Learn about Preprints
30 Apr 2025
Copyright and Licensing for Preprints
In an age of widespread information exchange, copyright and licensing are essential components for protecting an author’s intellectual property.
These legal agreements give assurance to the author that their work is being reused and distributed properly. Preprints, despite not undergoing the typical peer review process, are still subject to copyright and licensing laws. This article will provide an overview of copyright and licensing in the context of preprints.
What do we mean by copyright and licensing?
Although connected, copyright and licensing are two distinct ideas.
Copyright is the inherent right granted to the author to have full control over their intellectual property. In contrast, licensing is the legal permission given by the author as to how others can distribute, reuse, and build upon their work.
Together, copyright and licensing facilitate democratic access to knowledge while respecting and upholding the ethical dimensions of scholarly publishing.
Publishing ethics policies for preprints
Although preprints are versions of research works that do not undergo the traditional peer review process, it’s still important that the research involved—whether ongoing or complete—is protected by ethical policies.
So, what are the publishing ethics policies for Preprints?
Preprints.org adheres to the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) Code of Conduct and Best Practice Guidelines. Although COPE does not cover preprints specifically, many of the same principles still apply, such as:
- Authors must accurately present their research findings and include an objective discussion on the significance of such findings.
- Plagiarism, data fabrication, image manipulation, knowingly providing incorrect information, copyright infringement, inaccurate author attributions, attempts to inappropriately manipulate the screening process, failures to declare conflicts of interest, fraud, and libel are not permitted.
- The posting of the submitted materials must not be illegal.
- Manuscripts containing research conducted on humans or experimental animals must follow the Declaration of Helsinki and contain details of approval from a research ethics committee. The project identification code, date of approval, and name of the ethics committee or institutional review board must be cited in the “Methods” section.
- The informed consent of research participants must be obtained if necessary. Authors must be able to provide a (redacted) copy of the consent form.
Now the ethical dimensions have been covered, let’s look at copyright and intellectual property in the context of Preprints.
Copyright and intellectual property policies for preprints
It’s crucial that within the academic community the intellectual property rights of researchers, scientists, publishers, and others are respected. Preprints.org fully supports and adheres to this principle.
Before uploading or reproducing any published material (figures, schemes, tables, or any extract of a text) at Preprints.org, permission from the copyright holder should be sought.
Permission is required for the following:
- Your own research published by other publishers and for which you do not retain the copyright.
- Substantial extracts from research by any authors.
- The use of tables, graphs, charts, schemes, and artworks if they are unaltered or altered with minor changes.
- Photographs for which you do not hold the copyright.
Permission is not required for the following:
- The reconstruction of your own table with data already published elsewhere. Please note that, in this case, you must cite the source of the data in the form of either “Data from…” or “Adapted from…”.
- Short quotes that are considered fair use, and thus do not require permission, must also be properly cited.
- Graphs, charts, schemes, and artwork that have been completely redrawn by the authors and are altered beyond recognition.
What license is used for Preprints.org?
There are many different types of licenses when it comes to publishing research as open access. However, all preprints published as open access using a Creative Commons CC BY 4.0 license.
This license offers maximum visibility and attribution, since the author’s research can be freely downloaded, distributed, and reused, so long as both author and preprint are cited.
Before publication, all authors must agree to:
- Grant Preprints.org a perpetual, non-exclusive license to distribute this preprint.
- Confirm they have the right to grant this license.
- Acknowledge that submissions cannot be completely removed once accepted by Preprints.org and may appear on websites other than Preprints.org.
Policy on conflicts of interest
Just like with peer-reviewed research, conflicts of interest can arise in the production of a preprint. Although conflicts of interests are rare, it’s good to know what constitutes a conflict of interest and how to declare one.
What constitutes a conflict of interest?
Preprints.org applies the following ICMJE definition of a conflict of interest: “A conflict of interest exists when professional judgment concerning a primary interest (such as patients’ welfare or the validity of research) may be influenced by a secondary interest (such as financial gain). Perceptions of conflict of interest are as important as actual conflicts of interest.”
