openRxiv Launch to Sustain and Expand Preprint Sharing in Life and Health Sciences USA

From a News Release:

openRxiv has officially launched as an independent nonprofit to oversee bioRxiv and medRxiv, the world’s leading preprint servers for life and health sciences. openRxiv ensures that researchers worldwide can continue to share discoveries rapidly and openly. With a researcher-led governance model, openRxiv strengthens the foundation of preprint sharing, empowering scientists to communicate findings at the speed of discovery.

“We want openRxiv to be a home for all scientists—whether they’re early-career researchers, established scholars, or from institutions large and small worldwide,” said Dr. John Inglis, Chair of the openRxiv Scientific and Medical Advisory Board and Co-Founder at bioRxiv and medRxiv. “By keeping preprint sharing independent, open, and researcher-led, we can foster even greater collaboration and innovation across the sciences.”

[Clip]

Since their launches in 2013 and 2019, respectively, preprint servers bioRxiv and medRxiv have transformed how scientific findings are communicated. They have hosted more than 325,000 reports of new discoveries, enabling scientists worldwide to collaborate, iterate, and build upon each other’s work at an unprecedented pace. These platforms play a critical role during global challenges in health and research, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, where rapid scientific dissemination is key. Researchers around the world continue to use them across all fields of the life sciences: each month, over 11 million readers explore manuscripts that have been submitted by tens of thousands of scientists from more than 140 countries. Preprints provide real-time access to emerging research, accelerating collaborations and informing public health responses.

The formation and success of bioRxiv and medRxiv have been made possible through the foundational support and collaboration of Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, BMJ Group and Yale School of Medicine. Their leadership in the establishment and operation of these preprint servers has played a crucial role in accelerating scientific communication and ensuring researchers have a platform to share and access new findings without delay.

Establishing openRxiv aims to accelerate the value of these preprint servers, making it easier for these resources to grow and adapt. Created as services of Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in partnership with other institutions, bioRxiv and medRxiv now move under openRxiv’s researcher-driven governance, ensuring that preprint sharing remains independent, sustainable, and responsive to researchers’ evolving needs.

Read the Complete Release

Additional Resources/Coverage

• Intro Blog Post ||| openRxiv Seeking Its Inaugural CEO

What makes openRxiv different?

• Dedicated, researcher-led governance – openRxiv isn’t tied to a single lab or institution. Instead, a governance board composed of scientists, researchers, and technical experts guides its decisions—ensuring preprint sharing remains transparent, researcher-driven, and free from outside influence.
• Sustainable funding model – While initially supported by philanthropic contributions, including major early funding from the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (CZI), openRxiv is designed to welcome diverse funding sources. This means it remains independent from any single funder or organization, preventing commercial or institutional pressures from shaping its mission.
• A researcher-first approach – Because openRxiv focuses solely on preprint sharing, it can continually refine processes to better serve scientists. Whether you’re studying gene regulation, epidemiology, or emerging diseases, the goal is the same: to ensure researchers can share their work quickly, openly, and efficiently.

Statements

Filed under: Funding, Interviews, Management and Leadership, News, Open Access, Profiles, Reports