What is PsyArXiv?

PsyArXiv (psychology archive) is an open preprint archive designed to facilitate rapid dissemination of psychological research. PsyArXiv is a creation of the Society for the Improvement of Psychological Science (SIPS) and is hosted on the Open Science Framework from the Center for Open Science (COS). Member institution libraries contribute funds that cover costs associated with PsyArXiv.

PsyArXiv is for scholars working in any area of psychology to upload working papers, preprints, and author copies of published papers. As PsyArXiv views them, preprints are scientific works which are complete enough that they represent an independent contribution to the field. Generally, such works are of a format that contributes productively to scientific discourse in psychology.

PsyArXiv is a pre-moderation preprint service, meaning that submissions must undergo moderation before going live. Authors will be given notice of the reasoning for any preprints that are rejected; in most cases, resubmission after rejection is allowed.

Please note that until August 19, 2025 PsyArXiv was a post-moderation service, which means that preprints submitted under this system cannot be rejected with a reason, but are instead withdrawn as needed. Unlike rejected preprints, the page for the withdrawn preprint is still accessible and includes a (very brief) reason for withdrawal. If, after reviewing PsyArXiv’s policies, you believe your preprint was incorrectly withdrawn, see Decision Appeals for how to proceed.

Submissions to PsyArXiv are not peer reviewed. PsyArXiv moderators make a judgement on the appropriateness of submissions based on the criteria below, as well as their interpretation of the scholarly nature of the work.

Moderator decisions are final, but errors do happen occasionally. If you feel like your preprint has been incorrectly rejected, you may resubmit your work, following the directions in the rejection notice. If you have a query, please email psyarxiv@improvingpsych.org for assistance with this matter.

Readers who would like to provide feedback on the PsyArXiv system or content are likewise invited to email psyarxiv@improvingpsych.org to do so.

PsyArXiv preprint policies

PsyArXiv content is scholarly work. Scholarly work includes original research, books, book chapters, reviews, critiques, presentations or posters, and research commentaries. Work on PsyArXiv preprints is either research or engages with research in psychology.

Requirements for submitted preprints

Moderators will check the following in the preprint (i.e., the pdf file) and the metadata (i.e., the submission form):

Is the contribution within scope: is it scholarly, and it is psychology?
Does the preprint’s title accurately describe its content?
Does the title provided in the preprint exactly match the title entered in the metadata?
Does the preprint clearly indicate all of the contributing authors (e.g., on a title page)?
Do the authors listed in the preprint match the authors provided in the metadata? All authors need to be present and in the same order in both the manuscript and the metadata.
Has a contact email address been provided on the title page?
Has an abstract been provided in the metadata, and is it long enough to accurately represent the contribution?
If an abstract is provided in the preprint, does it match the abstract in the metadata?

Contributions not meeting these requirements will be rejected.

By submitting your paper to PsyArXiv, you assert that:

The content is your own original content created by you, or posted with explicit permission and appropriate attribution of the content creator.
The preprint is the author’s version of the work, not the copyrighted journal or book version.
The work was performed ethically according to the standards of scientific psychology (https://www.apa.org/ethics/code).
Any use of AI/LLMs is disclosed in line with our policy (elaborated below).

Contributions that are not permitted on PsyArXiv

Joke submissions
Incomplete submissions (e.g., table of contents for published books, references only)
Copyrighted content or a publisher’s version of a paper. Most journals in psychology permit posting of preprints and postprints. If your article has already been published in a journal, be sure to check the journal’s policy — most are available at Jisc’s Open Policy Finder (formerly SHERPA/RoMEO) database. Complying with copyright policies is the authors’ responsibility.
Student coursework or class assignments; if there is a reason to publish them, they should instead be posted in a single OSF project.
Questionnaires, scientific protocols, data dictionaries, or other supplemental materials that do not constitute a complete contribution on their own should be added as files in an OSF project or other open repository.
Preregistrations and study plans should instead be added as part of an OSF project. Please see the OSF Registration workflow for more information: https://help.osf.io/article/604-registrations-101.

Best practices for using PsyArXiv

Do not submit content that violates this policy; the content will be rejected. Repeated violations may result in a permanent ban from contributing to PsyArXiv.
Preprints on PsyArXiv must comply with the COS Terms of Use.
Contributors are strongly encouraged to submit to PsyArXiv only if their work falls within the discipline of psychology, broadly construed. If your contribution falls outside the scope of PsyArXiv, it will be rejected.
Do not submit multiple contributions that cover identical or highly related topics. To update the content of a contribution, please use versioning; to update the metadata, you can edit your preprint using the OSF website interface. Please see the OSF help pages on how to version your preprint and/or how to edit your preprint’s metadata.
When uploading a new version of a rejected contribution, make sure to properly address the moderator’s comments. Repeated resubmissions of previously rejected content without addressing the cause of rejection is a violation of these policies.

