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Open Access: Preprints

What is a preprint?

A preprint is a completed manuscript that is made publicly accessible prior to formal journal peer review. Authors can submit their preprints to preprint servers where a Digital Object Identifier (DOI) may be assigned to each paper.

As soon as it is posted, your preprint is openly accessible and becomes a permanent part of the scientific record, therefore preprints can rapidly disseminate your research work and accelerate the sharing of scientific ideas. Other benefits of submitting manuscript to a preprint server include providing open access to your manuscript, receiving comments from the public, and getting credits for your research work.

Concerns on publishing a preprint

Does posting a preprint cause a submission rejection by a journal?

  • As preprints are getting more popular, many journals allow publishing preprints. However, you are recommended to check the preprint policy of your target journal before submission.

Would someone steal my research idea from my preprint?

  • This is a valid concern. You may discuss it with your supervisors or fellow researchers before publishing a preprint. Nevertheless, a preprint may be assigned with a DOI by a preprint server, which becomes a permanent record of your publication in a scientific community. Before submitting a manuscript to a preprint server, please check if the server can assign a DOI to your paper.

Please also refer to Preprint FAQ created by Accelerating Science and Publication in biology (ASAPbio).

Preprint Servers

This table provides a list of preprint servers for different subject areas, these servers provide open access of scholarly content.

Subject Preprint Server
   
Earth Sciences  
Earth sciences EarthArXiv
Ocean and marine MarXiv
Paleontology PaleorXiv
   
Health Sciences  
Health sciences medRxiv
Medicine JMIR Preprints
Nutritional sciences NutriXiv
Sport, exercise, performance, and health SportRXiv
   
Law  
  LawArXiv
   
Multi-disciplines  
  OSF Preprints
  Preprints.org
  SSRN
   
Science  
Agriculture and allied sciences AgriXiv
Biology bioRxiv
Chemistry ChemRxiv
Biology, chemistry, computer science, environmental sciences, and medicine PeerJ Preprints
Biology, computer science, economics & finance, engineering, mathematics & statistics, and physics arXiv
   
Social Sciences  
Psychology PsyArXiv
Social sciences SocArxiv

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