Subject Guides: Publishing: Preprints

What Are Preprints?

A preprint is a version of a scientific manuscript posted on a public server prior to formal peer review. Common preprint characteristics are:

Posted on an open access preprint server
Free for authors to post
Not yet peer reviewed
Report original research results intended to be published as journal articles

Why Are Preprints Important?

The peer review of journal articles is a slow process. Since preprints are not peer-reviewed, they enable the immediate sharing of research results. Preprint sharing has several advantages:

Speeds up sharing of new findings and makes them freely accessible
Demonstrates work in progress to employers and funders
Opens up manuscripts to review and commentary from all readers
Serves as peer review training method for junior scientists

Which Journals and Funder Allow Preprints?

Many, but not all, publishers allow preprint posting for manuscripts submitted to their journals for publication. Use the following resources to check specific journal/publisher policies on preprints, and be sure to also check the current policy in the author instructions for any journal you are preparing to submit to.

Preprint Funder Policies
Find funder policies addressing the use and publication of preprints.
SHERPA/RoMEO
SHERPA/RoMEO is a database of journal policies on preprinting, postprinting, and author rights.
Transpose
Transpose is a database of journal policies on preprinting, peer review, and co-reviewing.

Overview of Preprint Publishing

Where Can I Find and Publish Preprints?

Preprint Servers

There are a number of preprint servers for the health and life sciences where you can submit your own preprint, or read, download, and comment on preprints that have been shared.

arXiv Preprint server for physics, math, computer science, quantitative biology, statistics topics.
bioRxiv Biological sciences preprint server.
medRxiv Health sciences preprint server that includes research relevant to dentistry, nursing, pharmacology, and physical therapy.
OSF Preprints Multidisciplinary preprint server that includes an integrated search interface across major preprint servers.
PeerJ PrePrints Preprint server for medicine, biology, and computer science.
Preprints.org Preprint server covering multiple disciplines and all STEM fields.
PsyArXiv Psychological sciences preprint server.
SocArXiv Social sciences preprint server.

Preprint Search Engines

Because preprints are not indexed in major search engines like PubMed and Web of Science, use these resources to search preprints from multiple sources:

Preprint Archive Search Search over 2 million preprints from arXiv, bioRxiv, OSF Preprints and its partners, PeerJ Preprints, and Preprints.org.
search.bioPreprint Search arXiv's quantitative biology section, bioRxiv, F1000 Research, PeerJ Preprints, Preprints.org, and Wellcome Open Research.

Dimensions This link opens in a new window Citation database with extensive normalization for fields/disciplines and institutions. One can limit results only to those journals included in Web of Science, DOAJ, or other sources.