Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) about Under Review

This page provides help with some of the most common questions about the Under Review service, powered by Authorea. You can browse the questions below, or search the full Authorea help center using the search bar above.

What is a preprint?
What is the Under Review service?
What journals participate in the Under Review service?
How does the Under Review service work?
What license is assigned to my preprint?
When will my preprint be posted on Authorea?
What files are imported?
What happens to my preprint if my manuscript is published by the journal?
What happens if my manuscript is rejected by the journal? Can I remove a preprint?
I shared my research early as a preprint on Authorea, now what?
How do I cite my preprint?
Am I able to post a preprint through the Under Review service myself?
Does Authorea have an Impact Factor?
Is there an embargo policy for preprints?
Help! I opted in to the Under Review service, but I don’t see my preprint on Authorea?
Who do I contact if I have a concern with a preprint posted through the Under Review service?
Can I post my preprint on another preprint server?

What is a preprint?

A preprint is a version of a manuscript that has been shared publicly (often posted on a preprint server or repository) prior to formal peer review or publication in a journal.

Preprints posted on Authorea receive a Digital Object Identifier (DOI) that can be used in citations and links and are a permanent part of the scholarly record. DOIs from Authorea are minted by Crossref and follow a specific format for preprints that enables them to be linked to the final article, once published in a journal.

What is the Under Review service?

Publishers participating in Under Review support the early and open sharing of preprints before (or simultaneous with) submission to a journal—so that researchers can easily showcase their work to the global research community while it is under review, before it is accepted or published. The Under Review service streamlines the early sharing of research and open up the peer review process, offered to authors when they submit to participating journals.

The Under Review service is powered by Authorea, an open research platform for all your research outputs, including data, figures, and preprints. By opting-in to the Under Review service you can:

Seamlessly preprint at the same time you submit your research for publication
Share your work early, while indicating it is being considered at a specific journal
Track the peer review process openly in real time
Immediately make your work citable, discoverable, and easily shareable
Get additional community feedback that can be used to improve your manuscript

What journals participate in the Under Review service?

You can find an up-to-date list of Wiley journals participating in Under Review here: https://wileyopenresearch.authorea.com/ (Click on the caret to see the full list of journals).
Non-Wiley Under Review titles are collected in similar collections. At the moment, the Under Review service is available through an integration with ScholarOne Manuscript Central and eJournal Press. Authorea aims to broadly serve researchers across all disciplines.

How does the Under Review service work?

Preprint posting on Authorea through Under Review is a free, optional service. Posting a preprint on Authorea does not influence the peer-review process and will not impact the editorial decision or time to publication at the journal in any way.

Initial Submissions
When submitting to a participating journal, authors will be offered the opportunity to preprint their manuscript with the Under Review service. Select “Yes! Please preprint my manuscript” if you would like to make your research publicly available as a preprint on Authorea.




Please note: You are responsible for ensuring that all co-authors have been informed about and approve posting content on Authorea. Authorea will notify each co-author about the submission. By opting in, you agree to share submission metadata, including your email address(es), with Authorea and to the terms.

Peer Review
An open peer review timeline will be displayed on your preprint (and will be updated in real-time) if and when your manuscript is sent to review.



Revised Manuscripts
At present authors can only opt to transfer their manuscript and deposit it as a preprint at the point of initial submission to a journal. We are unable to have revised manuscripts automatically imported by Authorea from the journal editorial system. Preprints posted on Authorea through the Under Review service can be revised at any time prior to being accepted for publication. The submitting author can update their preprint directly by logging into their Authorea account and clicking the Edit button. Find out more about updating preprints.

Note: Some journals request that authors only post the originally submitted version, and do not include changes made in response to the journal’s reviewers’ comments; be sure to check the policy of the journal you have submitted to.

What license is assigned to my preprint?

All preprints posted on Authorea through the Under Review service are assigned a non-exclusive license by default. The author retains full copyright of their work. If desired, authors can optionally select another license to apply to their content as a new version (see here for detailed license information). Readers are able to reuse the content under the rules of the license selected by the author.

When will my preprint be posted on Authorea?

Your manuscript will be imported by Authorea after it passes through the initial screening by the journal’s editorial office, prior to being sent out for peer review. This could vary per journal, but generally should be within 48-72 hours of being submitted to the journal. Manuscripts that are rejected during the initial submission check process will not be posted on Authorea.

Once the preprint is posted, the submitting author and all co-authors will receive an email notification directly from Authorea with a link to view their preprint. Users who do not already have an existing Authorea account will also see a link to activate their account and change their password. Authors will be contacted at the email address(es) entered during journal submission.

What files are imported?

Author names and affiliations, the title, abstract, and any keywords provided are taken directly from the metadata of your journal submission. The main manuscript file from your initial submission to the journal—either Word (.docx) or LaTeX (.tex) format—will be imported directly by Authorea and rendered in full-text HTML. Wherever possible, images/tables and supporting materials will be rendered. Files that cannot be rendered directly in the HTML will be supported as previewable PDFs or downloadable files.

What happens to my preprint if my manuscript is published by the journal?

