PrePrint+

The research project "PrePrint+ - Quality Assu­rance Procedures for Preprint Contributions in Science", funded by the Federal Ministry of Edu­cation and Research and conducted by the FZI Research Centre for Information Technolo­gy, aims to take a closer look at already exis­ting and possibly useful future procedures for quality assurance in open access preprint archives. The term "preprint" covers freely accessible, scientific manuscripts or artefacts that have usually not (yet) been formally peer-reviewed for publication in scientific journals. Preprints allow researchers to share their scientific results with others in a timely manner, to encourage collaborations or to receive initial feedback from the scientific community.

The dissemination of scientific work can be potentially harmful if the research quality of a paper does not meet the established standards of science. Preprint users must therefore be able to independently assess the scientific quality of non-peer-reviewed work. This plays an enormous role, especially in the (media) communication of results to a broader public. In the study, the FZI Research Centre for Information Technology plans to look at the status quo of quality assurance procedures of preprint archives, identify trends for the future and develop a guideline for dealing with unreviewed knowledge.