A preprint (or working paper) is an early version of a scholarly article that the author has uploaded to a public online platform, where it becomes free to read or download.
Benefits of preprints
There are several advantages to publishing your work as a preprint:
- Preprints can be shared more quickly and openly with the academic community than traditional formats, allowing for faster dissemination.
- Open access work gets high visibility, which can help increase your readership and citations.
- Once preprinted, your manuscript has a permanent home and a digital object identifier (DOI).
- Preprints have a public time-stamped certification and can help to establish an early claim to ideas or research findings.
- You can receive feedback on the manuscript, which may improve the final version and help you to find potential collaborators.
Risks of preprints
- A preprint has not been peer reviewed. Preprint servers may verify that it is an academic text, and that its scope and content adhere to their rules and aims, but they do not check reliability or accuracy.
- Preprints may contain errors, low-quality research or unverified claims, which could be cited in other publications and by the press.
- Some journals will not accept manuscript submissions that have been preprinted. Always check the journal’s instructions for authors before preprinting your work.
Preparing your work as a preprint
- Check that your chosen journal allows you to make your work available as a preprint.
- Identify a reputable preprint server suitable for your field.
- Confirm with your co-authors that they all consent to uploading the work as a preprint.
- Make sure that your title and abstract are clear, informative and reflect the content of your preprint, and include as much metadata as possible to help people discover it.
- Choose a licence for your preprint — many authors choose to use a Creative Commons licence.
