Preprints are part of the permanent public record, and they are given a unique Digital Object Identifier (DOI), just as is given to published journal articles.
A reference citation for a preprint should include the following items:
1. Author name(s)
2. Title
3. Name of the preprint server
4. Object type, that is, Preprint
5. Date of most recent version posted
6. Date accessed
7. DOI
On most preprint servers, you can find the information you need for the citation by clicking on the appropriate tab or button on the first page of the article itself. For example, on the chemrxiv server, clicking on the red “Cite” tab on an article’s page brings up information such as the example below:
Fujii, Takeo; Toyoura, Kazuaki; Uda, Tetsuya; Kasamatsu, Shusuke (2020): Theoretical Study on Proton Diffusivity in Y-Doped BaZrO3 with Realistic Dopant Configurations. ChemRxiv. Preprint. https://doi.org/10.26434/chemrxiv.13193858.v2
Version 2 Preprint revised on 06.11.2020, 01:54 and posted on 06.11.2020, 07:42 by Takeo Fujii, Kazuaki Toyoura, Tetsuya Uda, Shusuke Kasamatsu
You will need to format this information according to the reference style you are using in your article, making sure to add the version date and your date of access. For example, the reference might look like this:
Fujii T, Toyoura K, Uda, T, Kasamatsu, S. Theoretical Study on Proton Diffusivity in Y-Doped BaZrO3 with Realistic Dopant Configurations. ChemRxiv. [Preprint.] June 11, 2020 [accessed 2020 August 14]. Available from: https://doi.org/10.26434/chemrxiv.13193858.v2
An in-text citation for a preprint will be numbered if you are using a numbered style or parenthetical if you are using a non-numbered style. Either way, it is a good idea to indicate that the cited material is from a preprint, as in the examples below:
Numbered style: As reported by Fujii et al. (Preprint) [12], …
Name–Date style: As reported by Fujii et al. (2020, Preprint), …
A preprint is a scholarly manuscript that is made publicly and freely available online via a preprint server prior to formal peer review or acceptance by an academic journal. Preprints enable rapid dissemination of research and increase the visibility of both the researcher and the work.
A preprint server is a platform that hosts preprint articles. In recent years, preprint servers for most subjects in the sciences have been established and developed. Some examples are bioRxiv (biology), chemrxiv (chemistry), SSRN (Social Science Research Network), and MedRxiv (health sciences).
For more details about preprint servers, read the LetPub article “What are preprint servers and what is their role in scholarly publishing?”
Content adapted from LetPub.