- Preprint
A preprint is a draft of a
scientific paper that has not yet been published in apeer-review edscientific journal .Role of preprints
Publication of manuscripts in a
peer-review ed journal often takes weeks, months or even years from the time of initial submission, because manuscripts must undergo extensive reviewer critique. The need to quickly circulate current results within a scientific community has led researchers to distribute documents known as preprints, which are manuscripts that have yet to undergopeer review . The immediate distribution of pre-prints allows authors to receive early feedback from their peers, which may be helpful in revising and preparing articles for submission.Since 1991, preprints have increasingly been distributed electronically on the
Internet , rather than as paper copies. This has given rise to massive preprint databases such asarXiv.org and [http://archives.eprints.org/eprints.php?action=browse institutional archives] (or repositories). Such preprints may be known as "e-prints", or [http://www.eprints.org/openaccess/self-faq/#What-is-Eprint "eprint"] .tages of printing
While a preprint refers to an article not yet published, a [http://www.ecs.soton.ac.uk/~harnad/Hypermail/Amsci/0662.html "post-print"] refers to an article which has been accepted and published in a peer-reviewed journal. A "reprint" has been made by the journal publisher, but can also can be made from eprints (for example, it can be taken from an electronic database of peer-reviewed journals, such as
EbscoHost ).Tenure and promotion
In academia, preprints are not likely to be weighed heavily when a scholar is evaluated for tenure or promotion, unless the preprint becomes the basis for a peer-reviewed publication.
Preprint server by research field
arXiv – physics
The e-print archive
arXiv.org (pronounced "archive") was created byPaul Ginsparg in 1991 atLos Alamos National Laboratory for the purpose of distributing theoreticalhigh-energy physics preprints. In 2001, arXiv.org moved toCornell University and now encompasses the fields of physics, mathematics, non-linear science, computer science, and quantitative biology. Within the field of high-energy physics, the posting of preprints on arXiv is so common that many peer-reviewed journals allow submission of papers from arXiv directly, using the arXiv e-print number.In some branches of physics, the arXiv database may serve as a focal point for the many criticisms made of the
peer review process and peer-reviewed journals. In 1992David Mermin facetiously described Ginsparg's creation as potentially "string theory 's greatest contribution toscience "Fact|date=January 2007.Nature precedings – biology, medicine, chemistry, earth science
Nature Precedings is a free, electronic repository for preprints of scientific manuscripts, posters, and unpublished observations. It started in2007 and is published by theNature Publishing Group .Computer preprints
The ability to distribute manuscripts as preprints has had a great impact on
computer science , particularly in the way that scientific research is disseminated in that field (seeCiteseer ). Theopen access movement has tended to focus on distributed [http://archives.eprints.org/eprints.php?action=browse institutional collections] of research, global harvesting, and aggregation through search engines and gateways such asOAIster , rather than a global discipline base such as arXiv. [http://www.eprints.org/openaccess/self-faq/#What-is-Eprint E-prints] can now refer to any electronic form of a scholarly or scientific publication, including journal articles, conference papers, research theses or dissertations, because these usually are found in multidisciplinary collections, calledopen access repositories, or eprints archives.ee also
*
Arxiv.org
*Citeseer
*Cogprints
*Cryptology ePrint Archive
*Institutional Repositories
*OAIster
*Open access
*ScientificCommons
*self-archiving External links
Further reading
* Eysenbach G. The impact of preprint servers and electronic publishing on biomedical research. Curr Opin Immunol. 2000 Oct;12(5):499-503 [http://yi.com/home/EysenbachGunther/scans/Eysenbach2000e_CurrOpImmunol_preprint_servers.pdf PDF]
* Eysenbach G. Challenges and changing roles for medical journals in the cyberspace age: Electronic pre-prints and e-papers. J Med Internet Res 1999;1(2):e9 [http://www.jmir.org/1999/2/e9/ Full text]
* [http://cogprints.org/3019/ Electronic Preprints and Postprints] , in "Encyclopedia of Library and Information Science". Marcel Dekker.
* [http://network.nature.com/forums/precedings/255 Journal policies on preprints] from Nature Precedings forumPreprint archives
* [http://www.scientificcommons.org ScientificCommons.org]
* [http://www.arXiv.org arXiv.org e-print archive]
* [http://archives.eprints.org/eprints.php?action=browse Registry of Open Access repositories (ROAR)]
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