View source for Preprint

{{Short description|Academic paper prior to journal publication}}
{{broader|Manuscript (publishing)}}
[[File:Preprint postprint published.svg|thumb|Typical publishing workflow for an academic journal article ([[Manuscript (publishing)|preprint]], [[postprint]], and [[Version of record|published]]) with [[open access]] sharing rights per [[SHERPA/RoMEO]].]]

In [[academic publishing]], a '''preprint''' is a version of a [[Scholar|scholarly]] or [[scientific paper]] that precedes formal [[peer review]] and publication in a peer-reviewed scholarly or [[scientific journal]]. The preprint may be available, often as a non-typeset version available for [[Free content|free]], before or after a paper is published in a journal.

==History==
Since 1991, preprints have increasingly been distributed electronically on the [[Internet]], rather than as paper copies. This has given rise to massive preprint databases such as [[arXiv]] and [[HAL (open archive)]] etc. to [[institutional repository|institutional repositories]]. The sharing of preprints goes back to at least the 1960s, when the [[National Institutes of Health]] circulated biological preprints. After six years the use of these [[Information Exchange Groups]] was stopped, partially because journals stopped accepting submissions shared via these channels.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Cobb |first1=Matthew |title=The prehistory of biology preprints: A forgotten experiment from the 1960s |journal=PLOS Biology |date=16 November 2017 |volume=15 |issue=11 |article-number=e2003995 |doi=10.1371/journal.pbio.2003995|pmid=29145518 |pmc=5690419 |doi-access=free }}</ref> In 2017, the [[Medical Research Council (United Kingdom)|Medical Research Council]] started supporting citations of preprints in grant and fellowship applications,<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.ukri.org/councils/mrc/guidance-for-applicants/policies-and-guidance-for-researchers/preprints/ |title=The MRC supports preprints |publisher=Medical Research Council |date=2017-01-03|website=www.mrc.ac.uk|access-date=2018-09-06}}</ref> and [[Wellcome Trust]] started accepting preprints in grant applications.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://wellcome.ac.uk/news/we-now-accept-preprints-grant-applications|title=We now accept preprints in grant applications |publisher=Wellcome|website=wellcome.ac.uk|date=10 January 2017 |access-date=2017-01-10}}</ref>

In February 2017, a coalition of scientists and biomedical funding bodies including the National Institutes of Health, the Medical Research Council and the Wellcome Trust launched a proposal for a central site for life-sciences preprints.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Callaway |first=Ewen |title=Heavyweight funders back central site for life-sciences preprints|journal=Nature|volume=542 |issue=7641 |pages=283–284 |language=en|doi=10.1038/nature.2017.21466|pmid=28202994 |bibcode=2017Natur.542..283C|date=2017-02-16 |s2cid=4466963 |doi-access=free }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://asapbio.org/principles|title=Principles for establishing a Central Service for Preprints: a statement from a consortium of funders {{!}} ASAPbio|website=asapbio.org|date=13 February 2017 |language=en-US|access-date=2017-02-13}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://asapbio.org/asapbio-newsletter-vol-7|title=ASAPbio newsletter vol 7 – Funders sign onto principles for preprint development, RFA released, scientific society town hall {{!}} ASAPbio|website=asapbio.org|date=14 February 2017 |language=en-US|access-date=2017-02-14}}</ref> In February 2017, [[SciELO]] announced plans to set up a preprints server – SciELO Preprints.<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://blog.scielo.org/en/2017/02/22/scielo-preprints-on-the-way/#.WK2Q6jsrI2w|title=SciELO Preprints on the way |date=2017-02-22|newspaper=SciELO in Perspective|access-date=2017-02-22|language=en-US}}</ref> In March 2017, the National Institutes for Health issued a new policy encouraging research preprint submissions.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/notice-files/NOT-OD-17-050.html|title=NOT-OD-17-050: Reporting Preprints and Other Interim Research Products|website=grants.nih.gov|language=en-US|access-date=2017-03-25}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.science.org/content/article/nih-enables-investigators-include-draft-preprints-grant-proposals |title=NIH enables investigators to include draft preprints in grant proposals|date=2017-03-24|work=Science {{!}} AAAS|access-date=2017-03-27 |language=en}}</ref> In April 2017, [[Center for Open Science]] announced that it will be launching six new preprint archives.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://cos.io/blog/public-goods-infrastructure-preprints-and-innovation-scholarly-communication/|title=Public Goods Infrastructure for Preprints and Innovation in Scholarly Communication|website=cos.io|language=en|access-date=2017-04-19}}</ref> At the end of the 2010s, libraries and discovery tools increasingly integrate [[Unpaywall]] data, which indexes millions of preprints and other [[green open access]] sources and manages to serve over half of the requests by users without the need for subscriptions.<ref>{{cite journal|first1=Kerry|last1=Dhakal|title=Unpaywall|journal=Journal of the Medical Library Association|date=15 April 2019|volume=107|issue=2|pages=286–288|pmc=6466485|doi=10.5195/jmla.2019.650}}</ref>

