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Posted content (includes preprints)

What is posted content?

This content consists of preprints, eprints, working papers, reports, dissertations, and many other types of content that has been posted but not formally published. Note that “accepted manuscripts” are not considered posted content.

To qualify as posted content, an item must be posted to a host platform where it will receive some level of stewardship.  We’re all about persistence, so it’s vital that everything registered with us be maintained.

Associating posted content with published content (AM / VOR)

Once a journal article (or book, conference paper, etc.) has been published from the posted content and a DOI has been assigned, the posted content publisher will update their metadata to associate the posted content with the DOI of the accepted manuscript (AM) or version of record (VOR).

Crossref will notify the posted content depositor when we find a match between the title & first author of two publications so that the potential relationship can be reviewed. The posted content publisher must then update the preprint metadata record by declaring the AM/VOR relationship. The notification is delivered by email to the technical contact on file. Please contact support if you need the email notifications sent to a different address.

Policies for posted content

  • References: references will be flagged as  belonging to a posted content item by Crossref’s cited-by linking service
  • Components: the preprint is treated as one item only without components for its constituent parts.
  • Versions: each version should be assigned a new DOI, and associate the versions via an intra-work relationship with type “isVersionOf”.
  • Crossmark: posted content will not be able participate in our Crossmark service

Displaying & labeling on posted content publications

Crossref members must make it clear that posted content is unpublished and they must ensure that any link to the AM/VOR is prominently displayed. Specifically:

  • The landing page (or equivalent) of the preprint must be labeled as not formally published (e.g. “preprint”, “unpublished manuscript”). This label must appear above the scroll.
  • The landing page (or equivalent) of the preprint must link to the AM/VOR when it is made available. The link must be appropriately labeled (e.g. “Now published in <Journal Name>”, “Version of record available in <Journal Name>”) and appear above the scroll.

Depositing and updating posted content

Posted content is a Crossref content type available starting with schema version 4.4.0. The schema updates include a number of posted content-specific elements. The top level element is called posted_content and has an attribute called “type”. This attribute is given a value from an enumerated list that defines the nature of the posted content. The current set of enumerations are:

  • preprint
  • working_paper
  • letter
  • dissertation
  • report
  • other

The default value is “preprint”. Please contact us if this list doesn't meet your needs.

Metadata elements

The Posted Content type contains the following elements (elements in bold are required):

Element Description

group_title

The hosting platform may organize its posted content into categories or subject areas. This field is used to name the container for the posted item.

contributors

Container for author information

titles

The titles (title and sub-title) of the posted content.

posted_date

The date  when the posted content became available online on the hosting platform

acceptance_date

The date the content item was submitted to and accepted by the hosting platform

institution

Container for information about an organization that sponsored or hosted an item but is not the publisher

program: funding

Source of funding applicable to research related to the posted content

program: access indicators

License terms

program: relations

Relationships (other than bibliographic citation) to other works, such as found in acknowledgments or list of supplemental material.

doi_data

Container for persistent identifier and URL

citation_list

Posted content bibliography listing of citations to other works.

 

Updating metadata with relationship to AM/VOR

Once an item has been published from the posted content, the posted content publisher must update their publication metadata with the AM / VOR DOI using the “isPreprintOf” relation type.

<program xmlns="http://www.crossref.org/relations.xsd">
    <related_item>
         <!--DOI of the  AM / VOR-->
         <intra_work_relation relationship-type="isPreprintOf" identifier-type="doi">10.5555/preprint_sample_doi_vor</intra_work_relation>
    </related_item>
</program>

The relationship metadata may be updated with either a full metadata deposit (existing metadata plus the ‘relationship’ metadata) or as a resource-only deposit. Metadata deposited using the resource schema will be appended to the existing metadata.

Posted content and conflicts

When a posted content item is submitted for a published item that has a registered metadata record, a conflict is created.  The conflict is resolved when the posted content item is updated with the relationship metadata for the published item's DOI.

