bioRxiv / medRxiv Preprint Database

Overview

bioRxiv (biology) and medRxiv (health sciences) are free preprint servers hosting 200,000+ and 50,000+ manuscripts, respectively, before or alongside peer review. The unified REST API provides programmatic access to preprint metadata (title, abstract, authors, category, DOI, version history) without authentication. Preprints are available as PDF and can be retrieved by DOI, date range, or category.

When to Use

• Finding the most current research in fast-moving fields before peer review (e.g., infectious disease during outbreaks)
• Monitoring weekly preprint submissions in a specific discipline category (e.g., bioinformatics, genomics, neuroscience)
• Retrieving metadata and abstracts for a set of bioRxiv DOIs for literature screening
• Building a corpus of preprints to track the preprint-to-publication pipeline
• Checking whether a specific preprint has been updated or published in a peer-reviewed journal
• For peer-reviewed biomedical literature use pubmed-database; for all disciplines use openalex-database

Prerequisites

• Python packages: requests, pandas
• Data requirements: bioRxiv/medRxiv DOIs, date ranges, or category names
• Environment: internet connection; no API key or authentication required
• Rate limits: no stated hard limit; use reasonable delays for bulk queries

bash
pip install requests pandas

Quick Start

python
import requests

BASE = "https://api.biorxiv.org"

# Retrieve recent bioinformatics preprints
r = requests.get(f"{BASE}/details/biorxiv/2024-01-01/2024-01-07/0",
                 params={"category": "bioinformatics"})
r.raise_for_status()
data = r.json()
print(f"Total preprints: {int(data['messages'][0]['total'])}")  # API returns total as a string
for article in data["collection"][:3]:
    print(f"\n{article['title'][:80]}")
    print(f"  Authors : {article['authors'][:60]}")
    print(f"  DOI     : {article['doi']}")
    print(f"  Category: {article['category']}")

Core API

Query 1: Date-Range Preprint Listing

Retrieve all preprints posted within a date range, optionally filtered by category.

python
import requests, pandas as pd

BASE = "https://api.biorxiv.org"

def get_preprints(server, date_from, date_to, cursor=0, category=None):
    """
    server: 'biorxiv' or 'medrxiv'
    date_from, date_to: 'YYYY-MM-DD' strings
    cursor: page offset (increments of 100)
    """
    url = f"{BASE}/details/{server}/{date_from}/{date_to}/{cursor}"
    r = requests.get(url)
    r.raise_for_status()
    return r.json()

data = get_preprints("biorxiv", "2024-01-01", "2024-01-03")
total = int(data["messages"][0]["total"])  # API returns total as a string — cast for arithmetic
print(f"bioRxiv preprints Jan 1-3, 2024: {total}")

rows = []
for article in data["collection"][:10]:
    rows.append({
        "doi": article["doi"],
        "title": article["title"],
        "authors": article["authors"][:80],
        "category": article["category"],
        "date": article["date"],
        "version": article["version"],
    })
df = pd.DataFrame(rows)
print(df[["title", "category", "date"]].head())

python
# Paginate through all results for a date range
def get_all_preprints(server, date_from, date_to, max_results=500):
    all_articles = []
    cursor = 0
    while len(all_articles) < max_results:
        data = get_preprints(server, date_from, date_to, cursor)
        collection = data["collection"]
        if not collection:
            break
        all_articles.extend(collection)
        total = int(data["messages"][0]["total"])  # cast: API returns total as string
        cursor += 100
        if cursor >= total:
            break
    return all_articles[:max_results]

articles = get_all_preprints("biorxiv", "2024-01-01", "2024-01-07")
print(f"Retrieved {len(articles)} preprints from first week of 2024")

Query 2: Preprint Detail by DOI

Retrieve full metadata and version history for a specific preprint by DOI.

python
import requests

BASE = "https://api.biorxiv.org"

