  • Email subscribers – openRxiv maintains mailing lists for those who subscribe to notifications concerning manuscripts posted on our preprint servers, information about openRxiv (for example, our blog updates and newsletter), and other such communication, for which we will collect your email address.
  • Participants in public events openRxiv may host – contact information for those who sign up for forums, conferences, or webinars we host.

How openRxiv May Use Your Personal Data

openRxiv uses collected personal data for the following purposes:

  • Manuscript hosting, journal submission, and archiving – In the content submission and moderation process we link user accounts, authorship, and submitted content to track and process submissions, as follows:
    • Article and manuscript metadata provided by submitter, including author list, author affiliation and submitter name, is displayed with the article posting, and may be included in email announcements about articles, RSS and social media feeds, and bulk metadata access via API and text and data mining repositories.
    • The corresponding author’s email address is viewable by openRxiv users to give users the ability to send feedback on papers to the submitter.
    • The email address of the individual who uploaded each submission is also publicly available as an indication of its provenance.
    • For more information, see our bioRxiv submission guidelines, medRxiv submission guidelines and associated FAQs.
  • Improving user experience – When you select certain preferences, we may store information to remember your choices while using the site (see “Collection of Cookies and Use of Other Technologies” below).
  • Providing user support – Users have the option to provide name, email address, and information about their current operating environment, and this information will be used in the process of providing user support.
  • Safety and security – We verify accounts and activity, monitor for suspicious or fraudulent activity, and identify violations of service policies.
  • Sending email announcements – Users who subscribe to receive email announcements about manuscripts provide openRxiv with their email address and full name.
  • Conducting research in the public interest – Certain information we gather, including your IP address, information about your browser, the date and time of your visit, and the pages on our website that you accessed, may be used for secondary research purposes, including to allow and facilitate individuals to perform research in the public interest, and activities related to such research.  When using information for research purposes, we will put in place reasonable physical, technical, and administrative safeguards designed to prevent unauthorized disclosure of your information.

Collection of Cookies and Use of Other Technologies

openRxiv may gather information to track user trends and site usage with the goal of improving our website users’ experience and optimizing our website. We also use the information to administer the website and prevent abuse.

Cookies – Like most other website operators, we may collect Personal Data via cookies and similar technologies. Cookies are small text files stored on your computer and accessible only to the websites that create them. They are stored locally by the browser you are using. If you switch browsers, or use a different computer, your cookies will not follow you.

openRxiv uses cookies to save preferences you may have chosen for your use of openRxiv and our preprint servers. This includes, but is not limited to:

Cookies are also used when you log in to your account, in order to store your user identification and session authentication information.

Our website may use cookies to keep you logged into secure areas of our website and/or to keep track of your preferences as you interact with certain services. It is not necessary to use/permit cookies to read articles on openRxiv; if you do not wish to permit cookies, you can modify the settings in your web browser, but you will not be able to login or set preferences.

Social media – If you share our content through social media, those social networks will record that you have done so and may set a cookie for this purpose. If you wish to opt out, please refer to the specific social media platform for instructions on how to do so.

External websites – From time to time, we will link to external websites that we neither own nor control. This includes instances when you use openRxiv services to submit manuscripts to journals for publication.  openRxiv is not responsible for the content, privacy practices, or web accessibility needs on these websites. 

Contributions to openRxiv, including manuscript submissions, supplementary files,  and metadata, may contain links as well. We are not responsible for the content, privacy practices, or web accessibility needs on these websites.

For more information about cookies on bioRxiv, medRxiv and openRxiv, see: https://www.biorxiv.org/help/cookie-policy.

How We Share and Disclose Personal Data

Information we gather may be shared with service providers we use to support the infrastructure, submission, moderation, and archival requirements of openRxiv, and, subject to appropriate safeguards, with researchers conducting research in the public interest. Registered users also have the option to share manuscripts directly with academic journals or external services through openRxiv. However, we will not sell this data to third parties.

Service providers – Provide the following services which require the sharing of Personal Data:

  • Servers, databases, submission system, tagging vendors, article summarization, and web hosting infrastructure
  • Customer relationship management
  • Customer support and feedback
  • Text analysis of submissions
  • Email communications

Screeners– As part of the article submission and moderation process, openRxiv screeners can view the author list, submitter name, and submitter email address.

Trusted Partners – We share anonymized data with trusted partners for use in search and discovery tools.

Journals and External Services – If you elect to submit your manuscript to an academic journal or external service, we will share Personal Data you provided as part of the submission process, including authors’ names (including consortia/group names), authors’ ORCID identification numbers (if provided by authors), authors’ affiliations, submitting and corresponding author’s email, other author e-mail addresses (if provided).

Legal and contract enforcement – We may disclose your personal information to legal or government regulatory authorities as required by applicable law. We may also disclose your Personal Data to third parties in connection with claims, disputes, or litigation, or when we believe, in good faith, that such release is reasonably necessary to:

  • Comply with applicable law;
  • Enforce or apply the terms of any of our user agreements;
  • Facilitate institutional ethics investigations;
  • Protect the rights, property, or safety and security of openRxiv, our users, or others; or
  • Enforce our legal rights or contractual commitments that you have made.

Public – The email address that was used to upload each submission and the corresponding author email are publicly available.

How We Protect and Store Your Personal Data

No method of transmitting over the internet or storing electronic data is 100% secure, but openRxiv follows standard practices to protect against the loss, misuse, or alteration of the information that is under our control.