Declaring a conflict of interest
Authors can disclose potential conflicts of interest via the online submission system during the submission process or via the MDPI Disclosure Form. A summary statement must be included in the manuscript in a separate section. This section should be entitled “Conflicts of Interest” and placed just before the reference list.
Protecting your research—no matter its form
A benefit of preprints is that they enable important, sometimes preliminary research to quickly enter the academic ecosystem wherever it’s needed.
Despite not undergoing typical peer review, this form of research and the corresponding author’s right should still be protected. By publishing your research with Preprints.org, you can rest assured knowing that the correct ethical and intellectual property policies are behind the publication of your work.
Copyright and licensing are necessary to protect authors’ works in today’s world of widespread information exchange. For more information, see this article on copyright and Creative Commons licenses in the context of open access.
19 Mar 2025
Why Preprints Benefit Research
Moving scientific research forward means leaning into innovation and collaboration. The often lengthy publication process is a barrier to quickly getting research out into the world. This is where preprints come in.
A preprint is not an official publication. Instead, it is a publicly available scholarly output uploaded to an online site or repository, with free online access. Preprints provide early access to research outputs that have not yet been peer reviewed by a journal. These papers can be cited by others, just as with published articles.
There is increased acceptance of preprints in academic publishing. Still, some may have questions about their validity. This blog will provide an overview of how preprints fit into and impact the broader context of academic research.
What is a preprint and how do they work?
A preprint is not a finished product but is a “work in progress.” By posting a preprint at this stage, others can offer a kind of unofficial external assessment while the article is under peer review.
Preprints are not officially vetted through the peer-review process. But, as published in The Lancet, studies have shown that “the discrepancy between preprints and peer-reviewed articles is small and the quality of reporting is within comparable range.” There is high reliability between the datasets used for the preprint and those in the final published version.
An author uploads their manuscript onto an online preprint server. After a brief screening process, it is then open to be read, downloaded, and shared. Those who engage with the work can also provide early comments. Authors may find it useful to incorporate some of these perspectives into their work at this stage.
Updated versions of many preprints will be peer reviewed and published within a few years. The time between a preprint upload and publication can be spent improving the material. Then, the published version can be linked to the preprint originally posted.
Of course, because preprints have not yet been finalized for publication, some errors may be present. But minor changes to a preprint can be made through online systems.
What is the impact of preprints?
Preprints offer important benefits, including increasing visibility and attention, receiving early feedback, and establishing priority of discoveries and ideas.
The publication process can be slow, sometimes painstakingly so. Preprints offer an alternative to get scholarly research out into the world before it is officially evaluated.
The impact of preprints on citation counts and audience engagement is clear. Articles with a preprint version often receive more citations and reach a broader audience. This is partly because they are open access and publicly available online.
In brief, the benefits and impact of preprints are significant, including the following:
- Establishes priority of discoveries and ideas;
- Quick dissemination of work;
- Increases visibility and citations of academic work;
- Opportunity to receive early feedback;
- Increases flow of scientific information.
Posting a preprint on an online platform provides the opportunity to receive feedback in real time from others in the field before publication. The increased flow of scientific information encourages collaboration and community-driven research. Preprints make research easier to access and share more readily, increasing its visibility and reach. And open access publishing has opened up even more opportunities for wide-ranging access to research.
Along with these benefits, there are some areas for caution, including the following:
- No peer review;
- Limited ethical oversight;
- Data and methods not yet fully vetted;
- Increases volume of information.
There is an understandable concern about sharing research before a full peer review. However, it is also important to note that most preprint platforms do perform basic checks for ethical requirements and bring in academic editors to consult.
This is really important in the context of scientific research because it directly impacts communities. For example, health research may be an area where the use of preprints can have negative impacts if data and conclusions are released prematurely.
How do you cite preprint?
As with any academic research, it is important to properly cite the academic work used. The main difference to citing preprints is to label them as such in the reference list.
Different publishers or organizations may have specific formatting guidelines for different kinds of non-peer-reviewed references, like personal communications and dissertations, as well as preprints. This information is usually available on their website.
Most publishers accept preprints for use in publications. It is a good idea to check if they need to be cited or formatted in a certain way. This will likely include the name of the preprint server and the date of the most recent version posted.
There are suggested citation formats for preprints in common citation styles. For more information, you can refer to the National Library of Medicine’s guidelines.
05 Mar 2025
What is a DOI (and Why Does It Matter)?
Posting academic materials online is one of the main ways that scholars share their work and engage with others. There is so much material available and webpages are often updated or changed. So, it is important to post materials in a way that is accessible and trackable.
Getting a DOI assigned to scholarly items work is crucial when it comes to making work available. Publishers can track the number of citations through this single unique identifier. It also associates the metadata of the selected item.
What’s a DOI?
DOI stands for “Digital Object Identifier.”
It is a unique, permanent string of characters that identifies any digital “object.” More specifically, it is a unique number comprising a prefix and suffix separated by a forward slash.
A DOI represents the object (publication, report, dataset, etc.) itself, rather than its online location (webpage or URL, publisher, etc.).
This includes official publications like journal articles or book chapters. And academic, government, or professional information, like a thesis or dissertation, a presentation, or a dataset, can also get DOIs.
DOI registration
DOIs are governed by the non-profit organization, The DOI Foundation. It adopted an international standard in 2012 (updated in 2022). With users from across the globe, approximately 300 million DOIs have currently been assigned.
DOI registration agencies, including scientific search engines specifically, assign DOIs.
For example, Crossref is a popular agency that assigns DOIs to research-based publications.
The DOI is typically listed on the first page of a publication, often in the header or footer. It is also included as part of the citation, and most style guides recommend including DOIs in a bibliography.
What does a DOI do?
A DOI is a persistent number that makes work citable from a permanent online location. While URLs can change or a link can be broken, a publication’s DOI remains in perpetuity. Both published and unpublished, peer reviewed and non-peer reviewed, materials can have DOIs.
A DOI makes any object easier to find, without extensive google or database searches. A permanent location that tracks engagement with the material increases its visibility.
Registering work with a DOI officially marks the date of sharing or publication. This can help with protecting intellectual property or positioning work within a broader field.
How can you use it?
Have you needed to find something, but all you had was the digital object identifier?
This is actually a very useful piece of information. If you want to find an article, you can just go to the DOI Foundation site and look it up by using the following URL:
Enter https://doi.org/[digital object identifier number you want to look up]
This will make finding articles very easy to do.
DOIs and preprints
If the work has been officially published, then a DOI is assigned through the publisher’s registration. On the other hand, unpublished work, like a conference paper or a preprint, can be uploaded to an online repository, where a DOI can then be assigned. However, you should always check before submitting to make sure that the repository offers DOI registration.
Preprints, for example, are articles that have not yet been peer reviewed and published in a journal. The conventional peer-review and publication process can be slow, sometimes painstakingly so. Preprints offer an alternative to get scholarly research out into the world before it is officially evaluated.
Open access publishing, preprints, and the use of online repositories like Preprints.org complement each other.
Preprint articles and posts can also be linked to an ORCID number, another form of unique identifier for researchers. Each of these makes research more accessible, discoverable, and citable.
18 Dec 2024
How Does Indexing Preprints Work?
The prospect of publishing your work and getting it indexed can be intimidating. But, if you know where to start, it can also be an exciting process. It enables you to get your work out into the world and have a better chance of making an impact in the field.
To be sure, it can be disheartening to put in a lot of effort only for your work to not get much engagement. You have devoted your career to your research. So it only makes sense that you want to get as much exposure as possible.
How does indexing help your publications? Proper indexation is one way to ensure that your work can be found by those interested. Here, you will learn more about indexing and its relationship to preprints.
What is indexing and why is it important?
A journal index is also called a “bibliographic index” or a “bibliographic database.” Indexing takes bibliographic information and inputs it into a database format. This format organizes large amounts of information to be searchable.
You are likely already familiar with some of these indexes, such as PubMed Central, MEDLINE, and Scopus. These are extensive lists of articles organized by subject, discipline, or region.
