bioRxiv Scraper

Scrape biology and medical preprints from bioRxiv and medRxiv — title, authors, corresponding author, subject category, DOI, dates, version, and abstract. Built on the official bioRxiv/medRxiv API: no API key or setup needed.

Pick a server and a look-back window, get a clean, dated list of the newest preprints — ready to export to CSV, Excel, or JSON, or to power a research-monitoring feed.

Features

• Official, reliable source — reads the public bioRxiv/medRxiv details API.
• Both servers — bioRxiv (biology) and medRxiv (medical/health sciences).
• Category filter — keep only the subjects you care about (e.g. genomics, neuroscience, epidemiology).
• Publication status — see whether a preprint has since been published in a journal.
• Monitoring-ready — schedule it and catch new preprints in your field as they post.

Use cases

• Literature monitoring — researchers and labs tracking the newest preprints by topic.
• Systematic reviews — build dated datasets of preprints by category and date range.
• Science journalism & analytics — trend-watch what's being posted across fields.
• Alerting — schedule daily and flag new work from a category or institution.

Input

Field	Type	Description
server	enum	biorxiv or medrxiv. Default biorxiv.
days	integer	Look back this many days from today. Default 7.
categories	string[]	Keep only these subject categories (case-insensitive). Optional.
maxItems	integer	Max preprints. Default 200.

Example

{
  "server": "biorxiv",
  "days": 7,
  "categories": ["genomics", "neuroscience"],
  "maxItems": 200
}

Output

{
  "server": "biorxiv",
  "doi": "10.1101/2025.04.01.646532",
  "title": "Simulated Annealing for Unique Nucleosome Arrangements from Cell-Free DNA",
  "authors": "Lambrinos, M. R.; Rahimi, T.; Mehra, T.",
  "correspondingAuthor": "Zsolt Balazs",
  "institution": "University of Zurich",
  "date": "2025-08-01",
  "version": "2",
  "category": "bioinformatics",
  "type": "new results",
  "abstract": "…",
  "published": null,
  "isPublished": false,
  "url": "https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.04.01.646532",
  "doiUrl": "https://doi.org/10.1101/2025.04.01.646532",
  "scrapedAt": "2026-08-11T19:00:00.000Z"
}

Download the dataset as JSON, CSV, Excel, or XML, or pull it via the Apify API.

Pricing

Pay-per-event: $0.01 per run start (per GB of run memory) plus $0.50 per 1,000 preprints. You only pay for preprints actually returned. See the Pricing tab for current rates.

FAQ

Do I need an API key? No. The bioRxiv/medRxiv API is public and free; this Actor packages it into clean, filtered rows with links.

What categories can I filter by? Any of the servers' subject categories, e.g. genomics, neuroscience, microbiology, bioinformatics, epidemiology. The match is case-insensitive.

Can I monitor for new preprints? Yes — schedule the Actor (e.g. daily) with your server, days, and categories.

What does isPublished mean? true if bioRxiv/medRxiv has linked the preprint to a published journal article (the published field then holds that DOI).

Disclaimer

This Actor uses the public bioRxiv/medRxiv API. It is not affiliated with or endorsed by bioRxiv, medRxiv, or Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. The data is public; you are responsible for how you use it.