PRE-Prints

Implementation of a Pilot Plan for the development of PRE-Prints.

Preprints have revolutionised the communication of scientific research results in the last decade, especially in the field of biology and medical sciences. Journal rating agencies demand that journals have such a publication procedure. In architecture, it is difficult to find an agile and direct link between researchers and these articles in gestation. As Astrágalo is a university journal, a collaboration has been generated that will act as a bridge between postgraduate training and the development of a preprint service in the journal during 2022. 

By inserting the experience of publication by Pre-Prints, not only would it be possible to extend the referential framework and support and control of the research for the Master's Thesis (in the Master's Degree in Sustainable City and Architecture of the Higher Technical School of Architecture of Seville), but also to test this form of research in the area of architecture, which is less prone than scientific areas to do so.

In addition to the traditional demands that our professors make of the TFMs in order to achieve thematic and methodological quality in each field of knowledge that deals with sustainability in a broad sense within the MCAS, particularly with regard to its ecological value and always in relation to architecture, it is hoped that students will begin writing the TFM beforehand, specify its scope, become part of a community of specialists in their field, receive comments, analyses, programme updates, find similar research projects, and so on, move towards the transfer of knowledge to society, get started in academic dissemination, promote exchange, place the CAS master's degree among the referents of other institutions with similar concerns, get to know by extension the agents of knowledge, generate a text in accordance with a journal publication (the TFM is a long format, which is not abandoned, but the pre-print will be done in parallel, urging its conclusion but not compulsory, since the important thing is to comply with the guidelines for the TFM).

To this end, a training course will be held and a computer application will be developed to manage the reception of pre-print articles. These pre-prints received will not be assigned to the monographs planned for each year, but those that are more suitable for publication in Astrágalo will be evaluated. Therefore, the announcement of upcoming issues is important. The Astrágalo team will be able to recommend improvements, as well as being a cross point of exchange of information on research, and commented on by multiple researchers outside the journal. 

Astrágalo accepts preprints validated with DOI in other platforms and journals with a recognised seal, but this must be stated in the submission. Preprints must, in any case, follow the same guidelines for authors and undergo double-blind peer review. If the submitted texts are accessible or recognisable on other digital platforms, but lack a DOI, they can be assimilated to preprints, but must be removed from those platforms to ensure the peer review process.