Publishing academic research is an important component of any scholar’s career.
Open access models in particular allow researchers to choose from a range of options for knowledge dissemination. And for both junior scholars and researchers with more experience, preprints are increasingly becoming a desirable option.
Depending on your own experience in the academy, you may be more or less familiar with how preprints work. If they are a newer idea for you, you may be wondering: What are preprints? How do preprints work?
Or, maybe you have cited preprints in your own academic research. You may have posted one—or more—yourself. In this case, you may have other questions: What do preprints do for a scholar’s career? What are the pros and cons of preprints vs. peer review?
To help answer these questions, this article provides an overview of how preprints work, including the screening process, community feedback, and DOI registration and indexing. A brief explanation of the pros and cons of preprints vs. peer review is also provided.
Accelerating science and open science principles encourages the kind of transparency and community feedback that preprints offer.
What are preprints?
So, how do preprints work? What do preprints do for a researcher’s work?
Preprints are drafts of research papers that are posted in an open access repository before publication. They are essentially works in progress that represent an early version of work that is not yet peer reviewed. Preprints are shareable and citable as soon as they are posted.
Though there have been some concerns about sharing unpublished scientific manuscripts, preprints are now largely accepted within academic communities.
The sooner academic research is available, the sooner authors can establish priority and have their work available to be shared and cited. Additionally, the impact of the research can be felt much sooner, as peer review publication can take months or even years. In other words, posting a preprint starts the clock on knowledge dissemination a bit earlier.
In a continually changing and growing publishing landscape, preprints have been instrumental in accelerating science and knowledge dissemination.
As preprints become more widely used, knowledge dissemination can happen more freely among and between scientific communities.
How preprints work
Here, we’ll quickly tackle some information about how preprints work.
Screening process
While there is no peer review with preprints, all submitted manuscripts go through a screening process before acceptance. This check ensures basic compliance with scientific and publishing standards. Once approved, research papers are available to readers quickly, typically within 48 hours of submission.
Community feedback
Another important part of preprints is that readers can leave unofficial community feedback for authors on the repository. This allows readers the opportunity to engage directly with scholars’ work and share their ideas.
It also provides authors with ideas on how to improve their research paper prior to peer review and publication. Receiving community feedback at the preprint stage can be particularly valuable for further developing scientific findings.
In addition to informal community feedback, Preprints.org has now connected with the PREreview platform. It allows authors to get involved by providing a “pre”review—a review before the review—which is a more formalized form of community feedback. Researchers can review a specific preprint and/or request a review for their own manuscript.
DOI registration
As with other kinds of academic outputs, each preprint is citable and registered with a unique digital object identifier (DOI). The paper and its metadata can then be accessed by others from a permanent location.
Also, a DOI does not change if it is updated or published. Readers can use the same DOI without redoing the DOI registration, and it will bring them to the newest version of the manuscript.
When included in a bibliography, follow the same structure as with other references, but clearly state that it is a preprint.
Indexing also happens through the platform to ensure that it is accessible by as many people as possible, globally.
Preprints vs. peer review
Now that you can answer the question “What are preprints?”, we can get more specific. What are the benefits of preprints vs. peer review? How do preprints work in parallel with peer-reviewed manuscripts?
The two key differences between preprints and work that is peer reviewed are the formal evaluation component.
The peer-review process involves an assessment of a manuscript by other scholars in a relevant field. These volunteer reviewers evaluate the validity of the academic research, including data, methodology, ethical considerations, and findings.
A recommendation is then made to the journal editor: to publish, without revisions; to publish, with revisions (major or minor); or to reject the manuscript. The rigorous scientific review and revisions process facilitates the highest quality paper possible.
It’s true that peer review does remain the standard for the scientific method. But that doesn’t mean that preprints are not an important part of knowledge dissemination.
Pros and cons of preprints
Now that you have a better sense of how preprints work, it’s clear that there are some significant pros to using preprints vs. peer review. However, there are also some limitations to keep in mind as well.
Preprints pros:
- Free for author(s) to post, with no APC;
- Free for readers to access, with no subscription fee;
- Available within a few days of submission, or even faster (mostly with DOI registration and indexing), rather than publication timelines;
- Faster flow of scientific information, which can lessen the chance of research being “scooped” and enhance visibility and citations.
- Community feedback feature.
Preprints cons:
- No peer review, which increases the risk of sharing misinformation;
- Concerns about intellectual property and copyright, which can also lead to a “scooping” of ideas;
- Methodological or ethical considerations that are not properly addressed.
Ultimately, for those preprints that do become publications, they will have been through both the informal community feedback and official peer-review procedures. The more eyes on a manuscript, the more engagement it receives and the better the published work can be. All of this, then hopefully reflected in increased citations and research impact.
We encourage researchers in the Preprints.org community to take advantage of this platform for sharing their academic research and learning from others. Accelerating science and knowledge dissemination increases engagement and impact and, thus, possibilities for collaboration and partnerships.
