Purpose
PaleorXiv accepts scholarly work from across the field of Paleontology and Paleobiology, broadly defined, that is plausibly categorized and for which authors are correctly identified, and which authors have the legal right to share. We do not assess the quality or perceived merit of the work. The appearance of work is an invitation to the public and scholarly community to share, review, discuss, and evaluate it (and its linked or associated research materials); acceptance is not a statement about research quality. PaleorXiv thus empowers individuals, communities, and institutions to develop their own criteria, announcements, journals, lists, and analyses of scholarly work.
Policy
PaleorXiv accepts papers at any stage of the publication process. We moderate papers before they appear publicly, which is called “pre-moderation” on the Open Science Framework platform. To learn more about how this moderation works on our system, visit this page from our hosts. Subject to volume demands, we expect to post papers submitted for moderation within 1-3 business days.
The paleorXiv moderation process accepts papers that:
- Are scholarly content. This includes original research, reviews, essays, critiques and comments on other work, systematic reviews, hypotheses, ‘negative’ results, and data and methods papers. Work on paleorXiv is either research or engages with research.
- Are in a research area that we support. We accept work from across all domains of Paleontology and Paleobiology, including, but not limited to: Vertebrate paleontology; Invertebrate paleontology; Micropaleontology; Paleobotany; Paleoecology; Paleoclimatology; Paleogeography; Paleoceanography; Paleohistology; Paleobiogegraphy; and Biostratigraphy..
- Are plausibly categorized. We allow authors to select their own categories from our subject taxonomy, but check whether there are obvious errors or categorizations that lack plausibility.
- Are correctly attributed. We do a simple Internet search to see if someone else has publicly claimed authorship of the work.
- Are in languages that we can moderate. We welcome work submitted in any language, provided we have a moderator that can review it adequately according to our policy. Papers submitted in non-English languages will be held in the moderation queue until we can get them verified.
For more information, please see our Submission Guidelines, and check for compliance with our database of Journal Policies before submitting.
Copyright compliance
Moderation does include verification of copyright status, which we assess based on individual journal policies. Where we are uncertain, we check with submitting authors to verify their status. We seek to accept only papers that comply with copyright law. We ask that authors share only that work they have the right to share. Actively affirming this is part of the submission process for each paper uploaded. Please contact us if you are uncertain about this part of the procedure.
Claims of copyright infringement should be sent to the Center for Open Science in accordance with their policy, which is here.
Procedure
Work will be reviewed by a moderator before appearing publicly on paleorXiv. If a paper is not accepted, the moderator will include a description of the reason. Work that does not pass moderation will remain on the OSF platform but will not be identified as part of paleorXiv. Authors are free to resubmit such work after addressing the issues raised by the moderator. Authors also may contact us to discuss or appeal a moderation decision.
Please note: At present we do not have the capacity to query authors during the moderation process. If a paper does not pass moderation we will specify reasons, but we can’t discuss the reasons with the author prior to making a decision. Please don’t be discouraged by negative moderation decisions, and feel free to contact us with any questions.