Tag: open research

New to PsyArXiv: DOI Versioning

You might have noticed some changes in how your preprints are appearing on PsyArXiv, and wondered “what the hell is going on?” The big change is that the Center for Open Science/Open Science Framework has implemented DOI (Digital Object Identifier) versioning for all of their preprint communities, including PsyArXiv. This means that every time you upload a new version of your preprint manuscript, it will be given a new DOI. It also means that URLs for papers will have a suffix like _V1 or _V2 after the unique OSF preprint identifier. You will still be able to view current and previous versions in the same way that you have previously, and the system (via Crossref) knows that each of these versions are linked. 

In practice, what does this mean for you when you’re uploading a preprint? For PsyArXiv, it won’t make much of a difference at all. You’ll still be able to upload your preprints in the same way, and upload updated versions when you need to. The only difference is that any new manuscript versions will have a different DOI to the original version.  If you are only making a change to the manuscript metadata, that won’t lead to a new DOI being minted. 

Because PsyArXiv uses a post-moderation approach, any submitted preprints will still go live immediately, and will then later go through a moderation process by our moderation team. 

DOI versioning may have an impact on your current use if you need to withdraw a preprint from PsyArXiv. For example, you might find yourself submitting to a journal that does not permit preprinting (*I guess these still exist somewhere?). When you submit a withdrawal request, it will relate to a specific version. So, if you need to ensure that all versions of a preprint are removed, you’ll need to communicate this request to PsyArXiv (e.g., submitting a withdrawal request for each version) or COS support. 

If DOI versioning isn’t going to make things different for users, you might wonder why you’d want to have different DOIs for different versions of a preprint. Well, having DOI versioning has been recommended by Crossref’s Preprint Metadata Advisory Group (see here:, Section 5.2.2 in particular), and is seen as best practice that supports an open peer review model to track review feedback and changes to the paper over time. For example, you could have an overlay journal that could use DOI versioning to track original submissions, an updated version in response to reviewer comments, and a final version accepted for publication. Another advantage is that translations of articles can have their own DOI, and different translated versions can be linked using appropriate meta-data. So, all in all, DOI versioning allows for more flexibility and opens up new possibilities for communities in terms of open reviewing. 

If you’d like a little more detail on creating a new article version, take a look at the OSF’s help guide here, and here for some more information on how DOI versioning relates to new approaches to peer review. 

I hope the above information is useful – Happy preprinting!

Dermot Lynott is an Associate Professor at Maynooth University, and the current chair of the PsyArXiv Scientific Advisory Board.

When should I preprint my work?

People often come up to me and say, “Dermot, do you have the money now?”* But other times they will come up to me and ask “Dermot, when should I preprint my work?” This is a great question, and the general answer is, “whenever it suits you best”.  The important thing is that your work is out there, unpaywalled, and accessible to the world. So the specific timing might be more down to individual preferences, journal policies (like time-limited embargos), or some other factors.

But, by and large, there is nothing to stop you preprinting your own work, and at a time of your choosing.  There may be exceptions, but they will represent a tiny minority of cases. Here’s a nice introduction to preprinting – that covers motivations and advice for how to get started with preprinting your work.

So when and why do people decide to preprint? Let’s look briefly at different stages of the publication cycle and think why you might want to preprint your work at each point.

At the draft stage?

You can preprint your work before or after your first submission to a journal to get your fully-formed ideas out in the world as soon as possible, with a DOI, and time-stamped confirmation! It provides opportunities for early feedback, increased exposure, and let’s you claim precedence for your ideas.

After a round of reviews?

When you’ve revised a paper, you can preprint what is likely to be an almost final version that you know has had peer feedback. So, it’s still being released well before it appears “in print”, but with the knowledge that you’ve had input from your peers.

When it’s been accepted for publication?

Although later in the publication process, preprinting at this point can still be months before a journal version appears online, so it’s still really worthwhile doing it. And preprinting at this stage perhaps gives authors added confidence, knowing it’s been formally accepted and having gone through a full peer-review process.

Post-publication?

Even if your paper has been published, you can still “Preprint” (or postprint) your non-formatted manuscript version. This has the advantage that your work will remain freely accessible through “green open access”, even if the journal version is behind a paywall. An added bonus is that you don’t have to pay exorbitant fees to a publisher to make your work open access.

I think that more important than when you preprint, is that you do preprint, making your work open and accessible to all. If you’re looking for a place to preprint your work, there are lots of options from very general repositories like Zenodo or OSF Preprints, discipline-specific ones like the PsyArXiv, ArXiV, BodoArXiv, or AgriArXiv (see here for lots more preprint communities), or even region-specific repositories like AfricArXiv. So, if you haven’t preprinted before, make this the year that you do!

Dermot Lynott is an Associate Professor at Maynooth University, and the current chair of the PsyArXiv Scientific Advisory Board.

* I think I originally heard Dylan Moran make this joke, so thank you Dylan!