PhilArchive is the largest open-access e-print archive in philosophy. It is a non-profit service of the PhilPapers Foundation, developed and operated with the Centre for Digital Philosophy at Western University in London, Ontario. Anyone can read everything in it for free, and any author working in academic philosophy can deposit into it for free. As of August 2026 the site counter reports roughly 140,000 archived works.

PhilArchive grew out of the older PhilPapers Archive and relaunched under its current name in late 2017. It is tightly bound to PhilPapers, the philosophy bibliography and index founded in 2009 by David Bourget and David Chalmers, which now covers more than three million entries. The two are best understood as one system: PhilPapers tells you what exists in philosophy; PhilArchive holds the full texts that are free to read.

• It is an archive, not a journal. There is no editorial board deciding what is true, no acceptance decision on the merits, and no issue in which your paper appears.
• It is not peer reviewed. Submissions are checked by volunteer editors for scope and professional quality, not refereed.
• It does not replace journal publication. Most philosophers deposit a preprint or an accepted manuscript alongside a journal submission, not instead of one.
• It costs nothing. There are no article processing charges, submission fees, or reader paywalls on archived full texts.

One nuance worth knowing: PhilArchive full texts are free to everyone, but access to the wider PhilPapers index is subscription-funded for degree-granting institutions in high-GDP countries. That subscription model, in place since 2014, is what keeps the whole non-profit infrastructure running.

1. Create a PhilPapers account (the same login covers PhilPapers, PhilArchive, PhilPeople, PhilEvents, and PhilJobs).
2. Click Submit from either philpapers.org or philarchive.org - both routes deposit into the same archive, and the work becomes visible through both sites.
3. Check your publisher's self-archiving policy. The upload flow surfaces publisher archiving policies so you can confirm which version you may post. Many philosophy journals permit the accepted manuscript immediately; some impose embargoes of 12-24 months.
4. Upload the file and categorise it. Assign your work to PhilPapers categories - this is how philosophers actually find it.
5. Wait for moderation. A volunteer editor confirms the work is academic philosophy of professional quality. This is a scope and quality-floor check, typically quick, not a refereeing process.

PhilArchive uses volunteer moderation rather than peer review. Category editors - practising philosophers who maintain the PhilPapers taxonomy - screen deposits to confirm they are works of academic philosophy at a professional standard. Material that is out of scope, non-scholarly, or plagiarised is rejected or removed. Authors may request removal of their own deposits.

Because this is a floor rather than a filter, treat a PhilArchive item as an unrefereed manuscript. Check whether a published version exists before relying on it, and say so explicitly when you cite one.

PhilArchive does not mint its own DOIs. Each deposit gets a stable PhilPapers record identifier (a short code such as BOUPOP-3) and a permanent URL of the form philarchive.org/rec/{ID}. Cite that URL, flag the item as a preprint or manuscript, and include the access date.

Philosophy journals overwhelmingly use Chicago style, so format the entry as Chicago would handle an unpublished online manuscript unless the target journal specifies otherwise.

Posting to PhilArchive does not count as prior publication at any mainstream philosophy journal, and it does not conflict with the triple-anonymous review many philosophy journals use - though if your journal reviews anonymously and you are worried about de-anonymisation, consider timing the deposit around the review period. The normal pattern is: deposit, submit to a journal, then update the PhilArchive record with the accepted version once the publisher's policy allows.

Posting is free and reading is free. Authors keep their copyright; depositing grants the PhilPapers Foundation only a non-exclusive, royalty-free licence to host and display the file, and authors can request removal at any time. There is no mandatory Creative Commons licence, so if you want reuse rights spelled out, state your chosen licence in the document itself.

Deposit only what you have the right to deposit - check the publisher's policy for the specific version. Do not post the publisher's typeset PDF unless the journal explicitly allows it. Keep a single record per work rather than duplicating deposits, and update the existing record when a new version appears.