ARC bans preprints, again

But this time it’s obvious

The information pack for Excellence in Research for Australia 2023 advises that the Australian Research Council consulted on including preprints and feedback, “was overwhelmingly supportive of not including preprints as an eligible research output type.”

And lest anyone miss the point, “as a consequence, preprints will not be eligible for ERA submission.”

This follows last year’s fiasco when the ARC enforced a rule that many Research Offices had missed, banning pre-prints from grant applications, generating outrage on behalf of excluded applicants who did not know about it (umpteen CMM stories last year but September 23 covers it).