# ResearchHub — Full Reference > ResearchHub is an open science platform where researchers publish, peer review, fund, and discuss scientific research. Contributors earn ResearchCoin (RSC) for their work. ## About ResearchHub ResearchHub's mission is to accelerate the pace of scientific research. It is a collaborative platform centered on funding scientific work and conducting open peer review of both proposals and preprints, with discussion happening in topic-specific communities called Hubs. Funded proposals have a clear path from idea to execution. The platform is maintained by two entities: - **ResearchHub, Inc.** — the technology company that builds and operates the platform, based in San Francisco, CA. - **ResearchHub Foundation** — helps fund research, runs the editorial program for peer reviews, and houses the community. ResearchHub differs from traditional academic publishers because approved peer reviews earn $150 worth of RSC, all content is published open access, peer review completes in as few as 14 days, and a token-based incentive system (ResearchCoin) rewards contributions. User-contributed content (excluding peer reviews) is licensed under CC BY 4.0; peer review content is governed by a separate license (see Terms of Service, Section 4A). ## Core Values ResearchHub believes scientific research should be: - **Accessible** — No paywalls, no costs to participate. Summaries in plain English. - **Collaborative** — Academics and non-academics interact publicly, incentivized by ResearchCoin. - **Efficient** — Traditional funding-to-publication cycles take 3–5 years. ResearchHub aims for at least one order of magnitude faster. ## Products & Services ### Research Funding Direct funding pathways for scientific research. Funded proposals have a clear path from idea to execution. - **Funding Opportunities:** Open opportunities from the Foundation and community funders, with defined scope, funding amount in USD, and deadlines. Spans biomedical sciences, computational biology, physics, economics, and more. - **Proposals:** Researchers submit their own proposals for original work. Each undergoes open peer review evaluating methodology, significance, and feasibility. Funded projects can be supported with RSC, donor-advised funds (DAF), or credit card contributions. - **Nonprofit attachment:** US-based researchers can attach their university nonprofit for tax-deductible contributions and fast fund delivery (typically 2–3 weeks). More: https://researchhub.com/fund ### ResearchHub Endowment The ResearchHub Endowment turns RSC holdings into a continuous stream of research funding. Anyone holding RSC in their ResearchHub account automatically earns yield in the form of **Funding Credits** — a non-transferable currency that tracks the price of RSC but can *only* be used to fund preregistered research proposals on the platform. The more RSC you hold, the more science you can fund. Key properties: - **Automatic yield, no action required.** RSC held in a ResearchHub account earns Funding Credits without staking, locking, or signing transactions. - **Daily distribution.** Credits are distributed every day based on each holder's share of total RSC held on the platform. Holders can begin funding research almost immediately after depositing. - **No lockups, principal always revocable.** Holders can withdraw their RSC principal at any time. There are no gas fees and no penalty for exiting. - **Restricted use by design.** Funding Credits cannot be transferred, traded, cashed out, or spent on bounties or tips. They exist only to fund preregistered research proposals — the yield must flow to science. - **Self-balancing yield.** The protocol emits new RSC on a decaying schedule (starting at 9.5M RSC in Year 1, halving every 64 years). Annual yield rate depends on what share of total RSC supply is held on the platform: lower platform participation produces higher per-holder yields, higher participation produces lower yields. At an estimated average 30% participation scenario, Year 1 yield is approximately 23.6%. This makes the Endowment a vehicle for individual donors, institutions, and foundations to convert one-time capital into ongoing, transparent research funding without giving up the underlying assets. More: https://researchhub.com/endowment Documentation: https://docs.researchhub.com/researchhub/product-features/fund/researchhub-endowment ### Peer Review Program ResearchHub compensates researchers for peer-reviewing both scientific preprints and funding proposals. Unlike traditional peer review — typically unpaid and months-long — approved reviews on ResearchHub earn $150 worth of RSC with turnaround around 10 days. Reviewers build a public track record that strengthens their academic profile. Peer reviews provide context for authors, funders, and readers — they are not used to gatekeep publication. Guidelines: https://docs.researchhub.com/researchhub-foundation/programs-and-initiatives/peer-review-program/peer-review-guidelines More: https://researchhub.com/peer-review ### Home Activity Feed The home page is a live feed of platform-wide activity — funding, peer review, and discussion as it happens. It has tabs for open Requests for Proposals and for community proposals seeking funding. More: https://researchhub.com/ ### ResearchHub Journal An open access, peer-reviewed scientific journal built for speed and transparency. - Accepts research across all scientific disciplines. - Peer review turnaround in as few as 14 days. - Submissions are immediately available as preprints. - Reviews are conducted openly (unblinded) and published alongside the paper. - Approved reviews earn $150 worth of RSC. - Papers that complete review are published as the version of record. More: https://researchhub.com/journal ### ResearchCoin (RSC) ResearchCoin (RSC) is an ERC-20 token earned by contributing to ResearchHub. Uses: - Create bounties for peer reviews and specific tasks. - Tip users for valuable contributions. - Fund research proposals. - Earn Funding Credits via the ResearchHub Endowment by holding RSC on the platform. Documentation: https://docs.researchhub.com ### Hubs (Topics) Research is organized into "Hubs" by discipline. Each Hub acts as a live journal, with highly upvoted content rising to the top. Users can browse, follow, and contribute to any Hub. Within each Hub, content can be viewed by Popular or Latest. Browse: https://researchhub.com/browse ## Frequently Asked Questions ### Is content on ResearchHub open? Yes. User-contributed content (excluding peer reviews) is shared under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 (CC BY 4.0). Anyone can reuse that content for any purpose with attribution — a hyperlink back to the source page is sufficient. Peer review content is governed by a separate license under the Terms of Service (Section 4A). CC BY is the gold standard for scholarly content, used by PLOS, eLife, and BMC. ### What papers can be uploaded? Users can create a page for any paper to enable summary and discussion. Fulltext PDF uploads are limited to papers released under CC BY or CC0 licenses that are already publicly available elsewhere. ### How does peer review work? Researchers browse open peer-review bounties — covering both preprints and funding proposals — find work in their field, and submit structured reviews following published guidelines. Reviews are evaluated by the requesting author or editorial team. Approved reviews earn $150 worth of RSC and are published openly alongside the paper or proposal. ### How does research funding work? Researchers apply to open funding opportunities or create their own proposals. Proposals undergo open peer review. Funded projects receive RSC by default; if a researcher attaches a linked nonprofit (such as their university), the funding is delivered as USD to that nonprofit, enabling tax-deductible contributions. ### How does the ResearchHub Endowment work? By holding RSC in a ResearchHub account, holders automatically earn yield as Funding Credits — distributed daily based on their share of total RSC held on the platform. Funding Credits are non-transferable and can only be spent on funding preregistered research proposals; they cannot be cashed out, traded, or used for bounties or tips. There are no lockups and the RSC principal is always revocable. Yield rates are self-balancing: when less RSC is held on the platform, per-holder yield is higher; when more is held, yield is lower. The mechanism converts one-time capital into perpetual research funding while leaving the principal under the holder's control. ## Key Links - [Website](https://researchhub.com): Main ResearchHub platform - [About](https://researchhub.com/about): Mission and values - [Funding](https://researchhub.com/fund): Research funding opportunities - [Endowment](https://researchhub.com/endowment): Earn Funding Credits by holding RSC - [Peer Review](https://researchhub.com/peer-review): Earn for peer reviews - [Proposals](https://researchhub.com/fund/proposals): Community research proposals seeking funding - [Journal](https://researchhub.com/journal): ResearchHub Journal - [Browse Hubs](https://researchhub.com/browse): Explore research by discipline - [Documentation](https://docs.researchhub.com): ResearchHub documentation - [Foundation](https://researchhub.foundation): ResearchHub Foundation - [X](https://x.com/researchhub): ResearchHub on X - [GitHub](https://github.com/ResearchHub): Open-source repositories - [LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/company/researchhubtechnologies): ResearchHub on LinkedIn - [Email](mailto:hello@researchhub.com): hello@researchhub.com - [Privacy Policy](https://researchhub.com/privacy): Privacy policy - [Terms of Service](https://researchhub.com/tos): User agreement