A preprint is an early version of an academic research output that is uploaded by the authors to a public server. They have typically not undergone peer review or been accepted for publication by a journal. While some preprint servers provide brief quality-control inspections the research output is made available online quickly and can be openly accessed and reused (according to the terms of the reuse licence). Sharing a research output as a preprint allows authors to directly control the dissemination of their work to a global audience. While common practice in some scientific disciplines, sharing your preprint is becoming more widespread in recent years including in the humanities and social sciences.
Benefits include:
Before sharing your preprint ensure you:
There are preprint servers for nearly all disciplines. ASAPBio provide a Preprint server directory relevant to life sciences, biomedical, and clinical research with searchable information about their policies and practices.
Prominent preprint servers include:
arXiv.org is a preprint server for astrophysics, condensed matter, general relativity, high energy physics, mathematical physics, nuclear physics, general physics, quantum physics, mathematics, nonlinear sciences, computer science, electrical engineering, quantitative biology, quantitative finance, statistics, and economics.
Research Papers in Economics (RePEc)
RePEc is a collaborative effort of hundreds of volunteers in more than 100 countries to enhance the dissemination of research in economics and related sciences.
Social Science Research Network (SSRN)
SSRN has access to worldwide social science research and is composed of a number of specialised research networks in each of the social sciences.
MedRxiv is a preprint server for the medical, clinical, and related health sciences
SocArxiv is a preprint archive for the Social Sciences
PsyArXiv is a preprint server for Psychology
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