Preprints and Working Papers (Report)
Announcement dated December 12, 2022
As preprint sharing becomes more widespread, it is clear that generalist and institutional repositories have an important role to play in supporting open and early sharing of research manuscripts.
In 2021, COAR and ASAPbio undertook a survey of current practices and plans regarding the collection of preprints in institutional and generalists repositories (IRs). The results revealed that approximately two thirds of the responding repositories currently host preprints. However, it was also found that many repositories did not yet support the unique functionalities and practices that are being adopted by preprint servers. To address these gaps, COAR and ASAPbio convened a working group to develop recommended practices for managing preprints. The working group undertook an environmental scan of existing preprint server functionalities and identified priority practices that should be considered for adoption by any type of repository that is managing preprints.
COAR-ASAPbio Working Group on Preprints in Repositories
The Working Group has identified Ten Recommended Practices for Managing Preprints in Generalist and Institutional Repositories across three areas: linking, discovery, and editorial processes. The practices are listed in the table below, followed by more detailed explanations and concrete examples of how they are currently being implemented. While we acknowledge that many of these practices are not currently adopted by institutional and generalist repositories, we hope that these recommendations will encourage repositories around the world to begin to apply them locally.
Ten Recommended Practices for Managing Preprints in Generalist and Institutional Repositories
- Offer a step in the submission process for authors to provide information about other preprint versions, accepted manuscripts, published versions, and external peer reviews
- When this information is available, indicate that there is related content in the repository metadata record using “dc:relation” field or “isIdenticalTo”, “isVersionOf”, “isPreprintOf” or “hasReview” and include the PID of the external resource
- When the information is available, link to related versions and external peer reviews on the landing page of the preprint
- For each new version of a preprint in the repository, assign a unique PID and include a version number that represents their updates sequentially
- In addition to versions and reviews, enable authors to link to other related resources such as data, code or other associated outputs
- Ensure preprints are integrated into domain and preprint discovery and indexing systems
- Clearly indicate in the metadata record and on the landing page that the document is a preprint, working paper, or other domain specific term
- Include a text banner on the landing page of the preprint that informs readers that the document is a preprint
- Clearly indicate on the landing page or on the repository website what type of moderation or screening processes has been applied to the preprints
- If a preprint has been removed, retain the metadata and a landing page (tombstone page) that designates its status as “withdrawn”
Those with an interest are urged to read the full report.