Crossref, the not-for-profit member organisation for publishers, has announced that it is now accepting the registration of Crossref DOIs for preprints. The key decision is to acknowledge that preprints are a valuable part of the research story, and ensure that authors' own or institutional repository versions can be linked up with any eventual version on a publisher's site.
In July 2015, the Crossref board voted to change its membership rules to reflect inclusion of 'pre-publication' content. Crossref already accepted working papers and technical reports. In 2016, Crossref has been implementing changes to its systems to accept preprints. This will clearly identify them, and ensure they can be linked to the accepted manuscript.
This work will also ensure links to these publications persist over time; preprints are connected to the full history of the shared research results; and the citation record is clear and up-to-date.
As this graphic suggests, Crossref preprints will have their own nexus of connections, in terms of references and citations, with other preprints and articles. When these preprints become articles, they will then create another connection, to the article itself. The metadata will always maintain a clear record of connection between the new references and citations, and those they accrued as preprints.
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