Publishing in an indexed journal has other important benefits. It brings credibility to your work because it has been through a strict reviewing process. This is particularly important because scientific research is expected to follow robust standards. Preprints are research findings that are available after being accepted by a journal. When paired with an open access journal, the reach of your indexed research increases.
Depending on where you are in your career, certain paths to publication and indexation may be more realistic or desirable.
How do you get your preprint indexed?
To have your preprint indexed, you want to be strategic in how and where you publish. Indexing includes having an article published in an indexed journal and/or applying to have a journal itself be indexed.
Are you an author interested in publishing in a highly rated indexed journal? Then the first step is to begin searching for which indexed journals may be right for your work. There is a standardized indexation process
Or are you on the editorial board of a journal that is not yet indexed? Then it may be best for you to begin by doing research on the indexation process. In order for journals to be indexed, certain criteria must be met. This includes upholding high standards of ethics, peer review, and transparency of the editorial board.
Preprints and indexing
Some may mistakenly believe that preprints are not eligible for indexing. But, actually, preprints are an important part of the indexing space. They often represent cutting-edge research that can be accessed quickly. The Preprint Citation Index, a multidisciplinary collection of the major preprint repositories, is available on the Web of Science.
Preprints.org is a multidiscipline platform that makes preprints available directly from authors. This research is open access and available for citation immediately. There is also an option to publicly comment on and open up discussion on publications.
As with any index, Preprints.org maintains academic standards rigorous standards. This includes a clear statement on research ethics, methods, and conflicts of interest.
Indexing, preprints, and open access
You have a lot of choices in this area in how you want to approach publishing in an indexed journal and/or database for your preprint. The increased use of open access helps to increase the visibility and dissemination of scholarly material. The more eyes you can get on your work, the better!
For example, publishing in an open access journal increases access to your work (and your work will be published more quickly). But, subscription-based journals are typically considered to be more authoritative.
An open access journal brings the benefits of quick and accessible publishing (with a one-time article processing charge paid by the author) at no cost to the reader. On the other hand, subscription access journals tend to have better reputations and a higher impact factor.
If you decide to publish open access, it’s a good idea to spend some time researching those journals that are ranked highly. Then, you can work from a narrowed-down list. Remember that your work may not be the best fit for certain publications. And not all journals are right for your publication!
Once you get started, you are well on your way to increasing the potential impact of your work. Happy indexing!
04 Dec 2024
The History of Preprints
A common question that comes up is: “What is the history of preprints?”
Where do preprints come from? What are preprints? Why do people use them?
Is a preprint something that you should consider submitting?
Where do preprints come from?
To learn a bit about the history of preprints, we need to go back quite a ways. Over sixty years ago, in 1961, the National Institutes of Health launched a project called “Information Exchange Groups.” Initially, the goal was to circulate biological preprints. Why would people use preprints? The goal was simple and straightforward, to accelerate research by making knowledge available quickly. These preprints (or memos, at the time) were not peer reviewed or even usually edited in a meaningful way.
A good idea that didn’t last. While the idea grew quickly, it eventually shut down. Many journals even took stances regarding preprints/memos, viewing them negatively and refusing to publish manuscripts that had been previously published as preprints. As noted by Matthew Cobb,
The growth of preprint circulation in all fields of science led some journal publishers—both commercial companies and learned societies—to feel that their prestige in the scientific community and their finances could be menaced.
So, publishers fought against the principle, but it remained something that many thought to be very important.
Further history of preprints
Over thirty years later, in 1999, the British Medical Journal launched the “first preprint server dedicated to clinical research,” ClinMedNetPrints.org. The server was shut down, nine years later, due to lack of use.
2013, however, showed that there was an acceptance that was starting to take shape. bioRxiv and medRxiv, two preprint servers, established themselves and worked with journals.
Even so, the growth of preprints as a concept didn’t accelerate significantly until COVID.
COVID and preprints
Jim Handman, the executive director of the Science Media Centre of Canada, rightly observed that
COVID changed everything.
