Dear Prateek – Excellent question. I’ve summarized a few thoughts below…

Pros:

- It’s a way to secure “first to invent” rights in the case where you research leads to a patent - this can be especially important, for example, in the pharmaceutical industry

- You can disseminate information quickly, where results are likely to save lives or steer the direction of future academic work (e.g. cancer research, COVID-19, etc.)

- You can openly share content for peer-review without worrying if your material will be plagiarized. Depositing your research in date/time-stamped, publicly accessible database can bring peace-of-mind to these concerned about potential intellectual theft

Cons:

- Some journals may restrict content and/or apply special conditions to content that has been deposited into a pre-print repository. Examples include: New England Journal of Medicine, Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery, and the Journal of Orthopaedic Research, among others. I would suggest reviewing the policy of your target journal and/or publisher, before posting your article in a pre-print repository.

If you do opt to post your research in a pre-print server, make sure to select one that is managed by a reputable source. Here are a few examples to consider:

- https://www.ssrn.com/ (managed by Elsevier)

- https://www.preprints.org (managed by MDPI)

- https://www.biorxiv.org/ (catered to biological sciences)

- https://arxiv.org/ (managed by Cornell University)

- https://asapbio.org/ (catered to biological sciences)

Most journals are aware of the reputable pre-print repositories and will not consider material previously deposited to be classified as “plagiarism”. Hope this helps! Best wishes for a smooth and successful publication journey.

Best regards,

Hamed Bazaz | Founder, Managing Director | www.journaledit.com

To add to Hamed Bazaz , the assumption with arxiv is that you have a parallel submission to a peer reviewed journal. Then, once your peer-reviewed article is published in the journal, you are required to include a link to the final published article in your arxiv submission. ArxiV was intended for physics, but other repositories cater for other subjects. They are not meant to be taken as publications on their own.