Defining Preprints and Preprint Servers: Mapping an Inconsistent Landscape – Scholarly Communications Lab | ScholCommLab

"The term “preprint” is widely used in scholarly communication, but it does not have an agreed-upon definition across disciplines, platforms, or professional roles. 

The National Information Standards Organization (NISO) broadly defines a preprint as a scholarly article made publicly available before it has been peer reviewed, accepted for publication, or formally endorsed. Yet NISO also recognizes that some preprints are never submitted to a traditional publication venue, while others undergo community or other forms of review before being posted.[1]

New forms of feedback complicate this picture further. For example, bioRxiv and medRxiv have endorsed two AI peer-review services, Q.E.D. and Reviewer3, that allow authors to receive AI feedback either before or after posting their preprints.[2]"