In general terms, the word preprint
refers to a pre-publication version of a literary work. In the scientific field,
the preprint, also referred as e-prints, as manuscript versions of a scientific
production, generally articles, that were not yet peer-reviewed and published. They can be seen as form of open
publication that establish precedence of research, enable rapid dissemination
of results and provide early recognition and visibility for work.
Despite sounding like a novelty, the
dissemination of pre-publication versions is an old practice in several areas
of knowledge, but before the internet, it was carried out by sending printed
research manuscripts or letters between peers to exchange comments and
collaborations. Garvey & Griffith (1972, p.p. 130-131) points that "in 1963, for example, about half of the authors of articles published in major psychology journals distributed an average of 10 preprints".
For early-career researchers preprints
are a opportunity to get feedback from peers and senior researchers about their
researches before submitting it to peer-reviewed journals.
Garvey, W.
D., & Griffith, B. C. (1972). Communication and information processing
within scientific disciplines: Empirical findings for Psychology. Information
Storage and Retrieval, 8(3), 123–136. https://doi.org/10.1016/0020-0271(72)90041-1