AI/LLM Policy

The use of large language model (LLM) tools or other artificial intelligence (AI) tools in contributions to PsyArXiv must adhere to the following guidelines:

Using LLMs or AI to support manuscript preparation (e.g., proofreading, sentence restructuring, grammar checks) is allowed, but any substantive use should be explicitly disclosed in the manuscript. Whether AI tools are used or not, the authors are solely responsible for guaranteeing that the manuscript complies with PsyArXiv policies.
Contributions appearing to include extensive undisclosed use of AI or LLMs are considered a violation of PsyArXiv’s policies and will be rejected or withdrawn.
Contributors must adhere to the Principles for Responsible AI Usage in Research when using AI tools or LLMs in the preparation of manuscripts which they plan to submit to PsyArXiv. In particular, preprints that show signs of a lack of originality (as defined by the Principles) or other signs of very low quality will not be accepted.

This policy draws from PNAS policies and PCI Psychology policies for the use of LLMs and AI in manuscript preparation.

Decision Appeals

The decisions made by PsyArXiv moderators are final, but errors do occasionally happen. If, after reviewing these policies, you believe your preprint has been incorrectly withdrawn or rejected without a request to resubmit, please complete this form. A moderation supervisor will review your case and email you with a response once it has been reviewed. Do not resubmit your preprint while it is being reviewed. Repeated resubmission of withdrawn or rejected content is a violation of these policies.

This form is ONLY for preprints that have been withdrawn or rejected without a request to resubmit. If your preprint has been rejected with an invitation to resubmit, please resubmit your work following the directions in the rejection notice. If you have questions about how to address the issues raised by the moderator, please email psyarxiv@improvingpsych.org with your question.

Withdrawal Policies

PsyArXiv’s withdrawal policy draws from and closely follows the SocArXiv withdrawal policies, available here.

Contributions that are still pending moderation and that were submitted after August 19, 2025 (in the pre-moderation system) may be freely withdrawn by the authors for any reason, because these submissions have not yet been published and assigned a DOI.

For contributions that have already been accepted by a moderator, author requests for withdrawal will only be granted in the very rare circumstance in which PsyArXiv has a legal obligation to remove a paper (e.g., it contains private personal information, it is subject to a substantiated copyright claim).

When a paper is withdrawn after moderator approval, it will be replaced by a “tombstone” page (here is an example), which includes the original paper’s metadata (author, title, abstract, DOI, etc.), and the reason for withdrawal. After that point, the paper will be locked to further modification.

Papers that infringe on copyrights will be removed in accordance with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, under the Center for Open Science terms of use, available here.

If authors wish to withdraw papers for other reasons — for example, if they are not confident of the findings or otherwise no longer endorse the paper — they should post a new “version” of the paper that is a single page announcing the withdrawal. They may, for example, request that readers do not further cite, use, or distribute previous versions (which will remain available under the list of previous versions).

PsyArXiv reserves the right to withdraw papers at its discretion under narrow circumstances (e.g., legal concerns, issues of public safety, or other Terms of Service violations). In such cases, withdrawn papers will direct to a “tombstone” page as described above.

PsyArXiv Author Guidelines

When you submit to PsyArXiv, you will be asked to state:

whether any of the submitted research has data available
whether it was preregistered
whether there are any conflicts of interest you would like to declare

In order to promote better practices in open science, all data, program code, and other methods used in the manuscript should be appropriately cited. Such materials should be recognized as original intellectual contributions and afforded recognition through citation.

All datasets and program code used in a publication should be cited in the text and listed in the reference section.
References for data sets and program code should include a persistent identifier, such as a Digital Object Identifier (DOI). Persistent identifiers ensure future access to unique published digital objects, such as a text or data set. Persistent identifiers are assigned to data sets by digital archives, such as institutional repositories and partners in the Data Preservation Alliance for the Social Sciences (Data-PASS).

Authors are also encouraged to review available standards for improved reporting of key aspects of the research design and data analysis, and to use those aspects that are relevant for the reported research. Some relevant resources include:

About PsyArXiv