Choices You May Have

Opt-in and event emails – Users who opt in to receive general information about openRxiv, alerts or notifications, or who register for openRxiv events will receive emails from openRxiv updating them on our activities. Those emails contain a link at the bottom of the email enabling recipients to unsubscribe.

Additional Privacy Disclosures for Individuals Located Outside of the United States

These supplemental disclosures (“Disclosures”) provide additional information concerning openRxiv’s collection and use of data about individuals located in a Relevant Country (as defined below). These Disclosures apply to In-scope Processing by any means, including hard copy and electronic means.

For purposes of these Disclosures,

  • “Relevant Law” means any non-U.S. jurisdiction’s Personal Data protection law that applies to the processing of Personal Data by openRxiv.
  • “Relevant Country” means a country which has enacted a Relevant Law.
  • “In-scope Processing” means the collection, use, handling, processing, or sharing of Personal Data by openRxiv when those activities are within the scope of any Relevant Law.

Please note that these Disclosures apply only to In-scope Processing, and that, depending on the situation, some of openRxiv’s activities described above may, in the given case, not constitute In-scope Processing as that term is used in these Disclosures.

Please carefully read and understand these Disclosures before using our services and contact us using the details at the bottom of these Disclosures if you have any questions or concerns about the manner in which your Personal Data is processed.

Legal Bases for Processing

The bases openRxiv relies on for processing your Personal Data are set forth below. Please note that we may process your Personal Data for more than one legal basis, depending on the specific purpose for which we are using each element of data.

  • Legitimate interest – We have a legitimate interest in processing Personal Data contained in manuscript submissions, and of site visitors and submitters, to carry out our archiving, research, and educational mission, vision, and values; provide you with core archival, research, and educational services in the public interest, including the dissemination of, and open access to, scholarly articles in specific fields of research; implement our policies and procedures; and meet our community’s expectations. We also have legitimate interests in processing your Personal Data for providing access to our site, testing and improving site functionality and user experiences on our site, providing user support, and maintaining safety and security on our site.
  • Contract – We need your Personal Data to provide you with our services and respond to your inquiries.
  • Legal – We may have a legal obligation to handle your Personal Data when necessary to comply with applicable law, or to enforce legal rights or contractual commitments you have made, or terms of use to which you have agreed.
  • Public interest – We may handle your Personal Data when necessary to protect the rights, property, or safety and security of openRxiv, our users, or others.
  • Your consent, in limited circumstances where other bases are not recognized. Generally, we do not rely on consent as a legal basis for processing your Personal Data, unless it is specifically required by your jurisdiction, such as for sending fundraising, marketing, or other optional communications or for collecting special category or sensitive information on an optional basis for research purposes. When we process your Personal Data on the basis of consent, you are able to remove your consent at any time. You can do this by contacting us at privacy@openRxiv.org.

We will retain your Personal Data for as long as needed to meet these objectives and to ensure compliance with our legal obligations.

Location of Processing and International Data Transfers

openRxiv is located in the United States and is subject to U.S. and California law, which may not provide the same level of protection as the laws in your jurisdiction. If you use openRxiv and our preprint servers, you understand and agree that you will be transmitting your Personal Data to personnel in the United States and your data generally will be hosted on U.S. servers, and might be transmitted to or accessed from the United States or other jurisdictions outside of the Relevant Country when necessary for business or other valid purposes, and you consent to the transfer of such data to the U.S. for processing by us in accordance with this Privacy Policy.

Rights You May Have and How to Exercise Them

Upon your reasonable and good faith request, we will provide you with information about whether we hold any of your Personal Data as part of our In-scope Processing, to the extent required and in accordance with Relevant Law. In certain cases, you may also have a right under Relevant Law, with respect to your Personal Data collected and used in our In-scope Processing, to:

  • obtain a copy of your Personal Data in an easily accessible format;
  • request that we correct or update any of your Personal Data that is inaccurate;
  • restrict or limit the ways in which we use your Personal Data;
  • object to the processing of your Personal Data;
  • request the deletion of your Personal Data; and
  • request that we transmit your Personal Data to another party.

If you wish to exercise your rights or have other questions or concerns related to your rights under Relevant Law, please contact us at privacy@openrxiv.org. To avoid taking action regarding your Personal Data at the direction of someone other than you, we may ask you for information verifying your identity.

If our In-scope Processing as to your Personal Data is solely based on your consent, in certain cases you may also have the right under a Relevant Law to withdraw your consent to our processing. If you withdraw your consent to the use or sharing of your Personal Data for the purposes set out in these Disclosures, or otherwise limit our use of your Personal Data or request its deletion, we may no longer be able to provide you some or all of the related services.

Please note that, in certain cases, we may continue to process your Personal Data after you have withdrawn consent or requested that we delete your Personal Data, if we have a legal basis to do so. For example, we may retain certain data if we need to do so to comply with an independent legal obligation, if we still need the data for the lawful purposes for which we obtained the data, or if it is necessary to do so to pursue our legitimate interest in conducting research in the public interest or preserving the permanent scientific record, subject to appropriate privacy safeguards.

If you have any complaints regarding our privacy practices, please contact us at privacy@openrxiv.org. If you are not satisfied with our response, you also may be able to make a complaint to your national data protection authority, supervisory authority, or other legal authority to the extent such authority has jurisdiction over the processing at issue.

Contacts

For questions about openRxiv privacy policies or technical support, please contact privacy@openrxiv.org, biorxiv@openrxiv.org or medrxiv@openrxiv.org.