# Zenodo

9 Hacker News commenters recommended Zenodo and 2 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 5 of 13 months.

**Verdict:** Free research repository that issues DOIs and preserves papers long term; critics note uploads that hang and metadata that can be changed.

## Why people recommend it

- Free DOIs and timestamped priority (2 comments): "You could publish preliminary versions of your paper on Zenodo. This way you get a DOI and can claim authorship" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47334481)) "publish everything on zenodo for timestamp/priority" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49929175))
- Long-term preservation of research (2 comments): "government sponsored long term storage facilities like Zenodo that are likely to outlast ACM" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46476264)) "Zenodo is among the best for long-term preservation" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49309998))
- Seen as a positive step (2 comments): "Zenodo seems like a good step in the right direction." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49769762)) "Yes, it's not everything, but it's a start." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46810218))

## What people warn about

- Metadata can be changed (1 comments): "their meta-data management is somewhat problematic; i.e., it can be changed at whim, which makes indexing difficult" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47465992))
- Uploads hang and reset (1 comments): "uploads hang and will just reset periodically" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49754052))
- Attracts AI-generated papers (2 comments): "Has Zenodo become the place where "citizen scientists" post their Ai generated papers" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49741547)) "notorious for self-publishing authors plagued by runaway AI sycophantic psychosis" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49142905))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [arXiv](https://hackerapproved.com/p/arxiv.md): 83 recommend
- [Sci-Hub](https://hackerapproved.com/p/sci-hub.md): 17 recommend
- [ACM Digital Library](https://hackerapproved.com/p/acm-digital-library.md): 9 recommend
- [JSTOR](https://hackerapproved.com/p/jstor.md): 7 recommend
- [HAL (hal.science)](https://hackerapproved.com/p/hal.md): 7 recommend

## Where to get it

- [Visit the official site](https://zenodo.org/)

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "Zenodo", https://hackerapproved.com/p/zenodo/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).