Article versions

Publisher’s PDF ( = Version of Record) = A version of an article as it appears in a journal.

Proof = a preliminary version of the final publication meant for review by authors, usually too "finished" for self-archiving.

Final draft = Author’s Accepted Manuscript (AAM) = post-print = post-review = A version of the paper or article that has been peer-reviewed and accepted for publication. It has not yet had the publisher’s layout and typesetting applied.

Final draft can be a Word-document or it can be written on a template.

Preprint = Article submitted to an editorial board, no acceptance for peer review process yet.

Publishers' self-archiving policies vary a lot:

Preprints are usually allowed for self-archiving, without embargoes.

The most of the publishers allow self-archiving of final drafts (with or without embargoes).

Some publishers allow also self-archiving of Publisher’s PDFs.

The University Library checks the archived version and possible embargo of each article. Please use SHERPA/RoMEO if you want to check the publishers' policies yourself.