Scholastica and Authorea announce the release of free eBook Open Access + Preprints: Journals and scholars take action. Click here to download your copy.
What steps can scholars and academic journal publishers take to make research more open? One option is making content available via preprints. Today preprint servers, or online databases of manuscripts posted by scholars prior to formal publication, are being used to share and archive early versions of scholarly works and even to publish formal academic journal articles.
In honor of Open Access Week 2016, Scholastica and Authorea are releasing a free-to-download eBook Open Access + Preprints: Journals and scholars take action. The eBook explores the history of traditional journal publishing, how preprint servers came about, the initial role of preprints in academia, and new ways scholars and journals are using preprints to make research more accessible.
Our goal for this eBook, in line with this year’s OA Week theme “Open in Action,” is to leave researchers, journal editors, and publishers with action steps to embrace the possibilities of preprints. We’ve included specific ways scholars and journals can use preprints in research preparation and dissemination, as well as examples of how preprint archiving and even formal preprint publishing is changing the research communication landscape.
Whether you’re a researcher, academic journal editor, or both here’s what you can expect from Open Access + Preprints: Journals and scholars take action.
Preprints reshaping the research experience
The research process hasn’t changed much since the first scholarly article was published in Philosophical Transactions in 1655, but since the 1960s preprints have gradually been creeping into the mainstream of research dissemination. In the opening section of this eBook we explore the journey to modern day preprints and:
- New ways researchers are collaborating on and publishing research via preprints
- What researchers are saying about preprints
- Steps and resources to help you start incorporating preprints into your research
The role of preprints in journal publishing
Preprint servers have traditionally remained separate from formal journal publishing, fulfilling four major needs for researchers: to serve as a platform to share their research prior to or while it’s undergoing peer review, to establish priority over discovery methods or findings, to foster collaboration with other scholars, and to ensure an open access version of their work is available. Today these use cases remain at the forefront, but preprints are also entering the realm of journal publishing with some journals pioneering preprint publishing models. In the journals section of this eBook we overview:
- Steps journals can take to help researchers use preprints for Green OA archiving
- Questions surrounding the use of preprints
- Examples of journals using preprint publishing models to make research free to read and free to publish
Putting OA into action via preprints
Preprint servers are helping to facilitate Green OA via the archiving of preprints and even Gold (free to read) and Diamond (free to read and free to publish) OA via new journal models that can virtually eliminate publishing costs. Using preprints in research dissemination is one way that scholars and journals can start making scholarship more open. With more scholars, universities, funding bodies, and government organizations coming together to advocate for open access to research the time to consider the current and future role of preprints in the scholarly communication landscape is now. This free eBook is full of insights to help you navigate the evolving role of preprints.
