The E‐volution of preprints in the scholarly communication of physicists and astronomers

To learn how e‐prints are cited, used, and accepted in the literature of physics and astronomy, the philosophies, policies, and practices of top‐tier physics and astronomy journals regarding e‐prints from the Los Alamos e‐print archive, arXiv.org, were examined. Citation analysis illustrated e‐prints were cited with increasing frequency by a variety of journals in a wide range of physics and astronomy fields from 1998 to 1999. The peak e‐print citation rate of 3 years observed was comparable to that of print journals, suggesting a similarity in citation patterns of e‐prints and printed articles. The number of citations made to 37 premier physics and astronomy journals and their impact factors have remained constant since arXiv.org's inception in 1991, indicating that e‐prints have yet to make an impact on the use of the printed literature. The degree of acceptance stated by the journals' editors and the policies given in the journal's instructions to authors sections concerning the citing of e‐prints and subsequent publication of papers that have appeared as e‐prints differed from journal to journal, ranging from emphatically unacceptable to “why not?” Even though the use of the traditional literature has not changed since arXiv.org began and the policies concerning e‐print citation and publication were inconsistent, the number of citations (35,928) and citations rates (34.1%) to 12 arXiv.org archives were found to be large and increasing. It is, therefore, evident that arXiv.org e‐prints have evolved into an important facet of the scholarly communication of physics and astronomy.