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I have a question related to this post,

Is it legal to upload a paper to arXiv when it is under double blind review for one of the IEEE journals?

What should I do if I uploaded my manuscript on arxiv and plan to pass it on a peer reviewed journal? I am worried after reading the answers in the link.

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  • Yes my field is on Mathematics.
    – Jr Antalan
    Commented Feb 28, 2015 at 16:12
  • Regarding your comment: it is common practice on arXiv that if/when your preprint is published, you update the "Comment" field to include the full citation of the journal version. This is just further evidence that it is perfectly fine to submit a paper to a journal after it has appeared on arXiv.
    – Nate Eldredge
    Commented Feb 28, 2015 at 16:31
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    I think the question is about the double-blind review. Some authors favor the double-blind system, because they think they might get an unfair review if the referee knows who they are. But what if the referee can find out who they are by searching for the paper at ArXiv? Or, on the other hand, an author may oppose the double-blind system, and put the paper on ArXiv to purposely show their authorship.
    – GEdgar
    Commented Feb 28, 2015 at 16:32

2 Answers 2

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Based on your profile, I will assume this is a mathematics paper. In that case, the answer is almost certainly: This is totally fine. You don't need to do anything. Just submit your paper to a journal whenever you are ready.

There are two main ways in which posting a preprint could interfere with publication, but neither of them is usually applicable in mathematics.

  1. Double-anonymous (aka double-blind) review. In some fields, it is common for the journal to send the referee a copy of the paper with the author's name removed. The theory is that this makes the review more impartial. In this case, if you had a preprint on arXiv, the referee might find it by searching for the paper's title; then she would know your name and the review would no longer be double-anonymous. This is the issue discussed by the question you linked.

    Double-anonymous review policies used to be very rare for math journals, but as of 2024 there are a few that have adopted it, and I expect that more will follow. However, as far as I've seen, those journals still don't place any restrictions on preprints. Rather, they just use an "honor system" where the reviewer is asked not to actively try to identify the author by searching for preprints, etc. See for instance the American Mathematical Society's policy. So as an author, you are still perfectly free (and encouraged) to post preprints with your name. It doesn't impact your ability to publish the work, and you don't need to do anything about it.

  2. Prior publication. A nearly universal rule in academic publishing is that you cannot publish the same paper in two different journals. This is a mechanism to keep the scientific record orderly (so that there is one unique place to find and cite the article); also, for subscription-based publishers, it helps ensure that people have to subscribe to their journal to read their content, and can't get it elsewhere. So you might worry that if you had a paper on arXiv, a journal would reject it on the grounds that it was already published. Fortunately, though, I've never heard of any mathematics journal that considers an arXiv preprint to constitute "prior publication". arXiv is so widely used in math that publishers generally don't object to the paper being available there. (But I have heard that in chemistry the opposite is true: posting a paper to arXiv can torpedo your chances of publishing in a journal.)

Of course, to be safe, you should check the policies of the journal where you are submitting. Questions regarding preprint archival are usually addressed explicitly in these policies.

One thing to note: some publishers do not want you to update your preprint with any changes suggested by their editor or referee. That way, only the journal can print the "final version", so there is still something that they have that the reader can't get any other way. Other journals say it is fine to update the preprint, making the arXiv and journal versions identical. Again, check the journal's policies.

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  • Thank you so much @NateEldredge. I completely know what to do.
    – Jr Antalan
    Commented Feb 28, 2015 at 16:30
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    FWIW, some journals these days will even allow you to submit via arXiv -- that is, you can upload your preprint to arXiv, and then just paste the arXiv ID into the journal's submission form. Of course, there are likely to be formatting requirements that you should be aware of in advance, so that your arXiv files will match the journal's submission guidelines.
    – Ilmari Karonen
    Commented Mar 1, 2015 at 14:18
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    Some years ago, the Proceedings of the A.M.S. experimented with double-blind review; that experiment didn't last very long. But, quite surprisingly (to me), the American Mathematical Monthly adopted double-blind review: "IMPORTANT CHANGE: Beginning January 1, 2015, the Monthly will implement a double blind review system. Please remove author names from manuscripts before submitting to the Monthly." (quoted from maa.org/press/periodicals/…)
    – Andreas Blass
    Commented Nov 5, 2015 at 21:41
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Every journal has a different copyright policy. Some allow you to post pre-prints and others do not. One good resource to find out what the policy of your journal is the Sherpa Romeo index: http://sherpa.ac.uk/romeo/. Else you need to read the copyright form that you are required to sign carefully.

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  • Thanks for the link @moorepants but unfortunately the journal was not included there.
    – Jr Antalan
    Commented Feb 28, 2015 at 16:11
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    @JrAntalan in their FAQ: If RoMEO does not cover the title you are interested in, please try searching for the Publisher instead. Also, please contact us to tell us about the gap in our data.
    – Davidmh
    Commented Feb 28, 2015 at 16:21
  • I cant find it also. However, Nate Eldredge gave me already the things I need to do. Thanks again @Davidmh
    – Jr Antalan
    Commented Feb 28, 2015 at 16:26
  • Every journal I've submitted to has made their policies completely clear. Why would you ask some third party (Sherpa Romeo) rather than looking at what the journal itself says? Any third-party service will inevitably contain errors and entries that are out of date. Why risk using incorrect information?
    – David Richerby
    Commented Feb 28, 2015 at 22:13
  • @DavidRicherby The Sherpa Romeo Index is very beneficial at helping you narrow journals to submit to if you favor a particular policy. It also helps you find the information you want instead of wading through pages of legalese. Of course you'll ultimately need to read the journal's policy yourself, but I don't think that is any reason not to use the index. It's really no different than using stackexchange to answer your question as opposed to a primary source.
    – moorepants
    Commented Mar 1, 2015 at 17:20

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