If your manuscript is accepted for publication, congratulations! The preprint will automatically move into a journal-branded collection which, in the case of Wiley, will be part of the larger Wiley Open Research collection. All authors will be notified via email when this happens.

Once your article has been published in the journal you submitted to, Authorea will automatically display a DOI link on the preprint to the published version of record at the peer-reviewed journal. Authorea hopes to add the automatic link from the preprint to the version of record within approximately 2 weeks of publication in the journal. This timing is dependent upon when the journal deposits to Crossref, so please wait at least 2-3 weeks. If your preprint is not updated for over 3 weeks with the Version of Record, you can update it manually, using these instructions.

What happens if my manuscript is rejected by the journal? Can I remove a preprint?

Here's a good news: the fact that you are rejected by a journal does not disqualify you from having a preprint! If rejected, you can resubmit to any other journal and we suggest you cite the DOI of your preprint when submitting. Your preprint will remain on Authorea where it can be discovered and cited, but all information related to the original journal (the peer review timeline) will be removed.

Once a preprint is posted on Authorea, it becomes a part of the permanent, citable scholarly literature and cannot be removed. When you resubmit your research to another journal for consideration be sure to cite and link to your preprint. Authorea currently supports the transfer of preprints directly to journals, making the process to submit (or resubmit) your work for peer review simpler. See here for details on how to submit directly to a journal, including a list of participating journals.

Note: The vast majority of journals now accept submissions that have been previously posted on a preprint server and do not consider preprinting to be prior publication. However, authors are strongly encouraged to check the policies at the specific journals they are considering. You can also review lists of journal policies on Wikipedia or SHERPA/RoMEO.

I shared my research early as a preprint on Authorea, now what?

By posting a preprint through the Under Review service, authors can:

Benefit from earlier views, citations, and collaboration opportunities.
Get increased visibility, recognition, and establish priority and productivity for grant/hiring/tenure committees–especially valuable for early-career scientists.
Comply with funder requirements, if applicable. Increasingly, funders are recommending or requiring that funded works be deposited as a preprint ahead of publication.
Join the open research community transforming scientific communication! Rapid dissemination of your findings accelerates the pace of research.

Once your preprint is posted, it is open for feedback, sharing, and citing—use the DOI link (on your preprint and in the email notification) to cite it and share it via social media or email. Reply to comments to engage with the community feedback. The open peer review timeline displayed on your preprint will be updated in real time while your manuscript is under consideration.

How do I cite my preprint?

Many funding agencies now allow preprint citations in grant funding proposals. Citation standards for preprints are still being refined across communities, but regardless of the reference style you use, the citation should make clear your work is a preprint, and not yet part of the peer-reviewed scholarly literature. We recommend the following format:

Authors. Title. Preprint on Authorea. Date. DOI.

For example: Author A, Author B. My Title. Preprint on Authorea. November 11, 2019. https://doi.org/10.22541/au.157253515.58528497
You can also download the citation (BibTeX format) easily from the Cite as box on Authorea.

Am I able to post a preprint through the Under Review service myself?

To take part in the Under Review service you must submit directly to one of the participating journals and opt-in during the submission process.

However, even if you do not opt to use the Under Review service to easily preprint your manuscript, we encourage you to share your research to accelerate the open discovery and dissemination of early research outputs. You can also submit your preprint to Authorea directly; see How to Preprint to get started.

Does Authorea have an Impact Factor?

No. The Authorea platform is not a journal. Therefore, like other preprint servers, it is not indexed by the Web of Science (Clarivate Analytics) and does not receive an Impact Factor. However, preprints can (and should!) be cited for more. Those citations are counted by Google Scholar and Crossref.

Is there an embargo policy for preprints?

Authorea does not embargo research that has been made publicly available as a preprint. Authorea does not suggest authors /institutions seek publicity and press coverage at the preprint stage, and instead advises that press releases are distributed at or after the time of publication of the article in a peer-reviewed journal. Authors should consult the policy of the journal they have submitted to for any additional guidance.

Help! I opted in to the Under Review service, but I don’t see my preprint on Authorea?

Please contact help@authorea.com if your manuscript is still under review at the journal but your preprint has not posted within 48-72 hours of being submitted to the journal.

Who do I contact if I have a concern with a preprint posted through the Under Review service?

Because preprints posted on Authorea are assigned a DOI and are citable they cannot be removed. However, Authorea reserves the right to identify and remove any articles that contain plagiarized or infringing material. Please contact help@authorea.com if you have a concern. All preprints posted on Authorea through the under review service are preliminary and have not been peer reviewed. As they have not been peer-reviewed, preprints should not be used to guide clinical practice or influence medical decisions.

Can I post my preprint on another preprint server?

Authors retain full copyright of preprints posted on Authorea and are free to post it in as many places as they like, as long as they do not assign copyright to another site. We don’t recommend posting your preprint on more than one site, however, since having more than one version/DOI in different places may cause confusion to readers, and will make it more difficult to monitor the usage, citation, and other metrics on your preprint—on Authorea or on other sites.

Updated on: 07/18/2024