ChemRxiv (pronounced 'chem-archive') is the dedicated preprint server for the chemical sciences - a free submission, distribution, and archive service for unpublished manuscripts in chemistry and related areas. Launched in 2017 and co-owned by five of the world's largest chemical societies - the American Chemical Society (ACS), Chinese Chemical Society (CCS), Chemical Society of Japan (CSJ), German Chemical Society (GDCh), and Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) - it now hosts more than 36,000 preprints that have accumulated over 80 million views and 36 million downloads.

Unlike a journal, ChemRxiv performs no peer review. Its role is speed and priority: you can share early results with the community, gather feedback before formal submission, establish precedence for a discovery, and make your work discoverable and citable within days rather than months. This guide explains what ChemRxiv accepts, how posting and screening work, how to cite a preprint, and how ChemRxiv fits into a journal-submission workflow.

ChemRxiv accepts scholarly manuscripts - new research findings or comprehensive reviews - across 16 subject categories, from agriculture and food chemistry to theoretical and computational chemistry. Submissions must be in English, structured like a standard scientific manuscript, and not yet accepted for publication in a journal. Work that clearly belongs to physics, mathematics, the life sciences, or medicine is better served by arXiv, bioRxiv, or medRxiv.

ChemRxiv does not accept editorials, opinion pieces, letters to the editor, full dissertations, standalone datasets or figures, or content already published as a peer-reviewed version of record. Confirmatory studies and negative results are welcome if they meet the manuscript criteria.

1. Log in with a CONNECT account. You can authenticate via ORCID, Google, Microsoft, Apple, or email; a valid ORCID iD is required for the submitting author.
2. Upload your manuscript. PDF or Word (.docx) via drag-and-drop, or compose in the built-in document editor. The file you upload is the exact version that appears online - there is no copyediting or typesetting.
3. Add metadata. Authors, title, abstract, content type, subject categories, disclosures.
4. Choose a license. CC BY 4.0, CC BY-NC 4.0, or CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. ChemRxiv never takes your copyright.
5. Submit for screening. Preprints are typically posted within 2 business days.

Supplementary materials of any file format - data, code, video, spreadsheets - can accompany the manuscript, and you can link out to repositories such as the Protein Data Bank or the CCDC.

Every submission is screened by ChemRxiv curators - PhD chemists - but this is explicitly not peer review: no assessment is made of the accuracy, completeness, or importance of the science. Screening checks for plagiarism (using detection software), offensive or non-scientific content, unlawful or infringing material, and anything that could pose a health or security risk; manuscripts whose findings could directly impact clinical practice are also declined. Approval does not imply endorsement by ChemRxiv or its owning societies.

Every preprint receives a DOI and is part of the scholarly record. The recommended format is: Author 1, Author 2. Title. ChemRxiv. Date. DOI. You can also download a formatted citation from the quote icon on any preprint page. Preprints are indexed by Chemical Abstracts Service, Google Scholar, Crossref, ProQuest, Scopus, and the Web of Science Preprint Citation Index, and each preprint page displays view, download, and citation metrics.

Because preprints are citable, they cannot simply be deleted. Authors can post revised versions - which appear under the same DOI with version indicators and preserved earlier files - or request a formal retraction, which ChemRxiv handles following COPE guidance.

Posting on ChemRxiv does not stop you from publishing in a journal. The overwhelming majority of chemistry journals - including all titles from the five partner societies - accept manuscripts previously posted as preprints, though you should always check your target journal's prior-publication policy before posting. You may post a preprint while your manuscript is under review at a journal, provided the journal permits it. Once the article is published, ChemRxiv automatically links the preprint to the version of record within a few weeks via Crossref matching. ChemRxiv's Direct Journal Transfer program, which lets authors push a preprint straight into a journal's submission system, is being rebuilt on the new platform with a relaunch targeted for mid-2026.

Note for returning users: ChemRxiv originally launched on Figshare and moved to Cambridge Open Engage in 2021; it now runs on a new platform with CONNECT-account login, so older bookmarks and workflows may have changed.

ChemRxiv is completely free: no submission fees, no posting fees, no reading fees. Operations are funded by the five owning societies, with additional financial, technical, and advisory support acknowledged from the Technische Informationsbibliothek (TIB). There are no APCs, so fee waivers and read-and-publish agreements are irrelevant here.

• Proofread carefully - the posted file is not edited, and the uploaded version appears exactly as submitted.
• Embed figures and tables at high resolution (300 dpi or better).
• Avoid journal templates that carry third-party logos or assign copyright.
• Disclose any AI or large-language-model tools used in drafting; AI tools cannot be listed as authors.
• Post to only one preprint server so usage metrics stay meaningful.