Preprints

Direct Transfer Service to PLOS Medicine

PLOS partners with Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory to make posting preprints in the life and health sciences seamless and convenient.

Authors posting preprints to the bioRxiv or medRxiv preprint servers can choose to concurrently submit their manuscripts to PLOS Medicine or another relevant PLOS journal through the direct transfer service. Learn more about posting a preprint and the direct transfer service offered by bioRxiv and medRxiv.

Facilitated Preprint Posting from PLOS Medicine

Authors invited to make a full submission to PLOS Medicine may opt-in to have PLOS forward their submission to medRxiv for consideration for posting as a preprint.

Papers that pass an initial screening for suitability will be posted on medRxiv as a preprint, meaning that the manuscript files will be made publicly available and credited to the listed authors. If the article is later accepted for publication in PLOS Medicine, the preprint and published article will link to each other when the article appears online.

Eligibility to post on medRxiv is independent from the editorial assessment and peer review process. Preprint checks do not impact the decision regarding suitability for publication in PLOS Medicine. Read more about editorial selection at PLOS Medicine.

Preparing preprint files for submission

Preprints appear on medRxiv in PDF format. Authors can choose to supply their own preprint PDF or have PLOS Medicine compile an automatically generated PDF.

If you supply a preprint PDF it will appear on medRxiv unchanged. Be sure to include title, authors, abstract, and the full text of the manuscript, along with any figures or tables and their captions. medRxiv limits PDF file size to 40 MB or less. PDF files must be compressed to meet this requirement.
Alternatively, PLOS Medicine can automatically compile a preprint PDF suitable for medRxiv from the manuscript file and figure files that are part of your journal submission. Supplementary information will not be included in auto-generated preprints, but may be uploaded directly to medRxiv after posting.

Note that some figure quality may be lost during the auto-conversion process. For best results, make sure that your submission materials meet journal formatting requirements, and that tables fit within the margins of the page. If you are concerned about figure resolution, consider supplying a preprint PDF alongside your other submission files.

Preprint checks

After authors have opted in to have their preprint posted by PLOS Medicine, it is transferred to medRxiv where researchers with relevant expertise screen preprint submissions for suitability. More information on the screening process can be found here.

Most submissions that pass medRxiv’s preprint checks will be posted within a few days of submission. Authors will receive a notification of successful preprint posting directly from medRxiv. Once posted, a preprint cannot be removed from medRxiv.

medRxiv will communicate with authors directly if issues arise or screening indicates that a manuscript is not eligible for posting.

Updates to preprints

To ensure that readers are always accessing the latest version of the manuscript, authors are encouraged to submit updates and revisions to medRxiv directly up until the point of acceptance for publication. Consult the submission guide at medRxiv for specific instructions.

Concerns

If a concern arises about a published PLOS article with a related preprint, PLOS will evaluate the concern according to our standard editorial processes, taking into account any relevant comments available on the preprint.