What Is a Preprint?
A preprint is a complete manuscript its authors post publicly before — or alongside — peer review. It is citable, permanent, and increasingly expected in some fields. Here is what posting one commits you to, and how to cite one without overstating what it is.
Screened, not reviewed
The single fact that determines everything else: a preprint has not been peer reviewed. Servers do screen submissions, but screening answers a much narrower question than review does.
bioRxiv and medRxiv run a two-step check on every submission — in-house staff confirm the details are complete, the manuscript is in scope and the article type is acceptable, and automated text analysis looks for plagiarism and material already published elsewhere. Submissions are also screened for content that could pose a health or biosecurity risk. Nothing in that process asks whether the methods are sound or the conclusions follow. bioRxiv accordingly posts every preprint under a prominent statement that the content has not been certified by peer review.
arXiv works similarly: it moderates for topicality and appropriate content, and first-time submitters in a category need an endorsement from an established author there. arXiv is explicit that endorsement is not peer review — the endorser is confirming the submission belongs in the category, not vouching for its correctness.
Why researchers post them
- A public timestamp. A dated, DOI-bearing record of your result exists months before the journal version does.
- Citability. bioRxiv assigns a DOI as soon as a preprint clears screening, and arXiv has automatically assigned DOIs to new submissions since 2022, registering the metadata with DataCite.
- Credit where it counts. Since 2017 the NIH has allowed preprints and other interim research products to be cited in a biosketch, an RPPR and other application forms, provided the citation includes the DOI and identifies the object type — for example, "preprint" (notice NOT-OD-17-050).
- Feedback before the verdict. Comments from readers can improve the manuscript while you can still act on them.
One honest caveat about permanence: in the first large audit of bioRxiv, Abdill and Blekhman found that 15,797 of the server's first 37,648 preprints — about 42% — had appeared in a journal by the time of their 2019 analysis. That figure is a floor, since the newest preprints had not had time to be published, but a preprint is not a paper-in-waiting. Some never become one.
Check three things before you post
1. Your target journal's policy. Most publishers are now explicitly fine with it. Springer Nature says posting a preprint is not considered prior publication and will not jeopardize consideration at its journals; Elsevier's sharing policy lets authors post a preprint anywhere at any time with no effect on the editorial outcome. But the ICMJE recommends authors familiarise themselves with a journal's policy before posting and disclose the preprint at submission — advice that exists precisely because a minority of journals still refuse manuscripts that were posted first. Sherpa Romeo (now Open Policy Finder) summarises what a publisher permits for the submitted version, journal by journal.
2. Permanence. bioRxiv will not remove papers except in exceptional legal or biosecurity cases. You can mark a preprint withdrawn with a statement explaining why, but the original stays in the article history. Post the version you would be comfortable having a search committee read in five years.
3. Consent and compliance. Every co-author has to agree — posting is publishing. Check your supervisor's view, your funder's requirements, and, for clinical work, that ethics approvals and trial registration details are in the manuscript.
Then pick the server your field actually reads: arXiv for physics, maths and computer science; bioRxiv for life sciences; medRxiv for health research; SSRN for social sciences, law and economics; OSF Preprints for its discipline-specific communities.
How to cite a preprint
In APA 7, the repository takes the slot a journal name would occupy:
Author, A. A., & Author, B. B. (Year). Title of the preprint. Repository Name. https://doi.org/xxxxx
APA's own example:
Hampton, S., Rabagliati, H., Sorace, A., & Fletcher-Watson, S. (2017). Autism and bilingualism: A qualitative interview study of parents' perspectives and experiences. PsyArXiv. https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/76xfs
No volume, issue or page numbers — a preprint has none. In text: (Hampton et al., 2017). APA's standing advice is to find and cite the final published version where one exists, and cite the preprint only when that is the version you actually used.
In MLA 9, the repository is the container:
Lastname, Firstname. "Title of the Preprint." Repository Name, 3 Jan. 2024, doi.org/10.xxxxx.
Two habits keep a preprint citation honest. Cite the version you read — servers keep v1, v2 and v3 at distinct URLs even though the DOI resolves to the latest — and say in your text that the work is a preprint, so a reader weighs it accordingly.
Paste the preprint's DOI into our free APA citation generator — or the multi-style generator for MLA, Chicago, Harvard and IEEE — and copy a correct reference and in-text citation.
After the paper is published
The ICMJE recommends that once the peer-reviewed article appears, the preprint is updated to reflect the changes made in review and linked to the final published version. Servers automate part of this — most display a link to the journal article once they detect it — but the update is your responsibility, and it is what stops a superseded version circulating as if it were the result.
Write with citations that are already real
CiteGood writes from real sources and formats every citation for you — preprints, journal articles and all. Nothing to fabricate, nothing to double-check.
Try CiteGood free →Frequently asked questions
Is a preprint peer reviewed?
No. Preprint servers screen submissions — bioRxiv and medRxiv run staff checks for scope and article type plus automated plagiarism screening, and arXiv moderates for topicality — but none of that is peer review. bioRxiv posts every preprint with a statement that the content has not been certified by peer review.
Will posting a preprint stop a journal from publishing my paper?
Usually no. Springer Nature states that posting a preprint is not considered prior publication and will not jeopardize consideration at its journals, and Elsevier's sharing policy lets authors post a preprint anywhere at any time. A minority of journals still decline manuscripts that were posted first, so check the journal's own author instructions before you post.
Do preprints have a DOI?
Yes, on the major servers. bioRxiv assigns a DOI when a preprint clears screening, and arXiv has automatically assigned DOIs to new submissions since 2022, registered through DataCite. That DOI is what makes a preprint citable.
How do you cite a preprint in APA 7?
Author, A. A. (Year). Title of the preprint in italics. Repository Name. https://doi.org/xxxxx — name the repository where a journal name would go, and leave out volume, issue, and page numbers, because a preprint has none. APA's guidance is to cite the final published version if one exists, and the preprint only if that is the version you actually read.
Can I delete a preprint after posting it?
Generally not. bioRxiv's policy is that papers cannot be removed except in exceptional legal or biosecurity cases. Authors can mark a preprint as withdrawn with an explanatory statement, but the original version stays visible in the article history. Treat posting as permanent.