The EGU preprint server on EGUsphere was launched in 2022. It constitutes the (to-date) last step in a fully transparent and interactive peer-review and publication process. In its early days, authors could actively choose to submit their preprints to the new server or to submit them as preprints directly to a selected EGU Journal (see our blog post from March 2023). This option is now passé: all journals were switched to 100% EGUsphere by the end of 2024. In other words, all papers submitted to EGU journals appear – upon acceptance for review by an editor – on EGUsphere and are clearly identifiable as preprints. There is no option to opt out.
Since its early days, the functioning of EGUsphere has slightly evolved to satisfy the different needs of authors, reviewers and editors. The changes include a new “status bar” (see below) that indicates if a preprint is under review for a particular EGU journal.
Papers submitted for publication in a particular journal show a status box, but during the peer-review process only. Should a paper be rejected, the status box is removed.
During 2023, this additional information in the status box was added upon request by some journals. Indeed, as I experienced with one of my own papers, not knowing the target journal was, at times, confusing for the reviewers. Since early October 2024, all journals now show a status box for their preprints under review.
If your preprint is accepted in an EGU journal, then the preprint receives a link to the final accepted paper (see below), and your preprint (with its public review) are permanently linked to your final paper in the paper’s “peer- review” section.
View of a preprint with a published peer-reviewed final version.
You might now wonder what happens if your paper is not accepted for publication? In this case, the status of your preprint is simply set to “closed”. The link to the target journal is removed and only the public (closed) discussion remains visible (see below). This decreases the risk of other journals mistakenly categorizing the preprint as a “previous publication in a journal” and thus eases the process of resubmission.
Left: in the past, rejected preprints were clearly marked as rejected preprints in HESS (to avoid any confusion with final published papers).This does not exist anymore and rejected preprints are simply marked as “closed” (right) without link to a journal.
NB: Don’t forget that EGUsphere is a completely open preprint server where you can submit any preprints – also those that are not intended for publication in an EGU journal.
Editorial by B. Schaefli with input from Copernicus.
