It is not possible to change/edit or unpublish a preprint once published, but preprints can be annotated by authors and readers, see How to use the Hypothes.is annotation tool. Authors should make corrections in subsequent revisions of the manuscript and can opt in to also display the accepted manuscript version, and we also always link to the final published version (Version of Record), even if not published in a JMIR journal.
Preprint (What are JMIR Preprints?) settings are selected by the submitting author during the submission process and can be any of the following: availability of the submitted document for everybody, for logged-in users, for nobody, or for open peer-review only. After submission, a preprints page is generated and these settings are also displayed on the preprints page.
To change the preprint settings, go to the Author menu > Select your manuscript from the list. After you land on the Summary tab of your manuscript, scroll down to the bottom where there will be a section called Preprint Settings.
There are 3 preprint settings you will need to set in the first step of your submission they are explained as follows:
1. Before Publication: is the visibility of the preprint before publication.
Immediately after submission, a DOI is assigned if the setting is "a", "b" or "c"; this setting can then no longer be set to "d" anymore because the preprint is deemed "citable" once it has a DOI.
Some restrictions apply to this setting as Preprints are supposed to be stable and citable (they may already have gotten a DOI and changing them from "anyone" to "no one" will make the preprint unavailable to the public).
Restrictions are as follows:
- If option "a" is selected this decision cannot be changed.
- If option "b" is selected you can switch between "a" and "b"
- If option "c" is selected you can switch between "a" and "b" and "c"
- If option "d" is selected there are no restrictions
2. When the manuscript is accepted: is the visibility of the preprint after peer-review, when the manuscript is accepted but before publication in a JMIR Journal. There are no restrictions here. this setting 2c is automatically selected if Ahead-of-Print (AoP) is submitted to PubMed. For information about AoP, Please see What is the "PubMed Now!" ("ahead-of-print") option when I pay the APF?
3. When the final manuscript (version of record) is published: is the visibility of the preprint after publication in a JMIR Journal, there are no restrictions here.
4. If the submission is marked as rejected, withdrawn, or lapsed: is the visibility of the preprint when the article is rejected, withdrawn or lapsed, there are no restrictions here.
If you are an author and want the current settings to be changed to a more "open" setting, you can do so by going to the article summary tab and scroll down to the "Preprint Setting" section where you can update it accordingly.
In many cases author wants the Preprint removed because they fear that other journals would not accept a previously posted manuscript. However, these days virtually all publishers and journals accept manuscripts that have previously been posted on a preprint server, see My submission was rejected/withdrawn from JMIR but is still on your Preprint server. Can you please remove it so I can submit it somewhere else?
See also:
- What are JMIR Preprints?
- My submission was rejected/withdrawn from JMIR but is still on your Preprint server. Can you please remove it so I can submit it somewhere else?
- How do I change the title/abstract/authors in a Preprint?
- How to use the Hypothes.is annotation tool
For JMIR staff: