The Story behind the Science: Preprints of pandemic potential—how bioRxiv and medRxiv brought preprints to the life sciences
Abstract
The bioRxiv and medRxiv preprint servers brought preprinting to the life sciences and played a critical role in disseminating COVID research during the pandemic. Here, I reflect on the birth of bioRxiv and medRxiv and the crucial role so many members of the community played, our experience during the pandemic, and the launch of the new non-profit organization set up to oversee the servers. The pandemic was a stress test for bioRxiv and medRxiv that demonstrated their value and robustness. Under the umbrella of openRxiv, they are now poised to become long-term infrastructure underpinning a new publishing ecosystem.
Fields of Study & Subjects
Academic Publishing and Open Access
Cell Image Analysis Techniques
Academic integrity and plagiarism
Publication details
- Journal / source
- mBio
- Publisher
- American Society for Microbiology
- Volume
- 17
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- e0298925–e0298925
- Publication date
- 12 January 2026
- Language
- EN