The eiRxiv Posting Process

Posting Process Overview

From brainstorming your first idea to getting feedback on your preprint, here’s what you can expect from the eiRxiv process:

complete a research project

Students start a research project by asking a research question, followed by planning and conducting experiments, collecting data, analyzing results, and drawing conclusions.

Prepare the Manuscript

After students complete the research project, they write about their research using scientific guidelines, transforming it into a scientific manuscript.

Submit the Manuscript

A student creates an eiRxiv account and invites an adult author (such as a teacher, parent, or mentor), who then submits the manuscript for the student. This adult also serves as the corresponding author – meaning they handle all communication with eiRxiv and guide the students through making any changes our editors request.

Pre-Review Check

Once the manuscript is received, eiRxiv performs a pre-review check to ensure the manuscript is clear and logically structured. eiRxiv also screens all submissions to make sure they meet our guidelines, aren’t plagiarized, are within the expertise of our scientific reviewers, are hypothesis-driven, and do not endanger individual or public health. eiRxiv may request revisions from students before the manuscript can be posted.

Sign Consent Forms

After passing the pre-review check, all adult authors and parents/guardians of student authors will be asked to give permission for the manuscript to be permanently published (often called “posting” for a printing).

Post the Manuscript on eiRixv

With approval from all authors, the manuscript will be posted on eiRxiv and will be permanently publicly available to both the scientific community and the general public.

Post Feedback from eiRxiv scientific reviewers

For every manuscript posted on eiRxiv, an eiRxiv scientific reviewer will be invited to provide constructive and supportive feedback.This feedback will highlight what students have done well in their manuscript and kindly point out areas where the manuscript could be strengthened. The feedback will be permanently posted publicly, alongside the preprint manuscript.

survey invitation

Two weeks after the manuscript and feedback are posted on eiRxiv, we invite student authors to share their experience with eiRxiv by participating in our survey. This voluntary survey helps us understand what students learn through the eiRxiv process and how we can improve eiRxiv to better support young researchers.

How long does the eiRxiv process take?

Completing and submitting a research project

Dependent on the author, usually several weeks to months

Prereview check

1-2 weeks (may be longer if revisions are needed)

Posting after prereview

1-2 weeks, plus any additional time required for all authors and parents/guardians to sign consent forms

Receiving feedback

2-4 weeks

Receiving survey

2 weeks

Total estimated time

6-8 weeks

Kindly note that these times are all approximate and will vary depending on the number of manuscripts in our system at one time. During school breaks (such as the winter and summer breaks), we receive our highest number of submissions and there are usually delays of 2 weeks at each stage of the review process while we work to process all submissions. We appreciate your patience as our volunteers work on your submissions! 

You can always check the status of your manuscript by logging into your account on our submission platform. 

As the eiRxiv process is already quite rapid, we do not expedite the review and publication process of any manuscript at JEI.