Doing academic research is a challenging and time consuming process, not least because of what publication entails. It turns out having a fellow academic review and critique the work you have done takes some time, and can result in your results or methodology being found lacking. There are ways to disseminate research without this however, namely through the practice of prepublication.
This appeals to a lot of high school students, as the barrier for publication is much lower, and there is often a lack of clarity on the difference in prestige between pre publication and regular publication. In this article we’ll elucidate what pre-publication is and how it works, along with examples of when and where to do it. Finally, we’ll cover whether or not it’s the right choice for you to share your own research. Let’s get started!
How Does Pre-Publishing Research Work?
Pre-publishing research works similarly to publication, in that you submit a paper to a publisher, and then it ends up published by them. The main distinction is a lack of peer review. Pre-published articles may be reviewed for grammar or style (though this is not universal), but they are not reviewed for their scientific merit.
The articles can be published either by dedicated repositories for pre print articles, or by established journals which also offer a pre publication option. These articles are almost always published exclusively online, though this is true of many peer reviewed journals as well in this new digital age.
Pre-publishing research may require a publication fee; servers require upkeep, editors enjoy being paid, and they want to discourage the most casual submissions in most cases. In some cases, this operates something like a scam, especially if they misrepresent the amount of review a paper receives; in other cases, they simply charge more than is reasonable, even more than a peer reviewed journal would.
In many cases, articles submitted for pre publication are later peer reviewed and published in accredited journals or presented at conferences as well. This is not universal, but can happen. Note that some journals will not accept articles for publication if they were pre published, as they want to be the only place where the research appears.
Why Pre-Publish Research?
There are several reasons why people pre publish their research; some are legitimate, others are less so. The first of these is because they are in a fast moving discipline, and want to get their results out there in time for them to still be relevant to the ongoing discourse.
This is most common in the field of computer science, where the pace of technological advancement means that waiting to publish can make your results obsolete. Researchers do still present their work for peer review, but many also rely on pre publication to prove that they were the first to discover something, or to make a timely contribution to an ongoing research question.
This can happen outside of computer science, but is less common. During the Coronavirus pandemic, for example, significant amounts of research on the virus was initially disseminated through pre publication. It was later peer reviewed, confirmed, and published through normal routes, but there was a belief that the urgency of the situation required getting research out as quickly as possible.
Finally, some researchers prepublish because they do not trust the quality of their methodology or results, and do not want it subjected to the strict scrutiny of peer review. In some cases, high school students are also misled into this by unscrupulous companies, who aver that there is no major difference between the two, and that colleges won’t notice anyway. We disagree with these sentiments, as we outline in our article on the legitimacy of high school research.
Pre-Publication in Practice: ArXiv
Now that we’ve covered the theory of what pre-publication is and why researchers might avail themselves of it, let’s examine what it actually looks like in practice. To do this, we’re going to go over one of the largest bastions of pre published work: arXiv.org.
Founded in 1991, arXiv is a pioneer in early access journals. Its current repository boasts 2 million articles across eight subjects, overseen by volunteer moderators. It is free to publish on arXiv, and free to access any of the articles they host. The site is currently overseen by their leadership team and staff based at Cornell University. Cornell provides a significant portion of funding for the operation and maintenance of arXiv, viewing it as a useful resource for the academic community.
The site hosts articles in the following subject areas:
- Physics
- Mathematics
- Computer Science
- Quantitative Biology
- Quantitative Finance
- Statistics
- Electrical Engineering
- Economics
Submission to arXiv is free, but all authors must be recognized by the site. It is free to create an account, but you may need to be endorsed before being able to publish. There is no peer review system, but moderators check submissions to make sure the content is appropriate, topical, and not plagiarized.
These are incredibly lenient and forgiving policies, which make arXiv a popular choice for pre publication, especially for fields like computer science. Note that this same laxity means the quality of work you find on the site can vary a lot. Some is cutting edge research by well regarded academics, while others would never make it out of peer review.
While arXiv does make for a great resource due to the vast size of its collection, we recommend taking care to evaluate any papers you read there. Look up the authors to see if they have a CV posted online, to see where else they’ve published or presented. While a prior record does not guarantee everything they make will be of the same quality, it can let you sort out the genuine academics.
Submitting to arXiv is an option for high school students, but is not the same as publishing or presenting research in a peer reviewed setting. ArXiv is a great way to get your work out there, especially if you come across something spectacular, but should not be seen as your peak accomplishment.
A Note on GitHub
While we’re discussing pre-publication options, we should probably bring up GitHub. While GitHub is not an option for publishing research, it is an incredibly useful way for students interested in computer science and programming to both gain access to open source resources, and to disseminate projects they have worked on.
Originally launched in 2008, GitHub serves primarily as a repository of open source coding projects, uploaded and accessed by its users. This goes from the lowest level hobbyists all the way to the largest corporations. The goal is to make development and tracking of open source software easier, and to allow developers to freely share their code with interested parties.
Some journals request or require you to post your code on GitHub for review when publishing an article done with novel programming or modeling. This is so that people who read your article can reference your code if they want, without you having to include it in full in your article.
Note that any code published on GitHub is open source, free for others to access and use without paying for the right to it, though there are limits on repurposing it for commercial use. We are not lawyers, and will not pretend to understand copyright law, but recommend reviewing how open source works before uploading to GitHub.
While this is not a place for publishing original research, you can track how many times your code is accessed and used by others, and this can be impressive for admissions officers. Publishing a particularly useful and well regarded piece of open source code is a great way to stand out to colleges, and to show that you have established experience with the art of software.
Final Thoughts
Publishing research is difficult, and the peer review process can be both time consuming and stressful; this explains much of the appeal of publishing without it, especially for high school students. We hope that this article has demonstrated both when this can be a good idea, and why it often isn’t for high schoolers, who really do need the experience that comes from the peer review process, and the extra check to assure admissions officers their research has merit.
The best way to learn to do research is under the direction of a mentor; this is the entire logic behind how PhDs function. Of course, high school students do not have the same expectations as graduate students, but they can benefit even more from having this kind of mentorship available. Our research program pairs experienced professors and researchers with years of experience with students, to provide them with the needed expertise to succeed in publishing. To learn more about how we can help you pursue research, schedule a free consultation with us today. We have a depth of experience helping students, and are always happy to hear from you.
