Academic journal publishing is a competitive landscape, with lengthy review stages. Many researchers, especially those at the beginning of their career, may feel discouraged by traditional publishing pathways. High competition, journal publication bias, costly article processing charges, and a desire to get their research out there fast have led many early career researchers (ECRs) to seek alternative pathways to share their work. Preprint posting is becoming increasingly useful to ECRs for numerous reasons, meaning more and more are now embracing preprints.
Difficulties of traditional article publishing as an early career researcher
Journal article publishing is a long-established model with certain principles and protocols. Early career researchers entering this publishing landscape may face many barriers at the beginning of their publishing career. These challenges include:
- Perceived lack of credibility;
- Methodological bias;
- Lengthy and complex peer review experiences;
- High article processing charges (APCs).
Many of these challenges are the result of unavoidable biases or structural flaws built into the traditional article publishing model.
In terms of biases, the work of ECRs often faces desk rejection simply because the author is not a recognised institutional name. Instead, some journals might tend to favour already established scholars.
Further to this idea of biases in journal article publishing, editors typically prioritise research that demonstrates positive or statistically significant results, though dedicated outlets for negative or null findings do exist. This means that the work of ECRs, which may be less definitive but still useful to academic communities, is often bypassed.
Structural flaws such as protracted peer review processes are also limiting. Several rounds of revision over many months and dealing with sometimes conflicting or harsh feedback between reviewers can discourage ECRs.
Lastly, high APCs can be hard for ECRs to cover without institutional or grant funding, which may be reserved for more institutionally established candidates.
The growing appeal of preprint sharing pathways
Many early career researchers are frustrated with these challenges, seeing them as a hinderance to launching their academic careers. As a result, alternative publishing pathways are increasingly appealing.
In early 2025, a study of 1800 biomedical researchers in the United States and Canada concluded that junior scientists are more likely to read and submit preprints than those at other stages in their career. Add this to already established practices of disseminating early research in fast-moving fields such as physics and economics, as well as growing usage amongst biologists, and preprints appear increasingly appealing for ECRs.
Benefits of preprints for early career researchers
But what are the specific benefits that make preprints valuable to early career researchers? A study by PLOS Biology notes the following values of preprints for ECRs:
- Accelerate science communication and facilitate career progression;
- Increase recognition and facilitate networking;
- Accelerate the peer review process;
- Optimise research design and quality;
- Commenting features help develop ECR reviewer skills;
- No charges to publish as open access.
Speed, recognition, and career progression
Publication of journal articles can take months as a result of lengthy peer review and production processes, publisher response times, and resubmission cycles of rejected manuscripts. These protracted elements of traditional journal publishing hinder ECRs seeking funding grants, career opportunities, or improvements to publishing credentials.
Transparency and openness
Preprints enable ECRs to decide when their work is shared with the scientific community. Preprint servers and open access policies facilitate knowledge sharing and career building, providing a platform that encourages transparent data sharing, collaboration, and open discussion.
Research design and quality
This openness ultimately improves community research design and quality. Preprint research performed by peers is made available earlier to ECRs. This means that ECRs have immediate access to the latest results and methods, which can be incorporated into their own research.
Reviewer skills
The ability to comment on any preprint also helps ECRs improve their reviewing skills and strengthen their academic voice, all the while diversifying the reviewer pool available. Likewise, other researchers can comment on an ECR’s preprint, suggesting new studies or data that strengthen the manuscript.
No charges
Lastly, but perhaps most importantly, ECRs wanting to publish a preprint are not limited by high article processing charges. Through the gold open access (Gold OA) model, traditional journal articles require authors or their institutions to pay thousands upfront to cover publishing costs. In contrast, preprints are made freely available online on Preprints.org as open access using a Creative Commons (CC) BY 4.0 license, at no cost to ECRs.
Considerations for early career researchers when preprinting
Despite these benefits for early career researchers, there are considerations to be aware of when preprinting. Common concerns around preprints amongst the scientific community tend to be recurring worries. These include the lack of external validation of work by experts, and the risk of early results being misinterpreted by media and readers, leading to misinformation spreading.
But concerns about preprints within the scientific community tend to arise from a general misunderstanding about the role of preprints in research. Authors must highlight the preliminary nature of research and clearly present data and findings to avoid misinterpretation. This helps maintain the credibility of your research while sharing it with a global audience.
As for the lack of external peer review, ECRs should take the preprint open review model as an opportunity to gather early feedback from peers worldwide, which can strengthen your work before submitting to a journal.
For more information on the benefits of preprints, see our article on how preprints help tackle open access challenges.
