Open Access: Preprints

In academic publishing, a preprint is the version of a scientific paper that often is seen prior to its publication in a peer-reviewed scholarly journal. The preprint is usually available at no cost to the reader before and/or after the paper is published. As is the case with most preprint services, an author has a venue to post his or her findings ahead of the formal peer-review and publication process. There are also other benefits for the author when a decision is made to upload the manuscript to a preprint server. Among them – this action can help reduce the research publication time frame, speed up the process in disseminating the findings, and establish early provenance of the research. Below are a list of preprint resources.

ASAPbio has produced a one-page infographic (10/2018) entitled, "How open is your preprint? that explains the range of openness with regard to preprint licensing. This easy-to-read illustration can be helpful in explaining the differences in licensing choices for preprints.