Can I get scooped if I post a preprint?

Q. Can I get scooped if I post a preprint?

A. No!

Preprinting is actually a great mechanism for ensuring a record of priority.

Preprints on Authorea are registered with a DOI - a digital object identifier - which is a way to register your idea, your work and your precedence with a timestamp in the scholarly record, in a public manner. In this sense, publicity is better than secrecy. "With a nonpublic publication process, it is hard for authors to prove originality during this period if nothing about the work is registered in the public domain." [1] By contrast, by preprinting and formally registering your work in the scholarly record, you ensure precedence and originality of your idea, making scooping hard and easy to dispute.

[1] You can read more about this in Ten simple rules to consider regarding preprint submission

Updated on: 04/30/2020