Author: Rebecca Mattson, Director of Operations and Scholarship, Penn State Dickinson Law Montague Law Library
The Social Science Research Network (SSRN), a popular location for pre-prints and works in progress, is ending commercial subscriptions at the end of 2026 in order to strengthen its free preprint model.
What This Means for You
Institutional research paper series sites will end at the end of 2026. Institutional paper series are branded for the institution, host the faculty scholarship of an institution, and are distributed in an eJournal.
Current contracts will end at the contract end date, unless that date is past 2026. Contracts that were renewed into 2027 will be terminated at the end of 2026, and you should receive a refund. Make sure to be in contact with your SSRN representative.
Paper series will remain live until the end of the year. Faculty articles will still be distributed in the SSRN curated eJournals.
Can I Still Upload on Behalf of Faculty?
You will retain institutional submitter access until the end of 2026, even if your term ended before that date. However, SSRN will no longer be granting access to papers to make revisions on behalf of a faculty submitter. SSRN will be evaluating institutional submitter access in 2027.
What About Authors?
Authors will still be able to submit papers to SSRN.
What About Metrics?
Downloads, views, citations, and PlumX mentions will remain available on the author’s profile page, and institutional statistics will be available through the rankings.
If You Also Have Legal Scholarship Network Site Subscriptions
If your institution currently pays for some users to receive network site subscription emails, those paid subscriptions will also end at the end of the contract or the end of the year, whichever comes first. Users who were already added to the subscription will be transitioned to complimentary access for the remainder of the year. SSRN will be evaluating the plan for subscriptions in 2027.
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