Screening policy
Every submission is checked by a moderator before publication. Screening is a quality gate, not peer review.
What moderators check
- Scholarly content: a research article, review article, technical report, conference paper, thesis or dissertation chapter, or similar work with a clear argument, methods where applicable, and references.
- Scope: the work fits the selected subject, and the type chosen on the submission form fits the work. If it does not, we may ask you to change it or correct it ourselves.
- Completeness: the PDF is the full text, readable, with title and authors on the first page; metadata matches the PDF.
- Integrity: no plagiarism, duplicate submission, fabricated authorship or undeclared reuse of others’ work.
- Safety and ethics: no content that could cause serious harm, no identifiable personal data without consent, and required ethics approvals mentioned for research on humans or animals.
- Medical and public-health claims: screened with extra care; papers whose unreviewed claims could endanger health may be declined.
Possible outcomes
- Published: the paper becomes public with a permanent identifier.
- Revision requested: the moderator explains what to fix; you can resubmit.
- Declined: the moderator explains why. Declined submissions are never made public.
What screening does not do
Screening is not peer review. A published paper has not been checked for correctness, and publication does not mean that PubArx endorses it. Moderators also cannot verify every right in every paper; authors are responsible for the declarations they make when they submit (see the Terms of use).
Independence
Moderators cannot screen papers they submitted or co-authored. Every action is recorded in an audit trail visible to other moderators.
Asking for reconsideration
If you disagree with a decision, reply to the decision email or contact us within 30 days and explain why. Where possible, a different moderator reviews the request. You may also resubmit after addressing the reasons given.
After publication
Published versions are meant to remain part of the scholarly record. Authors can post new versions at any time, including a version that explains a withdrawal. PubArx may restrict access to a paper, temporarily while a problem is investigated or permanently, where the law requires it or where it is necessary to deal with infringement of rights, privacy violations, research misconduct or a risk of serious harm. The identifier is never reused and its page shows a notice. The full rules are in the Terms of use and the Copyright and takedown policy.