Due to the urgent need for information during an unprecedented public health threat, the use of preprints ballooned. It went a very long way in changing how people viewed preprints in general, but also introduced some complications. There was confusion that existed between “preprints” and “peer reviewed research”.
This has also created a need for information about what preprints are, and importantly what they are not.
What are preprints?
With the history of preprints clarified, it’s time to dive into what a preprint actually is. A preprint is basically a draft of a scholarly article or research paper. This draft is made available to the public prior to the peer review stage of the publication process. This means that researchers are able to get their work out quickly and get feedback on it at an early stage.
In addition, they’re citable and open for comments from other researchers. Even though they have not undergone a peer review process, they’re still potentially extremely valuable. As noted above, this was part of the original intention of preprints; to increase the speed of research my making results available quickly. History has shown that this has been of great importance to academia.
Some benefits of using preprints
While there are some important differences between preprints and peer-reviewed research, this isn’t to say that preprints don’t serve an important function. Some of these benefits help the academics who publish them, but other benefits are broadly applicable to the research community as a whole. For example,
- Preprints are citeable;
- Preprints can be indexed;
- Feedback can be provided on a preprint, which can improve the work prior to publication;
- Preprints are multidisciplinary and can be used in many fields.
In addition to the short period of time it takes to publish a preprint, they also provide authors with a fast option to publish preliminary research. While the history of preprints is important to know, there are other things that you might want to keep in mind.
Submitting preprints
Submitting preprints can be a little bit daunting. Unfortunately, knowing the history of where preprints came from and how we got to where we are won’t help. As such, we’ve put together a handy guide for you to go over.
In this article, we go over many of the details that you’ll need to be aware of to get your preprint published online. Remember, when you get your preprint uploaded, others can see it, provide feedback, and you can then improve your work further. Getting it indexed is another way for you to expand the reach of your preprint.
What about indexing preprints?
Some people are not aware that preprints are actually eligible for indexing. Preprints are often on the cutting-edge of research, and so they greatly benefit from being indexed. The Preprint Citation Index, which is a multidisciplinary collection of major preprint repositories, can be found on the Web of Science.
Because indexing can be a crucial part of preprints, we have gone into greater detail on the subject. Learn more about how indexing to improve the ways in which you can use preprints to help your research and career.
The importance of preprints
Because they accelerate the speed of research, preprints can have a vast impact on projects and the world in general. During the pandemic, the volume of research that was able to be shared globally because of this system greatly accelerated the rate at which information was tested and research was done.
Going forward, we are excited to see the different ways in which preprints can continue to help the research community—and the world.
30 Sep 2024
How Do I Submit a Preprint
Are you planning to submit a preprint? Perhaps you’ve heard that preprints have become an important part of the scientific literature.
They have allowed some impressive strides to be made regarding the speed of research dissemination. Because they are so important, you may have considered submitting your own research as a preprint.
But how do you do that?
In this article, we will address how to submit a paper as a preprint and what you need to provide along with the submission.
Creating an account and preparing your submission
First, you need an account to access the Preprints.org submission platform. If you already have an account for another MDPI platform, you can use that. If not, you will need to register and create an account before you are able to submit your preprint.
Once you have done that, you will need to provide a few things:
- Manuscript title;
- Abstract;
- Keywords;
- Names, affiliations, and email addresses;
- Manuscript;
- Supplementary materials;
- Copyright holder permission;
- Additional documents.
Each of these things is an important part of your submission. Here, we will now go over what you need to submit a preprint in detail.
Manuscript title
The importance of this is fairly self-evident. When you submit a preprint, you need a good title for your work. This will engage and inform the reader of the nature of your research and give them some sense of the work’s focus.
Abstract
An abstract is a brief description or summary of the work. It generally explains the project, the topic that it covered, what experiments were performed, and then what conclusions were drawn.
The goal of an abstract is to inform the reader in a general way about the research. Abstracts also provide a first impression for readers. They capture the reader’s interest and encourage them to read the full paper.
A clear and well-crafted abstract is crucial and may increase the visibility and impact of your research.