During the early months of the [[COVID-19 pandemic]], the need for published research on the disease spurred a wave of research articles being released as preprints,<ref name="auto">{{Cite journal|last1=Heidary|first1=Fatemeh|last2=Gharebaghi|first2=Reza|date=2021-05-31|title=COVID-19 impact on research and publication ethics|journal=Medical Hypothesis, Discovery & Innovation in Ophthalmology|language=en|volume=10|issue=1|pages=1–4|doi=10.51329/mehdiophthal1414|pmid=37641621 |issn=2322-3219|doi-access=free|pmc=10460218}}</ref> bypassing the peer-review and publication process, which was proving too slow in the context of an active and novel pandemic. The release of COVID-related preprint articles, along with other COVID-related articles published by traditional journals, contributed to the largest ever single-year increase in scholarly articles.<ref>{{Cite journal|title=No revolution: COVID-19 boosted open access, but preprints are only a fraction of pandemic papers|date=15 September 2021|orig-date=Originally published 8 September 2021|last=Brainard|first=Jeffrey|language=en|doi=10.1126/science.acx9058|doi-access=free|journal=Science}}</ref>

==Role==
===Academic practices===
{{See also|List of academic journals by preprint policy|List of research funders by preprint licensing policy}}Publication of manuscripts in a peer-reviewed journal often takes weeks, months or even years from the time of initial submission, owing to the time required by editors and reviewers to evaluate and critique manuscripts, and the time required by authors to address critiques. The need to quickly circulate current results within a scholarly community has led researchers to distribute documents known as preprints, which are manuscripts that have yet to undergo [[peer review]]. The immediate distribution of preprints allows authors to receive early [[Corrective feedback|feedback]] from their peers, which may be helpful in revising and preparing articles for submission.<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://blogs.plos.org/absolutely-maybe/2016/05/01/breaking-down-pros-and-cons-of-preprints-in-biomedicine/|title=Breaking Down Pros and Cons of Preprints in Biomedicine |date=2016-05-01|work=Absolutely Maybe|access-date=2018-01-12|language=en-US}}</ref> Preprint are also used to demonstrate the precedence of the discoveries and a way to protect the intellectual property (a prompt availability of the discovery can be used to block patenting or discourage competing parties).

Most publishers allow work to be published to preprint servers before submission. A minority of publishers decide on a case-by-case basis or interpret the [[Ingelfinger rule|Ingelfinger Rule]] to disqualify from submission.<ref>{{Cite news|url = https://www.economist.com/news/science-and-technology/21694990-old-fashioned-ways-reporting-new-discoveries-are-holding-back-medical-research|title = Taking the online medicine|newspaper = The Economist|issn = 0013-0613|access-date=2016-03-23}}</ref> Yet, many journals prohibit or discourage the use of preprints in the references as they are not considered as credible sources.

Some journal-independent review services ([[Peerage of Science]], [[Peer Community In]], Review Commons, [[eLife]] Preprint Review) offer [[peer review]] on preprints. These peer-reviews are either a first step before publication in a journal (Peerage of Science, Review Commons, [[eLife]] Preprint Review) or result in a formal editorial decision (Peer Community In) without precluding submission in journals.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://asapbio.org/comparing-review-services|title=Comparing journal-independent review services |publisher=ASAPbio|website=asapbio.org|date=24 July 2020 |access-date=2021-01-22}}</ref>

===Stages of printing===
While a preprint is an article that has not yet undergone peer review, a [[postprint]] is an article which has been peer reviewed in preparation for publication in a journal. Both the preprint and postprint may differ from the final published version of an article. Preprints and postprints together are referred to as e-prints or [[eprint]]s.<ref>"[http://www.eprints.org/openaccess/self-faq/#What-is-Eprint Self-archiving FAQ]". EPrints.</ref>

The word [[reprint]] refers to hard copies of papers that have already been published; reprints can be produced by the journal publisher, but can also be generated from digital versions (for example, from an electronic database of peer-reviewed journals), or from eprints [[self-archiving|self-archived]] by their authors in their institutional repositories.

===Tenure and promotion===
In academia, preprints are not likely to be weighed heavily when a scholar is evaluated for tenure or promotion, unless the preprint becomes the basis for a peer-reviewed publication.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Callaway|first1=Ewen|last2=Powell|first2=Kendall|date=2016-02-18|title=Biologists urged to hug a preprint|journal=Nature|volume=530|issue=7590|page=265|doi=10.1038/530265a|pmid=26887471|bibcode=2016Natur.530..265C|doi-access=free}}</ref>

