The Place of E-Prints in the Publication Patterns of Physical Scientists

ABSTRACT

E-prints, electronic equivalents of paper preprints used by scientists for rapid, informal communication of research, have recently proliferated. Empirical research on e-prints has not, however, been commensurate with increasing numbers of e-print servers, scientists authoring e-prints, or researchers accessing e-prints. This study examines a sample of e-prints randomly selected from three e-print servers to ascertain e-print authors' type and country of employment, level of collaboration, citation of other e-prints, level of publication in traditional, peer-reviewed or letters journals, and eventual transformation of e-prints into refereed publications.

Key Words:

• E-prints
• preprints
• scientific communication
• electronic publishing
• scholarly publishing