Keywords
Keywords are critical for research as they allow authors to categorize their research. The keywords selected can be almost anything related to the project, but they are usually specific major elements. These might include the type of tools or techniques used.
Keywords will almost always include the main topic being studied. For example, if a paper is studying malaria, this will almost certainly be a keyword. Think about the important parts of your research and the tools used when deciding on keywords.
Names, affiliations, and email addresses
All the names of the authors that contributed to the research should be included. In addition, any relevant affiliations (for example, the institution that the authors belong to) should be included. Contact information and email addresses also need to be included in the submission system.
Authors should use institutional email addresses (e.g., those provided by a university), where possible, or email addresses used in previously published papers. Alternatively, we recommend the use of ORCID identifiers, which can be linked to the Preprints.org account during the submission process. In the manuscript file, only the corresponding author’s contact details should be provided.
Manuscript
Of course! The most important part of your submission.
Manuscripts should be submitted in Microsoft Word or LaTeX format. For LaTeX files, please ensure that all the files (e.g., bib file, references) necessary to create a PDF are included in a .zip or similar format. Be careful to include all the necessary parts for a LaTeX document, as missing parts can prevent the document from compiling properly.
Supplementary materials
While not always the case, sometimes, research has supplementary materials that need to be submitted along with the manuscript. When you submit a preprint, you want to make sure that all the research information is there.
These might include things like data or information about additional experiments. If relevant, make sure that supplementary materials get included in the upload.
Copyright holder permission
In cases including previously published materials (e.g., figures, schemes, tables), copyright permissions need to be granted if they do not fall into the public domain.
These permission files should also be included in the preprint upload. If your research requires copyright permissions, make sure that you get them and that they are included.
Additional documents
Some types of content, like research conducted on humans or experimental animals, have additional requirements. These might include ethical approval statements from a research ethics committee or informed consent forms signed by the research participants.
Other information or documents might include information regarding conflicts of interest, funding, or data availability.
Please visit our Instructions for Authors page for further information.
Why submit your research as a preprint?
Preprints can be useful for researchers. They allow researchers to share their results by publishing initial drafts. These drafts can then receive feedback on the findings from other researchers across the globe. A broad pool of researchers providing feedback can help researchers to address any flaws in research before the publication of the full research paper.
Feedback could also be recommendations for new research directions. As preprints are open to comments, they are perfect for advancing fields in which preliminary results are key.
But there are many, many more reasons, and we will address these in other articles.
Are you ready to submit a preprint?
Click the submit button on Preprints.org to submit a preprint. You will be directed to the login page first if you have not logged in. If you have not yet registered an account on Preprints.org or any other MDPI platform, you will have to register and log in first to submit your paper.
Submitting a preprint on Preprints.org is a straightforward process that allows you to share your work quickly and efficiently.
By following the steps outlined above, from registering an account to preparing your manuscript, carefully entering your metadata, and uploading your files, you can ensure a smooth submission process.
Once posted, your work will be disseminated globally, so you may receive feedback and foster new collaborations.
12 Aug 2016
Publishing in Peer-Reviewed Journals after Archiving on Preprints.org
The majority of journals now support archival of working papers (preprints) on a public server in advance of peer-review and formal publication. Authors can visit the Sherpa database before uploading to Preprints.org and check the policy of the journal they intend to publish in.
- Navigate to the Sherpa database
Search by journal: see this page.
Search by publishers: see this page. - Sherpa uses a color code to indicate if a journal allows for preprints (pre-prints):
“Green” or “Yellow” journals/publishers allow authors to archive preprints in advance of publication in a peer-reviewed journal;
“White” or “Blue” journals/publishers do not allow for posting of preprints in advance of publication in a peer-reviewed journal. - All major open access publishers on the OASPA list support pre-prints.
Platforms such as arXiv, bioRxiv and SSRN are well established. Preprints.org is a new, not-for-profit platform supported by the open access publisher MDPI and allows for free archiving of scholarly works in advance of publication.
Preprints.org allows authors make their findings available immediately, receive open comments from other scholars and establish precedence for their work.
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