List of major preprints servers - where to go

The most well-known preprint server is probably arXiv (pronounced like ‘archive’). It started as a server for preprints in physics and has since expanded out to various subjects, including mathematics, computer science, and economics. The arXiv server is now run by the Cornell University Library and contains 1.37 million preprints so far.

The Open Science Framework provides an open-source framework to help researchers and institutions set up their own preprint servers. One such example is SocArXiv for the Social Sciences. On their website, you can browse more than 2 million preprints, including preprints on arXiv, and many of them have their own preprint digital object identifier (DOI). In cases where the preprint has now been published it also links to the publication’s DOI.

Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory set up bioaRxiv, a preprint server for Biology in 2013 to complement arXiv. The bioaRxiv server has a direct transfer service to several journals such as Science and PNAS and a bit over 60% of papers in bioaRxiv end up published in peer-reviewed journals.

In more recent years a lot of new servers have popped up covering almost every field including the social sciences, arts, and humanities fields. Here’s a quick overview of some of the rest:

arXiv -> Mathematics, Computer science, and economics, Physics
EngrXiv - Engineering
ChemRxiv - Chemical sciences
PsyArXiv - Psychological sciences
SportaRxiv - Sport and exercise science
PaleoarXiv - Paleontology
LawArXiv - Law
AgriXiv - Agricultural sciences
NutriXiv - Nutritional sciences
MarXiv - Ocean and marine-climate sciences
EarthArXiv - Earth sciences
Preprints.org - Arts & Humanities, Behavioral Sciences, Biology, Chemistry, Earth Sciences, Engineering, Life Sciences, Materials Science, Mathematics & Computer Science, Medicine &, Pharmacology, Physical Sciences, Social Sciences


More detail list: 

Name	Disciplines	Start date	Unique identifiers	License(s) used	Formats for submission	Formats published	Owned/operated by
AgriXiv	Agriculture	15/02/2017		CC0, CC BY, no license	Any	Any	Open Science Framework
Authorea	Any			Unclear	Authorea editor	HTML	Authorea
Berkeley Initiative for Transparency in the Social Sciences	Social Sciences	03/07/2017		CC0, CC BY, no license	Any	Any	Open Science Framework
bioRxiv	Biology		DOI	Creative commons or no reuse	PDF, Word	PDF	Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
CERN document server	Particle physics				PDF	As submitted	CERN
ChemArxiv	Chemistry	15/08/2017
ChinaXiv	All	01/01/2016	ChinaXiv ID	Not specified on all articles		PDF	Chinese Academy of Sciences
Cogprints	Psychology, Neuroscience, Linguistics, Computer Science, Philosophy, Biology	Records back to 1950	ID code	Various, not specified for all articles	Any	Any (usually PDF)	School of Electronics and Computer Science at the University of Southampton?
CORE repository	Languages	30/06/2005	DOI	Any Creative Commons	PDF		Modern Languages Associate (MLA) and the Center for Digital Research and Scholarship at Columbia University
Cryptology ePrint Archive	Cryptology	18/06/2005	URL	CC BY		PDF	International Association for Cryptologic Research
EarthArXiv	Earth Sciences	25/10/2017	DOI				Open Science Framework
E-lis	Library and information science	24/06/2005	Record numbers	Copyright retained by authors, license not specified on all papers	Any	Any	"Federico II" University of Naples (Italy)
Electronic Colloquium on Computational Complexity	Computer Science	16/06/2005	Year/article number	Not specific on all papers	LaTeX	PDF	Weizmann Institute of Science
engrxiv	Engineering	27/07/2016		CC0, CC BY, no license	Any	Any	Open Science Framework
INA-Rxiv	All	22/08/2017	DOI	CC0, CC BY, no license	Any	Any	Open Science Framework
LawArxiv	Law	01/05/2017					Open Science Framework
LIA Scholarship Archive	Librarian and information science	12/07/2017	DOI	CC0, CC BY, no license	Any	Any	Open Science Framework
LingBuzz	Linguistics	24/06/2005	lingbuzz identifier	Not defined, authors retain copyright	PDF	PDF	Hosted by the University of Tromso
MindRxiv	mind and contemplative practices	09/07/2017	DOI	CC0, CC BY, no license	Any	Any	Open Science Framework
NutriXiv	Nutrition sciences	24/08/2017	DOI	CC0, CC BY, no license	Any	Any	Open Science Framework
OSF preprints	All	29/08/2016		CC0, CC BY, no license	Any	Any	Open Science Framework
PaleorXiv	Paleontology	24/08/2017	DOI	CC0, CC BY, no license	Any	Any	Open Science Framework
PeerJ preprints	Biological Sciences, Medical Sciences, Health Sciences and Computer Sciences	04/04/2013	DOI	CC BY	PDF	PDF	PeerJ
Preprints.org	All	05/03/2016	DOI	CC BY	Word, LaTeX	PDF	MDPI
PsyArXiv	Psychology	15/08/2016		CC0, CC BY, no license	Any	Any	Open Science Framework
RePEc	Economics	19/06/2005
SocArxiv	Social Sciences	13/07/2016		CC0, CC BY, no license	Any	Any	Open Science Framework
SportRxiv	sport science	21/08/2017	DOI	CC0, CC BY, no license	Any	Any	Open Science Framework
SSRN	Social Sciences	16/06/2005	abstract number	Not defined	PDF	PDF	Elsevier
Therapoid	Therapeutics	02/08/2017	DOI	Not clear	??	PDF	Open Therapeutics
Zenodo	All	24/08/2011	DOI	Essentially any	Any (up to 50 GB)	Any	Open Aire/CERN