# Retrieve specific preprint by DOI
doi = "10.1101/2024.01.01.000001"  # Replace with real DOI

def get_by_doi(server, doi):
    r = requests.get(f"{BASE}/details/{server}/{doi}")
    r.raise_for_status()
    return r.json()

# Generic example using bioRxiv DOI pattern
r = requests.get(f"{BASE}/details/biorxiv/10.1101/2024.05.28.596311")
if r.ok:
    data = r.json()
    articles = data.get("collection", [])
    if articles:
        art = articles[-1]  # Latest version
        print(f"Title   : {art['title']}")
        print(f"Authors : {art['authors'][:100]}")
        print(f"Category: {art['category']}")
        print(f"Date    : {art['date']}")
        print(f"Version : {art['version']}")
        print(f"DOI     : {art['doi']}")
        print(f"Abstract (first 300): {art['abstract'][:300]}")

Query 3: Published Preprint Lookup

Check if a preprint has been published in a peer-reviewed journal.

python
import requests

BASE = "https://api.biorxiv.org"

def check_published(server, doi):
    """Check if a preprint DOI has a corresponding published article."""
    r = requests.get(f"{BASE}/publisher/{server}/{doi}")
    r.raise_for_status()
    data = r.json()
    return data.get("collection", [])

# Check one known preprint
doi = "10.1101/2024.05.28.596311"
published = check_published("biorxiv", doi)
if published:
    pub = published[0]
    print(f"Published in: {pub.get('published_journal')}")
    print(f"Published DOI: {pub.get('published_doi')}")
else:
    print(f"Preprint {doi} has not been published yet (or not tracked)")

Query 4: Category-Based Monitoring

Monitor preprints by specific research category.

python
import requests, pandas as pd
from datetime import date, timedelta

BASE = "https://api.biorxiv.org"

# bioRxiv categories include: bioinformatics, genomics, neuroscience,
# immunology, cell-biology, biochemistry, microbiology, etc.

def weekly_category_digest(category, days_back=7):
    """Get preprints from last N days for a specific category."""
    today = date.today()
    date_from = (today - timedelta(days=days_back)).strftime("%Y-%m-%d")
    date_to = today.strftime("%Y-%m-%d")

    all_articles = []
    cursor = 0
    while True:
        r = requests.get(f"{BASE}/details/biorxiv/{date_from}/{date_to}/{cursor}")
        data = r.json()
        batch = [a for a in data["collection"] if category.lower() in a["category"].lower()]
        all_articles.extend(batch)
        if len(data["collection"]) < 100:
            break
        cursor += 100

    return pd.DataFrame(all_articles)[["doi", "title", "authors", "date"]] if all_articles else pd.DataFrame()

df = weekly_category_digest("genomics", days_back=3)
print(f"Recent genomics preprints: {len(df)}")
print(df[["title", "date"]].head())

Query 5: medRxiv Clinical/Health Research

Query medRxiv for health and clinical science preprints.

python
import requests, pandas as pd

BASE = "https://api.biorxiv.org"

# medRxiv categories: infectious diseases, epidemiology, oncology,
# cardiology, neurology, psychiatry, public and global health, etc.

r = requests.get(f"{BASE}/details/medrxiv/2024-01-01/2024-01-07/0")
r.raise_for_status()
data = r.json()
total = int(data["messages"][0]["total"])  # cast: API returns total as string
print(f"medRxiv preprints Jan 1-7, 2024: {total}")

# Group by category
from collections import Counter
category_counts = Counter(a["category"] for a in data["collection"])
print("\nTop categories:")
for cat, count in category_counts.most_common(5):
    print(f"  {cat}: {count}")

Query 6: Bulk DOI Resolution and Abstract Extraction

Retrieve abstracts for a list of bioRxiv DOIs.

