Preprint

Preprint (& e-prints)

A preprint is a portion of a work printed and distributed in advance of the publication date announced for the whole, for example, an article to be published in a periodical.

By principle should a preprint not be confused with a draft or a manuscript, which have been submitted but not accepted for publication. In reality, things look somewhat differently. Various types of web-based archives are evolving rapidly. Preprint archives, e-print archives and open archives are terms used to describe several types of collections of electronic document. Preprint servers typically collect article-like documents which may or may not be later published in print journals. E-prints are sometimes preprints but may also include a variety of document types that may not be intended for print publication. E-prints are sometimes conceived as a form of electronic publishing.

"A preprint is a draft of a scientific paper that has not yet been published in a peer-reviewed scientific journal. As peer review takes quite some time (publication delay is at least several months and sometimes exceeds a year), preprints are the medium of choice to communicate current results within a scientific community. " (Wikipedia, 2005).

Dissemination of preprints is common in scientific communication due to delays in the publication of scientific journals. Principally is a preprint later replaced by a formal publication and it is this later publication which should be referred to in citations.

Literature:

Boyce, P. B. (2000). For better of for worse: Preprint servers are here to stay. College & Research Libraries News, 61(5), 404-414.

Brown, C. (2001a). The e-volution of preprints in the scholarly communication of physicists and astronomers, Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 52(3), 187-200.

Brown, C. M. (2001b). The coming of age of E-prints in the literature of physics. Issues in science and technology librarianship-referred articles section. 31(Summer 2001). [Online]. Available: http://www.istl.org/01-summer/

Brown, C. (2003). The role of electronic preprints in chemical communication: Analysis of citation, usage, and acceptance in the journal literature. Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 54(5), 362-371.

Chemical Abstracts Service. (2000). CAS will now cover "preprints" on the web [Online] Available: http://www.cas.org/New1/preprints.html.

Eysenbach, G. (2000). The impact of preprint servers and electronic publishing on biomedical research. Current Opinion in Immunology, 12, 499-503.

Gunnarsdottir, K. (2005). Scientific journal publications: On the role of electronic preprint exchange in the distribution of scientific literature. Social Studies of Science, 35(4), 549-579.

Kassirer, J. P. & Angell, M. (1997). Prepublication release of journal articles. New England Journal of Medicine, 337, 1762-1763.

Smith, A. P. (2000). The journal as an overlay on preprint databases. Learned Publishing, 13(1), 43-48.

Till, J. E. (2001). Predecessors of preprint servers. Learned Publishing, 14(1), 7-13.

Warr, W. A. (2001). A report on the presentation "Chemistry preprint server: A revolution in chemistry communication," given at the Spring 2001 National ACS Meeting (CINF Division) in San Diego, by J. R. Weeks & B. A. Vickery. [Online]. Available: http://www.warr.com .

Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.(2005). Preprint. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Preprint

Youngen, G. K. (1998). Citation patterns to traditional and electronic preprints in the published literature. College and Research Libraries, 59(5), 448-456.