Some important results in mathematics have been published only on the preprint server [[arXiv]].<ref name="auto1">{{citation|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/07/01/AR2010070106247.html|title=Russian mathematician wins $1 million prize, but he appears to be happy with $0|newspaper=Washington Post|date=July 2, 2010|first=Marc|last=Kaufman}}</ref><ref>Nadejda Lobastova and Michael Hirst, [http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/maths-genius-living-in-poverty/2006/08/20/1156012411120.html "Maths genius living in poverty"], Sydney Morning Herald, August 21, 2006</ref> After nearly a century of effort by mathematicians, [[Grigori Perelman]] published a series of preprint papers on the [[arXiv]] between 2002 and 2003, in which he presented a proof of the [[Poincaré conjecture]].<ref name="perelman200211">{{cite arXiv|author=Perelman, Grisha|title=The entropy formula for the Ricci flow and its geometric applications|eprint = math.DG/0211159|date=November 11, 2002}}</ref><ref name="perelman200303">{{cite arXiv|author=Perelman, Grisha|title=Ricci flow with surgery on three-manifolds|eprint=math.DG/0303109 | date = 10 March 2003}}</ref><ref name="perelman200307">{{cite arXiv|author=Perelman, Grisha|title=Finite extinction time for the solutions to the Ricci flow on certain three-manifolds|eprint= math.DG/0307245|date=July 17, 2003}}</ref> He was offered both the $1 million [[Millennium Prize Problems|Millennium Prize]] and the [[Fields Medal]] for the result, but he declined both prizes.<ref name="auto1"/>

=== Advantages of preprints ===
The advantages of preprints can be summarized as: prompt dissemination of outcomes, contributes to free flow of information, increase chances of early feedback and comments, increase number of citations, chances of academic collaborations, make authors enthusiastic, may reduce [[predatory publishing]], increases transparency, may publish negative outcomes and controversies, may receive [[Digital object identifier|DOI]], link to [[ORCID]], [[plagiarism]] check, chance to receive [[Grant (money)|grants]] and awards, promotion of young researchers, early credit, good place for [[hypothesis]], and early detection of science misconduct.<ref name="auto"/>

=== Disadvantages of preprints ===
The disadvantages of preprints could be summarized as: lack of [[Peer review|peer-review]], absence of quality (in controversy), concerns about premature data, media coverage not properly presenting the inherent uncertainty of preprints,<ref name="BesançonPeiffer-Smadja2020">{{cite journal|last1=Besançon|first1=Lonni|last2=Peiffer-Smadja|first2=Nathan|last3=Segalas|first3=Corentin|last4=Jiang|first4=Haiting|last5=Masuzzo|first5=Paola|last6=Smout|first6=Cooper|last7=Billy|first7=Eric|last8=Deforet|first8=Maxime|last9=Leyrat|first9=Clémence|title=Open Science Saves Lives: Lessons from the COVID-19 Pandemic|journal=BMC Medical Research Methodology|year=2020|volume=21|issue=1|page=117|doi=10.1186/s12874-021-01304-y|pmid=34090351|pmc=8179078 |doi-access=free }}</ref> risk of double citation (by publishing a peer-reviewed article, the preprint may also be cited), lack of ethical and statistical guidelines, lack of respect for [[Committee on Publication Ethics|COPE]] or [[ICMJE recommendations|ICMJE]] guidelines, breach of [[intellectual property]] regulations in some countries, possible harm to health in certain cases, information overload, breach of [[Ingelfinger rule]] (a strategy conducted to discourage dissemination of research reports before they are published in the journal), rush to post low-quality research.<ref name="auto"/>

== Types of preprint servers ==
{{See also|List of preprint repositories}}
{{Unreferenced|section|date=November 2025}}
The preprint servers can be grouped in three categories: general (accepting practically all preprints, frequently with bias towards some topic, publisher e.g. [[Authorea]]), field-specific (e.g. [[bioRxiv]], [[ChemRxiv]]) and regional (e.g. [[AfricArXiv|AfricArxiv]], [[Arabixiv]]). Additionally, preprints can be categorised by the owner (private publishing company e.g. ''[[PeerJ PrePrints]],'' libraries e.g. [[EarthArXiv]], universities e.g. [[arXiv]] or independent non-profit organisations e.g. [[HAL (open archive)|HAL]]). While many preprint servers appeared, some had been terminated. The canceled servers were operated mainly by profit publishing companies (e.g. [[Nature Publishing Group]] closed [[Nature Precedings]] or [[O'Reilly Media|O'Reilly]]&[[SAGE Publishing|SAGE]] closed [[PeerJ PrePrints]]) or were regional (e.g. [[INArxiv]] limited to Indonesia). Moreover, multiple writing platforms (e.g. [[Authorea]]) developed separate preprint servers as a part of their service. For more complete list (over 60 preprints servers) see: [[List of preprint repositories]].

==See also==
* [[Electronic article]]
* [[List of preprint repositories]]
* [[List of academic journals by preprint policy]]
* [[Offprint]]
* [[Prepress]]
* [[ScientificCommons]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

{{Academic publishing}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Academic publishing]]
[[Category:Scientific documents]]
[[Category:Publications by format]]
[[Category:Publishing]]
[[Category:Grey literature]]
[[Category:Academic journal articles]]