python
import requests, time, pandas as pd

BASE = "https://api.biorxiv.org"

dois = [
    "10.1101/2024.05.28.596311",
    "10.1101/2023.11.28.569048",
    "10.1101/2023.03.07.531523",
]

rows = []
for doi in dois:
    r = requests.get(f"{BASE}/details/biorxiv/{doi}")
    if r.ok:
        collection = r.json().get("collection", [])
        if collection:
            art = collection[-1]  # Latest version
            rows.append({
                "doi": doi,
                "title": art.get("title"),
                "category": art.get("category"),
                "date": art.get("date"),
                "abstract": art.get("abstract", "")[:300],
            })
    time.sleep(0.2)

df = pd.DataFrame(rows)
if not df.empty:
    df.to_csv("preprint_abstracts.csv", index=False)
    print(df[["doi", "title", "category"]].to_string(index=False))
else:
    print("No valid preprints found for provided DOIs")

Key Concepts

API Endpoint Structure

The bioRxiv API follows the pattern: https://api.biorxiv.org/details/{server}/{interval}/{cursor}

• server: biorxiv or medrxiv
• interval: either a DOI (for single record) or date_from/date_to (for date range)
• cursor: pagination offset (0, 100, 200…)

Version Tracking

Preprints can be updated; each update creates a new version (v1, v2, v3…). The API returns all versions chronologically; the last item in collection is always the most recent.

Common Workflows

Workflow 1: Weekly Preprint Digest Pipeline

Goal: Automatically collect last week's preprints in target categories and export for review.

python
import requests, time, pandas as pd
from datetime import date, timedelta

BASE = "https://api.biorxiv.org"

TARGET_CATEGORIES = ["bioinformatics", "genomics", "systems biology"]
DAYS_BACK = 7

today = date.today()
date_from = (today - timedelta(days=DAYS_BACK)).strftime("%Y-%m-%d")
date_to = today.strftime("%Y-%m-%d")

print(f"Fetching bioRxiv preprints from {date_from} to {date_to}")

all_articles = []
cursor = 0
while True:
    r = requests.get(f"{BASE}/details/biorxiv/{date_from}/{date_to}/{cursor}")
    r.raise_for_status()
    data = r.json()
    batch = data["collection"]
    if not batch:
        break
    all_articles.extend(batch)
    total = int(data["messages"][0]["total"])  # cast: API returns total as string
    cursor += 100
    if cursor >= total:
        break
    time.sleep(0.1)

# Filter by target categories
filtered = [a for a in all_articles
            if any(cat in a.get("category", "").lower() for cat in TARGET_CATEGORIES)]

df = pd.DataFrame(filtered)[["doi", "title", "authors", "category", "date"]]
df = df.drop_duplicates(subset="doi")  # Remove duplicate versions

output_file = f"biorxiv_digest_{date_to}.csv"
df.to_csv(output_file, index=False)
print(f"\nSaved {len(df)} preprints across {len(TARGET_CATEGORIES)} categories → {output_file}")
print(df[["title", "category", "date"]].head(5).to_string(index=False))

Workflow 2: Preprint-to-Publication Tracker

Goal: For a list of preprint DOIs, check which have been published and retrieve publication details.

python
import requests, time, pandas as pd

BASE = "https://api.biorxiv.org"

preprint_dois = [
    "10.1101/2024.05.28.596311",
    "10.1101/2023.11.28.569048",
]

results = []
for doi in preprint_dois:
    # Get preprint metadata
    r_meta = requests.get(f"{BASE}/details/biorxiv/{doi}")
    meta = {}
    if r_meta.ok and r_meta.json().get("collection"):
        art = r_meta.json()["collection"][-1]
        meta = {"title": art["title"], "category": art["category"],
                "preprint_date": art["date"]}

    # Check publication status
    r_pub = requests.get(f"{BASE}/publisher/biorxiv/{doi}")
    published = {}
    if r_pub.ok and r_pub.json().get("collection"):
        pub = r_pub.json()["collection"][0]
        published = {"journal": pub.get("published_journal"),
                     "pub_doi": pub.get("published_doi")}

    results.append({"preprint_doi": doi, **meta, **published})
    time.sleep(0.25)

df = pd.DataFrame(results)
print(df.to_string(index=False))
df.to_csv("preprint_publication_status.csv", index=False)