Posted content and cited-by matches

Members querying for cited-by matches may elect to include posted content matches in their results.  By default, posted content is not included. To retrieve matches including posted content:

HTTP queries: add the “include_postedcontent=true” parameter to your query, for example:

http://doi.crossref.org/servlet/getForwardLinks?usr=XXXX&pwd=XXXX&doi=10.5555/12345678&include_postedcontent=true

XML queries: add the  “include_postedcontent="true" attribute to your fl_query element, for example: 

<?xml version = "1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
  <query_batch version="2.0" xmlns = "http://www.crossref.org/qschema/2.0" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
    <head><doi_batch_id>eXtyles Request AMP.dodge0724.doc__76</doi_batch_id>
    </head>
<body>
    <fl_query include_postedcontent="true"><doi>10.5555/12345678</doi></fl_query>
</body>
</query_batch>

Examples 

A posted content deposit: review the sample below or download an XML file

...
<posted_content>
           <!--group_title: Prepublication content items may be organized into groupings within a given publisher. This element provides for naming the group. It is expected that publishers will have a small number of groups each of which reflect a topic or subject area. (required)-->              
           <group_title>Metadata Quality</group_title>
           <contributors>
               <person_name sequence="first" contributor_role="author">
                   <given_name>Dorothy</given_name>
                   <surname>Depositor</surname>
                   <ORCID>http://orcid.org/0000-0002-4011-3590</ORCID>
               </person_name>
           </contributors>
           <titles>
               <title>Mind your &lt; and &gt;: why XML needs to be valid</title>
           </titles>
           <!--posted_date: The date  when the posted content became available online on the hosting platform (required)-->
           <posted_date>
               <month>01</month>
               <day>15</day>
               <year>1971</year>
           </posted_date>
           <!--acceptance_date: date the content item was submitted to and accepted by the hosting platform. (optional) -->
           <acceptance_date>
              <month>01</month>
               <day>01</day>
               <year>1971</year>
           </acceptance_date>
           <!--optional funding and license data-->
           <program name="fundref" xmlns="http://www.crossref.org/fundref.xsd">
               <assertion name="fundgroup">
                   <assertion name="funder_name"> U.S. Department of Energy <assertion
                           name="funder_identifier">100000015</assertion>
                   </assertion>
                   <assertion name="award_number">DE-FG03-03SF22691</assertion>
               </assertion>
               <assertion name="fundgroup">
                   <assertion name="funder_name"> U.S. Department of Energy <assertion
                           name="funder_identifier">100000015</assertion>
                   </assertion>
                   <assertion name="award_number">DE-AC52-06NA27279</assertion>
               </assertion>
           </program>
           <program xmlns="http://www.crossref.org/AccessIndicators.xsd">
               <free_to_read start_date="2016-01-01"/>
               <license_ref>http://some.co.org/license_page.html</license_ref>
           </program>
           <!--DOI and URL (required)-->
           <doi_data>
               <doi>10.50505/preprint_sample_doi_1</doi>
               <resource>http://www.crossref.org/index.html</resource>
           </doi_data>
           <!--citation list for the item (optional)-->
           <citation_list>
               <citation key="pp1">
                   <doi>10.5555/12345678</doi>
               </citation>
           </citation_list>
       </posted_content>

A posted content deposit containing a relationship to a VOR: review the sample below or download an XML file

…
<!-- relationship established with VOR DOI (required when VOR is identified)-->
    <program xmlns="http://www.crossref.org/relations.xsd">
       <related_item>
          <intra_work_relation relationship-type="isPreprintOf" identifier-type="doi">10.5555/preprint_sample_doi_vor</intra_work_relation>
       </related_item>
     </program>
           <!--DOI and URL (required)-->
           <doi_data>
               <doi>10.50505/preprint_sample_doi_1</doi>
               <resource>http://www.crossref.org/index.html</resource>
           </doi_data>
...

A journal article deposit that includes a relationship to posted content: review the sample below or download an XML file

…
<publication_date>
   <year>2016</year>
</publication_date>
<!--relationship established with posted content (preprint) DOI-->
<program xmlns="http://www.crossref.org/relations.xsd">
   <related_item>
     <intra_work_relation relationship-type="hasPreprint" identifier-type="doi">10.50505/preprint_sample_doi_1</intra_work_relation>
   </related_item>
</program>
               <doi_data>
                   <doi>10.5555/preprint_sample_doi_vor</doi>
                   <resource>http://www.crossref.org/index.html</resource>
               </doi_data>
...

Email notification of posted content match:

Member Example Publishing has deposited DOI 10.5555/preprint_sample_doi_vor (http://doi.org/10.5555/
 preprint_sample_doi_vor) claiming it is the VoR for your posted content DOI 10.50505/preprint_sample_doi_1.

Please display a link to the Version of Record from your posted content online. Linking posted content to the published record is critical to enabling the full history of scholarly results, and ensuring that the citation record is clear and up-to-date.

If you have questions please contact support@crossref.org and one of our colleagues (in the EST timezone) will get back to you.

Many thanks,
​
Crossref

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