What is a preprint, post-print and AAM?

​Submission of preprint copies of research articles to the institutional repositories is a widely accepted practice among researchers. It is supported and accommodated by a growing number of journals.

• An accepted author manuscript (AAM) is the author’s version of the manuscript of an article that has been accepted for publication and which may include any author-incorporated changes suggested through the processes of submission processing, peer review and editor-author communications. AAMs do not include other publisher value-added contributions such as copy-editing, formatting, technical enhancements and, if relevant, pagination. Authors need to keep their AAMs for submission consideration to UJ IR.
• Some publishers may use the term preprint referring to all forms of the article prior to print publication, where as an accepted author manuscript (AAM) specifically refers to an article that has been through the peer-review process and includes editor-author interaction on changes.
• For the purpose of submitting articles to UJ IR the SHERPA definition is adopted.
  A preprint is a draft of a research article or conference proceeding before it has been submitted for peer-review or other quality assurance procedures as part of the publication process.
• Preprints cover initial and successive drafts of articles, working papers or draft conference papers.
• Post-print is the article as it is submitted for printing, i.e. after all peer-review changes are in place.
• More information on the policies of different peer-reviewed publishers is available on the SHERPA/RoMEO web site.