What are preprints and preprint servers?
What is a preprint?
A preprint, also known as the Author’s Original Manuscript (AOM), is the version of your article before you have submitted it to a journal for peer review.
What is a preprint server?
Preprint servers are online repositories which enable you to post this early version of your preprint paper online.
In some academic disciplines preprint servers are now commonly used. Among the most well known are:
- ArXiv (physical sciences)
- SocArXiv (social sciences)
- bioRxiv (biology)
There are, however, equivalents for most research areas. They are an opportunity to get your work out to your peers quickly. Although readers need to keep in mind that preprints will not have been through a formal peer review process.
What are the benefits of preprints?
Speed – your manuscript can become available for others to read before the final version of it is published. As publication times can sometimes be lengthy, this gives other researchers a chance to see your work a lot quicker.
Authorship – the preprint is a public record that you published that research at that time. Your work will likely be assigned a digital object identifier (DOI).
Reviews – your work is available sooner meaning other researchers can offer feedback that may help to improve your article before the more formal peer review process is complete.
Research impact – your work may have more of an impact as it becomes more widely available. The more access researchers have to it, the more likely it is to be cited.
Submitting to a Taylor & Francis journal
If you upload an early version of your article to a non-commercial preprint server, you can still subsequently submit to a Taylor & Francis or Routledge journal.
We do not consider posting on a preprint server to be duplicate publication and this will not jeopardize consideration for publication.
If you’ve posted your AOM to a preprint server, we ask that, upon acceptance, you acknowledge that the article has been accepted for publication as follows:
“This article has been accepted for publication in [JOURNAL TITLE], published by Taylor & Francis.”
After publication please update your AOM, adding the following text to encourage others to read and cite the final published version of your article (the “Version of Record”):
“This is an original manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in [JOURNAL TITLE] on [date of publication], available online: http://www.tandfonline.com/[Article DOI].”
