What are Scientific Preprints?
Preprints are early versions of journal articles before they have gone through the peer-review process and been officially published.  As the peer review process can take over a year, preprints are a good source of very current research but they have not gone through peer-review.  Thus you must evaluate each article more carefully before using.  See also Grey Literature

What is Peer review?
Peer review is a process in which experts in the field analyze and evaluate a journal article or conference proceeding based on the research methods, research conducted, conclusions and overall article before it is accepted for publication. There are critics of the peer review process and other scholarly publishing models are being looked at.

What are E-prints?
E-prints are scientific or technical documents exchanged electronically in facilitate communication of new research by scientists and researchers.  E-print include technical communications, and scholarly papers that have been submitted for publication.  E-prints may or may not have gone through the peer-review process.
See also Grey Literature

Note: There may be multiple versions of an article including retractions, addendum, and comments.

Preprint Servers

• Multi-disciplinary
• Mathematics
• Physics
• Chemistry
• Biology & Ecology

Note: Many institutions (governmental, academic, corporations, research, etc.) maintain their own site of preprints.  If you know an institution likely to produce a document you are interested in, try to experiment with the institutions website.  Preprints are usually considered a publication. Also specific journal websites may list preprints. 

Multi-disciplinary
arXiv e-Print Archive (http://xxx.lanl.gov/)
One of the oldest and most well established e-print servers.  This is a huge e-print service in the fields of physics, mathematics, non-linear science, computer science and quantitative biology maintained by Cornell University.

E-Print Network (http://www.osti.gov/eprints/)
From the Department of Energy (DOE), Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI) and Science.gov.  A searchable gateway to over 13,750 websites and databases worldwide.  Covers topics including primarily physics, materials, chemistry, biology, environmental sciences, nuclear medicine.
Also try E-Print Network Alert Service

CogPrints: Cognitive Science E-Print Server (http://cogprints.org/)
CogPrints is an "archive for self-archive papers in any area of psychology, neuroscience, and linguistics, and many areas of computer science, philosophy, biology, as well as any other portions of the physical, social and mathematical sciences that are pertinent to the study of cognition."  Free registration required.

Mathematics
Institute for Mathematical Sciences Preprint Server (http://www.math.sunysb.edu/preprints.html)
From 1990 to the present: differential geometry, topology, dynamics, complex analysis, differential equations, algebra and representation theory, and mathematical physics.

MPRESS/MathNet.preprints (http://mathnet.preprints.org/)
MPRESS is a searchable index of mathematical preprints that will lead you to the full text. It was started in 1997 by the European Mathematical Society.

Mathematical Physics Preprint Archives (http://rene.ma.utexas.edu/mp_arc/)
From the University of Texas at Austin.   From 1991 to the present, abstracts and papers organized by year, free.

Mathematics Preprint Server (http://www.mathpreprints.com/)
Final-version articles as well as reports on work in progress.  Developed by Elsevier Science.  Over 660 articles.  This site is not longer being updated as of May 2004 but previously added content (2001-2004) is available.

Math Specialized Subject Servers (http://www.ams.org/global-preprints/special-server.html)
This list maintained by the American Mathematics Society contains over 30 preprint servers about a variety of topics such as algebraic topology, computational complexity, conservation laws, field arithmetic, Jordan Theory, probability, and more.
Also try Institute and Department Servers and Retired Preprint Servers

Preprints on Conservation Laws (http://www.math.ntnu.no/conservation/)
"The scope of this preprint server is papers on new and recent results concerning conservation laws and related equations.  The main focus is on mathematical analysis and numerical methods, but papers concerning applications are also welcome."

Physics
SPIRES (http://www.slac.stanford.edu/spires/index.shtml)
Search more than 500,000 high-energy physics records including journal papers, preprints, eprints, technical reports, conference papers, and thesis from SLAC at Stanford.

CERN Document Server (http://cdsweb.cern.ch/)
Search over 650,000 records in particle physics and related areas including preprints, articles, books, journals, photographs and much more.

Institute for Condensed Matter Physics Preprints (http://www.icmp.lviv.ua/?CFID=27126832&CFTOKEN=87106511)
Find preprints from the Institute for Condensed Matter Physics at the Academy of Sciences of Ukraine.

Chemistry
Chemistry Preprint Server (http://www.sciencedirect.com/preprintarchive)
From the ACS via ChemWeb.com.  Requires registration to search.  Covers Organic, Analytical, Physical, Inorganic Chemistry, Biochemistry, and a Miscellaneous category.  This server is no longer being updated as of May 2004 but previously added content (2000-2004) is available.

Biology & Ecology
BioMed Central (http://www.biomedcentral.com/)
Find open access articles in over 100 journals covering science and medicine.

Clinical Medicine  Health Research NetPreprints (http://clinmed.netprints.org)
This website results from a collaboration between the BMJ Publishing Group and Stanford University Libraries' HighWire Press. Launched in 1999, it "provides a place for authors to archive their complete studies-before, during, or after peer review by other agencies."

Questions? Email or set up an appointment with the Science and Engineering Librarian.