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Submission guide

Everything you need to prepare a submission that passes screening quickly and can be found and cited.

1. Prepare your PDF

  • Export from your editor (LaTeX, Word, Google Docs…). Scanned images are not accepted because they cannot be searched or indexed.
  • Put the title and all author names at the top of the first page, in a larger font than the body text. Google Scholar relies on this.
  • Include a references section. Keep the file under 5 MB if you can; the maximum is 20 MB.
  • Do not password-protect the file, and do not embed scripts, attachments or interactive forms. Such files are rejected automatically.
  • One paper per PDF. Supplementary material should be referenced (e.g. a data repository), not merged in.

2. Describe your paper

  • Use the exact title from the PDF. Math in titles and abstracts can be written in LaTeX between $…$.
  • Write the abstract as plain text, 100–5,000 characters.
  • List every author in order. Add ORCID iDs where you can; they are passed to Google Scholar.
  • Choose the type of paper: research article, review article, technical report, conference paper, or thesis or dissertation chapter. It is shown on the paper page and readers can filter by it.
  • Choose one primary subject and up to three cross-lists.

3. Check that you may post it

  • Co-authors: all authors must agree to the posting and to the licence.
  • Publisher policy: if the paper is under review or published elsewhere, check which version you may post. Many publishers allow the submitted or accepted manuscript but not their final PDF (the version of record). See Which version may you post?
  • Material from others: figures, tables, images or data you did not create need the owner’s permission or a licence that allows reuse. Credit them and state their terms.
  • Confidential information and personal data: remove anything you are not allowed to disclose, and any information about identifiable people for which you have no consent or approval.
  • Contact details: anything printed in the PDF, such as an email address, will be public.
  • Patents: posting is a public disclosure and may affect patent rights. If your work may be patentable, talk to your institution before posting.

You confirm these points when you submit, and you remain responsible for them. See the Terms of use.

4. Choose a licence

We recommend CC BY 4.0, which most funders accept. If you plan to publish in a journal, check its preprint policy first; most journals allow preprints. Compare licences.

5. Choose how to publish

Preprint only gives your work a dated, public record; researchers who sign in with ORCID can discuss and endorse it. Request open review adds an “Open for review” label and also lets them publish signed reviews. How open review works.

6. Screening and publication

A moderator checks your submission against the screening policy. They may publish it, ask for a revision, or decline it, and you will receive an email in each case. Once published, a paper receives its permanent identifier and is meant to stay part of the scholarly record. You can post new versions at any time; the rules on withdrawal and removal are in the Terms of use.

Discovery by Google Scholar

PubArx publishes the metadata Google Scholar needs on every paper page. Indexing is done by Google, usually takes a few weeks, and is not guaranteed. It works best when the PDF has selectable text, the title and authors are on the first page, and the metadata you enter matches the PDF exactly.