Standardizing Preprint Policies Are Needed to Clarify What Counts as a Prior Publication

Preprints allow authors to rapidly disseminate their findings or ideas and can serve as a useful prelude to the submission to a peer-reviewed journal, especially in situations in which peer review might take weeks or months to complete and early exposure of information to other academics may be beneficial to them and the peer community, especially in terms of feedback, while serving as a form of early intellectual recognition. Despite these positive aspects, there is still considerable heterogeneity among policies, loose wording, ambiguity within preprint policies, and even contrasting policies among journals within the same publisher. This article presents several discussion points related to preprint servers and publishers that would allow them to improve their preprint-related author-based services and policies, especially those pertaining to what constitutes a ‘prior publication.’ Although generative artificial intelligence is not an authoritative or scientific source, the authors also sought guidance by using ChatGPT-4 to expand their discussion.