Rise of the Rxivs: How Preprint Servers are Changing the Publishing Process

Scientific publishing is a complex and time-consuming process. Submitting an article to a journal, waiting for review, and revising can take months or even years. Authors can speed up parts of this process by posting early versions their articles online to gather feedback and improve them prior to submission to a journal. These early versions are referred to as "preprints." Preprints have been common practice in some disciplines for decades, but are a relatively new phenomenon in biology and medicine. This column will provide a brief history of article preprints and their use in different scientific disciplines. It will also discuss the advantages of and problems with preprints. A list of popular preprint servers is also included.