What is the difference between a “pre-print” and a “post-print”?
The ‘pre’ and ‘post’ refer to the peer review process: • A pre-print is the version of an item that has not yet undergone the peer review process. • A post-print is the version of an item that has undergone the peer review process. It is best if you keep copies of these versions and keep track of the different versions when you submit your work to a publisher. This reduces problems in depositing the item later.
VUIR policy characterizes pre-prints as being the version of the paper before peer-review and post-prints as being the version of the paper after peer-review, with revision having been made. This means that in terms of content, post-prints are the articles as published. However, in terms of appearance this might not be the same as the published article, as publishers often reserve for themselves their own arrangement of type-setting and formatting. Typically, this means that the author cannot use the publisher-generated .pdf, but must make their own .pdf version for submission to a repository. For more information on this particular definition of “preprint” and “postprint” visit Sherpa/Romeo. Sherpa/Romeo is a project that collects information from publisher’s regarding their policies in relation to open access repositories. In order to maintain consistency, VU uses the definition of “postprint” and “preprint” as described by Sherpa.