Key Parameters

| Parameter | Module | Default | Range / Options | Effect | |-----------|--------|---------|-----------------|--------| | server | URL path | required | "biorxiv", "medrxiv" | Select preprint server | | date_from | URL path | required | "YYYY-MM-DD" | Start of date range | | date_to | URL path | required | "YYYY-MM-DD" | End of date range | | cursor | URL path | 0 | 0, 100, 200… | Pagination offset (100 per page) | | category | Filter | — | e.g., "bioinformatics" | Category name substring match (post-filter) | | version | — | all versions | — | API returns all versions; use [-1] for latest |

Best Practices

1. Always take the last element for latest version: The collection array is sorted oldest-to-newest version. Use collection[-1] to get the most current version of a preprint.

1. Post-filter by category: The API does not natively filter by category; retrieve all preprints for a date range and filter client-side using if category in article["category"].lower().

1. Respect server resources: Add time.sleep(0.2) between individual DOI lookups; avoid bulk hammering the API.

1. Cross-check with PubMed: The publisher endpoint reveals when a preprint is published; use pubmed-database to retrieve the full peer-reviewed article metadata.

1. Handle missing abstracts: Some preprints have empty abstract fields. Always guard with art.get("abstract", "") or "No abstract available".

Common Recipes

Recipe: Download Preprint PDF (Cloudflare-aware)

When to use: Retrieve full-text PDF for a bioRxiv preprint. Caveat: as of 2026, www.biorxiv.org is fronted by Cloudflare's anti-bot challenge — direct requests.get(..., headers={"User-Agent": "Mozilla/5.0"}) consistently returns HTTP 403 ("Just a moment...") even with a Session and a landing-page warmup. The pattern below attempts a best-effort download with realistic browser headers, then falls back to EuropePMC for metadata if blocked.

python
import requests

def download_biorxiv_pdf(doi, out_path=None):
    """Best-effort PDF download. If Cloudflare blocks, return False so the caller
    can fall back to EuropePMC metadata or open the landing page in a browser."""
    pdf_url = f"https://www.biorxiv.org/content/{doi}.full.pdf"
    s = requests.Session()
    s.headers.update({
        "User-Agent": ("Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64) AppleWebKit/537.36 "
                       "(KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/124.0.0.0 Safari/537.36"),
        "Accept": "text/html,application/xhtml+xml,application/xml;q=0.9,application/pdf,*/*;q=0.8",
        "Accept-Language": "en-US,en;q=0.5",
    })
    # Warm up the landing page first (sometimes lets Cloudflare's "trust" cookie set)
    s.get(f"https://www.biorxiv.org/content/{doi}v1", timeout=30)
    r = s.get(pdf_url, timeout=60)
    if r.ok and r.content.startswith(b"%PDF"):
        out = out_path or f"{doi.replace('/', '_')}.pdf"
        with open(out, "wb") as f:
            f.write(r.content)
        print(f"Downloaded {out} ({len(r.content)//1024} KB)")
        return True
    print(f"PDF blocked (HTTP {r.status_code}); falling back to metadata-only via EuropePMC")
    return False

def europepmc_metadata(doi):
    """Fetch preprint metadata via EuropePMC when bioRxiv PDF is blocked.
    EuropePMC indexes bioRxiv as source 'PPR' and exposes a stable landing URL."""
    r = requests.get("https://www.ebi.ac.uk/europepmc/webservices/rest/search",
                     params={"query": f"DOI:{doi}", "format": "json"}, timeout=30)
    r.raise_for_status()
    hits = r.json().get("resultList", {}).get("result", [])
    if not hits:
        return None
    h = hits[0]
    return {
        "source": h.get("source"),                      # 'PPR' for preprints
        "epmc_id": h.get("id"),                         # e.g. 'PPR860608'
        "title": h.get("title"),
        "landing_url": f"https://europepmc.org/article/{h.get('source')}/{h.get('id')}",
    }

doi = "10.1101/2024.05.28.596311"
if not download_biorxiv_pdf(doi):
    meta = europepmc_metadata(doi)
    print(f"  EuropePMC landing: {meta['landing_url']}")
    print(f"  Title: {meta['title'][:80]}")

