Researcher Essentials

About Preprints

Preprints are early versions of research papers that have not yet been peer reviewed. They are typically shared on discipline or field-specific preprint servers with an open licence, such as a Creative Commons licence.

Posting a preprint can help share your research with others quickly, and can be a way to receive feedback either from your peers or the public. The practice has traditionally centred on certain scientific disciplines like physics and maths, however, it has been gaining traction across all disciplines in recent years, including the humanities, partly in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Publisher policies

Most academic publishers will allow the submission of manuscripts already posted as preprints. You will need to check the applicable preprint policy for your preferred journal. In general, journals require that:

• Authors provide details of the preprint upon manuscript submission
• The preprint has not undergone formal peer review elsewhere, and
• The preprint record will be updated to link to the published version, preferably by DOI.

Check the Open Policy Finder and individual journal websites for information about their policies on preprints.

Some example preprint policies:

• Elsevier
• Wiley
• Springer

Advantages of Preprints

Regardless of your area of research, sharing your preprint can:

• Rapidly disseminate findings to a global audience
• Make your work freely available to policy makers, practitioners, researchers, and the public
• Share and enable easy citation with a permanent identifier, such as a DOI
• Enhance your research profile and establish your area of research
• Increase opportunities to connect with potential collaborators
• Receive feedback on your work prior to formal peer review
• Demonstrate scientific transparency by allowing scrutiny of your early work, and
• Highlight your early work in job and grant applications.

Preprint servers

Preprints may be shared on discipline-specific or multidisciplinary preprint servers. If posting a preprint, consider which server will have the greatest reach (visibility) within your discipline.  Also consider:

• the server's preservation and indexing policies
• any funding recommendations or requirements for grant applications
• a reuse licence
• co-author agreement
• appropriate repositories for data or code.

Multidisciplinary preprint servers include:

• OSF preprints
• Research Square
• SSRN (Social Science Research Network)
• Zenodo
• SCU's Institutional repository - Cross Connect

Discipline specific preprint servers include:

• arXiv.org (scientific disciplines, physics & mathematics, economics and finance)
• bioRxiv (biology)
• ChemRxiv (chemistry)
• EdArxiv (education)
• engrXiv (engineering)
• medRxiv (medicine and health sciences)
• PsyArXiv (pscyhological sciences)
• RePEc EconPapers (business and economics)
• SocArxiv (social sciences)

Preprint Directories:

• The Directory of Open Access Preprint Repositories (DOAPR) can be used to discover preprint servers in your field
• Wikipedia lists academic preprint repositories
• ASAPBio provides a directory relevant to life sciences, biomedical and clinical research

Acknowledgement

SCU Library acknowledges the use of content from these CC-licensed sources for the creation of this information:

• University of Melbourne Preprints (CC BY SA 4.0)
• eLife Open Science: Why you should preprint your next paper (CC BY 4.0)