frumútgáfa

frumútgáfa is the Icelandic term for a preliminary edition of a scholarly work released publicly before it has undergone formal peer review or final editorial processing. Preprints are typically posted to repositories or servers to disseminate results quickly, establish priority, and invite feedback from the scientific community. A frumútgáfa may later be revised into a final published article; successive versions (for example v1, v2) reflect updates, corrections, or responses to reviewer comments. Because it is not usually peer-reviewed, readers should treat the contents as provisional and verify critical claims in the final version.

Platforms and licensing: frumútgáfur are commonly hosted on subject-specific repositories such as arXiv, bioRxiv, medRxiv, or institutional repositories. They are often released under permissive licenses, such as Creative Commons, which facilitates reuse with attribution. Some publishers permit preprints before submission, while others have policies on posting after acceptance or during review; authors should check journal guidelines to avoid conflicts with copyright or embargoes.

Impact on scholarly communication: preprints accelerate the dissemination of results, support early career researchers, and enable wider access. They also raise concerns about quality control and the potential for information to be misunderstood before peer review. In many fields, the practice has become routine, particularly in science, mathematics, and computer science, but adoption varies by discipline.

See also: preprint, version of record, open access.