Recipe: Count Preprints by Category

When to use: Analyze the distribution of preprints across bioRxiv categories in a time window.

python
import requests, pandas as pd
from collections import Counter

r = requests.get("https://api.biorxiv.org/details/biorxiv/2024-01-01/2024-01-07/0")
data = r.json()
total = int(data["messages"][0]["total"])  # cast: API returns total as a string

# Fetch all pages
all_articles = data["collection"]
for cursor in range(100, min(total, 1000), 100):
    r2 = requests.get(f"https://api.biorxiv.org/details/biorxiv/2024-01-01/2024-01-07/{cursor}")
    all_articles.extend(r2.json()["collection"])

counts = Counter(a["category"] for a in all_articles)
df = pd.DataFrame(counts.most_common(), columns=["category", "count"])
print(df.head(10).to_string(index=False))

Recipe: Check if Preprint Has Been Published

When to use: Quick single-preprint publication check.

python
import requests

doi = "10.1101/2024.05.28.596311"
r = requests.get(f"https://api.biorxiv.org/publisher/biorxiv/{doi}")
collection = r.json().get("collection", [])
if collection:
    print(f"Published: {collection[0]['published_journal']} | DOI: {collection[0]['published_doi']}")
else:
    print("Not published or not tracked")

Troubleshooting

| Problem | Cause | Solution | |---------|-------|----------| | collection is empty | DOI not found or date range has no results | Verify DOI format (starts with 10.1101/); check date range | | Duplicate preprints in results | Multiple versions returned | Deduplicate by DOI: df.drop_duplicates(subset='doi', keep='last') | | Missing abstract field | Some preprints don't have structured abstracts | Guard with art.get("abstract", "") or "N/A" | | total count vs retrieved mismatch | New preprints added during pagination | Accept approximate totals; preprints are added continuously | | PDF download blocked (HTTP 403 "Just a moment...") | Cloudflare anti-bot on www.biorxiv.org/.../*.full.pdf (cannot be bypassed by a Mozilla/5.0 UA alone, nor by a Session + landing-page warmup) | Try the Session + warmup recipe; if still blocked, fall back to EuropePMC (source=PPR) for metadata, or fetch the PDF interactively from the bioRxiv landing page in a browser | | cursor >= total never triggers; loop runs forever | data['messages'][0]['total'] is returned as a string (e.g. '1119'); int_cursor >= str_total raises TypeError or compares lexically | Cast explicitly: int(data["messages"][0]["total"]) in every pagination loop | | collection empty for a specific DOI | The DOI never resolved to a real preprint (e.g. fake placeholder like 2023.01.01.000001, or a stale/withdrawn DOI) | Verify the DOI on https://www.biorxiv.org/content/{doi}v1 first; recent DOIs from a date-range listing are the safest examples | | Slow pagination for large date ranges | Large number of preprints | Use narrower date windows (3-7 days) for busy periods |

Related Skills

• pubmed-database — Peer-reviewed biomedical literature for verifying published versions of preprints
• openalex-database — Broader scholarly index including bioRxiv content after indexing lag
• literature-review — Guide for incorporating preprints into systematic reviews
• scientific-brainstorming — Using preprint alerts as input for hypothesis generation

References

• bioRxiv API documentation — Official API endpoint and response format
• bioRxiv about page — Server overview, submission guidelines
• medRxiv about page — Health science preprint server details
• Preprint guidelines review (Fraser et al. 2021) — Best practices for citing and using preprints in research