Those who have been following ASAPbio for a while know that journal policies on preprinting are always in flux. As adoption of preprints—and editors’ comfort with them—increase, these changes are typically positive. However, one potential downside to a rapidly-evolving policy landscape is the potential difficulty authors may face in finding their footing, especially when preprint policies are not as clear.
We describe some of this variation in an article published in the current issue of the International Society of Managing and Technical Editors’s magazine Editorial Office News, which you can read here.
In order to create this survey of current preprint policies, we relied on TRANSPOSE, a collaborative database that aims to promote clarity in journal policies on both peer review and preprinting. While anyone can create and add to records, we especially encourage contributions from journal representatives, who are responsible for many of the hundreds of records currently in TRANSPOSE. We hope that the exercise of filling out the intake form not only helps make it easier to view preprint policies in aggregate, but also prompts discussions of desired policies—and their presentation—among editorial teams.
For a broader survey of preprint data in TRANSPOSE, please see the preprint policy resource hosted here.
