image: ARPHA Preprints publication workflow in participating ARPHA-hosted journals. view more
Credit: Pensoft and ARPHA
With the rise of easily and publicly accessible digital knowledge in recent times, along with the emergence of global calamities, including the climate crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic, so is the demand for early scientific research and, particularly, preprints.
To answer this growing need for faster dissemination of scientific research, the scholarly publisher and technology provider Pensoft and its self-developed publishing platform ARPHA launched ARPHA Preprints. ARPHA Preprints is offered to journals using ARPHA as an opt-in, free of charge service that allows authors to submit a preprint to ARPHA Preprints during the regular submission of an article manuscript. With ARPHA Preprints, all an author needs to do is tick a list of a few check-boxes.
"In the current environment, the interest in early research published as preprints is simply undeniable. If we hadn't already been aware that the value of scientific knowledge and data is greater the sooner they are available to the public, the recent global events are certainly getting this message across," says ARPHA's and Pensoft's founder and CEO Prof. Lyubomir Penev.
"The development of our own preprint platform and workflow to address the gap between scholarly journals and preprint servers has been on our minds and project screens for quite a while, and I'm happy to be able to offer and provide it to our clients in this time of need," he adds.
With ARPHA Preprints and thanks to ARPHA's seamlessly automated workflows, submitting authors will not be required to provide any additional files and metadata, or worry about the policy of a journal regarding acceptance of manuscripts already available as preprints.
Instead, while completing the submission form, authors come to a step where they are asked whether they wish to post their pre-review manuscript as a preprint on ARPHA Preprints or not. When they click 'yes', ARPHA automatically collates the already uploaded submission files into a single PDF file and displays it to the author. Here, the authors have the option to replace the file with their own if they aren't quite happy with the layout, before finalising the article submission process.
At this stage, the manuscript is only one basic screening away from going public on ARPHA Preprints. This check is meant to verify that the submission falls within the journal's scope and doesn't contain any unethical content. By the time the preprint is online, the article manuscript is under the scrutiny of the reviewers at the journal.
Once posted on ARPHA Preprints, the preprint indicates the journal to which the manuscript has been submitted. As soon as the manuscript is published as an article in the associated journal, the preprint is linked to the formal publication via DOI, while the citation information of the latter is conveniently provided to the readers. If the manuscript is rejected during peer review on this occasion, the preprint is dissociated from the journal to avoid potential issues with future resubmissions.
To further expedite and facilitate scientific research and collaboration, posted preprints are open to comments, both public and private.
Upon publication, preprints are registered with CrossRef and assigned with their own DOI to ensure scientific record and permanent availability. To further ensure the preprints are findable and easy to cite, they are automatically indexed by several key indexing services that cover preprints. Trackable views, downloads, online mentions and citations are also available thanks to ARPHA-provided tools and the platform's integration with Altmetric and Dimensions.
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Learn more about the specifics of ARPHA Preprints on the website and the FAQ section.
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Additional information:
About Pensoft:
Pensoft is an independent academic publishing company, well-known worldwide for its innovations in the field of semantic publishing, as well as for its cutting-edge publishing tools and workflows. In 2013, Pensoft launched the first ever end to end XML-based authoring, reviewing and publishing workflow, as demonstrated by the Pensoft Writing Tool (PWT) and the Biodiversity Data Journal (BDJ), now upgraded to the ARPHA Publishing Platform. Flagship titles include: Research Ideas and Outcomes (RIO), One Ecosystem, ZooKeys, Biodiversity Data Journal, PhytoKeys, MycoKeys and many more.
About ARPHA Platform:
ARPHA is the first end-to-end, narrative- and data-integrated publishing solution that supports the full life cycle of a manuscript, from authoring to reviewing, publishing and dissemination. ARPHA provides accomplished and streamlined production workflows that can be customized according to the journal's needs. The platform enables a variety of publishing models through a number of options for branding, production and revenue models to choose from.