Useful material
Publication versions of an article
Overview
The same scholarly work may exist in several versions: from the author’s manuscript to the final published article. This is important for understanding the text’s status, citation, and sharing rules.
Main content
In detail
Authors often mix up two different concepts: the content type of an article—for example, research article, review, editorial—and the publication-stage version of the article, such as manuscript, proof, or version of record.
If we speak specifically about publication versions, international practice distinguishes several main stages.
Main publication versions
- Author’s Original — the original author version;
- Submitted Manuscript Under Review — the version submitted to the journal and under review;
- Accepted Manuscript — the text after scholarly acceptance but before final publisher formatting;
- Proof — the version after layout and editorial processing sent for checking;
- Version of Record — the final officially published version;
- Corrected Version of Record — the corrected published version;
- Enhanced Version of Record — the published version with additional digital materials or enhancements.
Understanding these stages is important because
- not every version is equally suitable for citation;
- different journals allow sharing of preprints, accepted manuscripts, and final publications in different ways;
- for reporting and academic procedures, it may matter which version is being referred to.
What is important to remember
A scientific article is not always one unchanging file. It may have different versions, and each has its own status.
Official and useful sources
Source