Preprints are widely recognized as an important part of the open access publishing ecosystem, but how do they fit into rapidly evolving public access policies from funders?
Although preprints typically do not satisfy public access requirements from funders, they remain an important and effective way of publishing research openly. In the absence of policies that mandate or incentivize preprint publishing, their adoption is largely shaped by discipline-specific research culture and the practical advantages offered by this form of publishing.
Benefits of preprint publishing for researchers
- Speed: Preprint publishing is fast, especially when compared with traditional journals.
- Citable outputs: Preprint platforms, such as PsyArXiv, assign persistent identifiers like DOIs, making preprints fully citable.
- Early credit: Preprints help researchers, especially those early in their career, demonstrate productivity and establish precedence.
- Improving access: Posting a preprint increases accessibility by making an open access version of the work available.
- Foundation for peer review: Preprints provide an opportunity for early feedback and can be peer-reviewed through platforms such as Review Commons and PREreview.
- Documentation and verification: Versioning, timestamps, and persistent identifiers provide a transparent record of the publication.
Since disciplinary workflows and cultures play such an important role in preprints, it is important to have disciplinary preprint servers, such as PsyArXiv, that connect directly to their research communities and increase discoverability of the research.
Preprints and public access policies in the United States
In the United States, the 2022 Nelson memo from the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy directed federal funding agencies to update their public access policies in order to improve the public’s access to taxpayer‑funded research. Over the past year, both the National Science Foundation and the NIH have updated their public access policies, and now require that peer‑reviewed publications be made freely and publicly available immediately upon publication, with no embargo, and in designated repositories. While posting a publicly accessible preprint on a server such as PsyArXiv does not satisfy these requirements, the policies do not prohibit researchers from publishing preprints. Private funders may have their own policies regarding preprint publishing.
Preprints in European Union policy
In the European Union (EU), the central funding framework programs play a major role in the development of open science. Starting with the Seventh Framework Program (FP7, 2007-2013) and continuing in the Horizon 2020 program (2014-2020), the rules governing the publication of research results have steadily expanded. The current funding program, Horizon Europe (2021-2027), requires open access publishing of findings from funded projects. However, this strict mandate (no embargos) only applies to the published version or the final peer-reviewed manuscript accepted for publication. This means that preprints that have not undergone peer-review do not, on their own, technically fulfill the requirements. However, preprints are explicitly mentioned and researchers are encouraged to openly publish them as a case of good scientific practice.
The European Commission (EC) recommends “trusted repositories” for all forms of publication, and it’s interesting that arXiv is explicitly mentioned here as an example of such a platform. Those could either be explicitly certified or disciplinary-specific repositories commonly used and endorsed by the research communities. Such repositories should be recognised internationally. Not allowed in this context would be personal websites and databases, publisher websites, as well as cloud storage services. The EC also provides its own open access publishing venue where funded researchers across all disciplines can submit their publications with no author fees: Open Research Europe (ORE). Their terms of use expressly state that “articles previously posted on a preprint server, such as arXiv, SSRN, BioRxiv, MedRxiv can be submitted for publication in ORE.”
Developments beyond the EU
From 2026 onwards, non-EU funding agencies are able to join ORE. Switzerland and Norway have taken this opportunity and their higher education institutions will be able to benefit from the diamond open access platform soon. Like the EU and the United States, Switzerland, the UK and Norway require articles from funded projects to be published open access without delay. Among these three countries, only the UK Research and Innovation open access policy mentions and explicitly encourages preprints while clarifying at the same time that preprints are not within the scope of the policy.
Martin Boosen
Martin Boosen is Repository Manager for MPG.PuRe at Max Planck Information and Technology and Member of the PsyArXiv Member Advisory Board.
Melanie Gainey
Melanie Gainey is a STEM Librarian and Director of the Open Science Program at Carnegie Mellon University and Chair of the PsyArXiv Member Advisory Board.
Christine Krebs
Christine Krebs is Data Steward in the Open Science Team of the University Library of Bern and Member of the PsyArXiv Member Advisory Board.
