What is a preprint?
In the world of academic publishing, a 'preprint’ is a research paper that's shared publicly before it goes through the official peer review process. Preprints are typically shared on public repositories or servers, allowing researchers to share their findings quickly and openly to the academic community and beyond.
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Why use preprints?
Getting the word out fast
A preprint is useful if you want to share your findings particularly quickly. This can start interesting conversations and collaborations immediately. Speed could be crucial in constantly or rapidly evolving fields – like developing vaccines for a new virus.
Free access for everyone
Preprints are usually available for free, letting anyone with internet access read them. This openness is great because it means people from all over the world and from all parts of society can learn from and use the latest research, without having to pay for access.
Gaining feedback
Posting a preprint is a good way of getting useful feedback from a wide group of fellow researchers. Your peers can give you tips and constructive criticism, leading to improvements in the manuscript before you submit it to a journal for formal peer review.
Establishing priority
By sharing results as a preprint, researchers are effectively time-stamping their research, to establish that they were the first to make a particular discovery. This can be important in competitive fields.
What is the difference between a preprint and an open access publication?
Although both are published openly and free to access, a preprint is not the same as an open access journal.
Articles published in an open access journal have gone through a formal peer review process, rigorously checked and verified by experts in the relevant field. A preprint is a version of a research paper shared before going through this formal process.
A preprint is not necessarily a replacement for a peer-reviewed published article. Researchers can publish a preprint initially to kick-start a conversation or gather feedback. Then submit the same – but usually improved – paper to an open access journal for peer review.
The funding model for open access journals relies on charging publishing fees – paid by the author or their institution – to cover costs, so that the published article can be read for free. Publishing on a preprint server is usually free for authors. The servers are often hosted by an institution or research body, or can be funded through grants, partnerships, and sponsorship.
What are the potential concerns about preprints?
While preprints are useful for sharing research quickly, it's important to remember that this research has not yet been peer reviewed. Quality may vary, and they might contain errors that would typically be caught during the formal review process.
The unverified nature of the research can erode the trust of the public and non-scientific community who are looking for strong, credible research to inform decisions. As such, a preprint is less useful and suitable for a lay audience than a rigorously peer-reviewed article within a reputable journal.
It’s also important to note that some journals have specific rules about publishing work that has first appeared as a preprint.
Preprints: summing up
Preprints play an important role in the way academic communication is evolving. They empower research openly and quickly, creating a more connected and collaborative scientific community. As their popularity grows, preprints can make scientific research more accessible and transparent very quickly – used in the right way, this has the potential to benefit society as well as scientists
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