ArXiv Caps AI-Era Paper Submissions
The preprint platform arXiv has introduced a limit of two submissions per person per calendar month to address a surge in AI-generated and low-quality papers, according to a report by The Decoder. The platform recorded more than 40,300 submissions in September 2026, doubling its volume over two years and growing sixfold in the artificial intelligence category alone.
Thomas G. Dietterich, chair of the arXiv Editorial Advisory Council, noted that a small group of authors had been submitting large volumes of thin texts, sliced research, and unverified AI output. This volume overwhelmed the volunteer moderators who maintain the platform quality control, creating significant delays for researchers waiting to share legitimate work. Under the new rule, rejected papers still count against the monthly limit, though deleted drafts return the slot to the author.
The policy serves as a temporary measure while arXiv develops scalable moderation tools. Academic conferences face similar pressures, with recent events reporting massive spikes in abstracts and instances of fabricated citations in accepted studies. arXiv recently separated from Cornell University to operate as an independent nonprofit, securing $17.2 million in funding partly dedicated to upgrading its technical infrastructure to handle automated content.
Based on reporting by the-decoder.com.
