About provisional PDFs

I've received a few questions lately about the status of provisional PDFs. For those not familiar with them, they are the version of the manuscript that is published immediately upon the paper being accepted for publication.

Provisional PDFs are made up of the accepted version of the manuscript, any other files comprising the submission, plus a cover sheet. As soon as the typeset version of the article is ready it replaces the provisional PDF.

Benefits of provisional PDFs:

• Means that the paper is published as rapidly as possible.
• In some areas, it may be useful for authors to 'plant their flag' in an area as soon as possible.

Drawbacks of provisional PDFs:

• Manuscripts vary widely in presentation and some authors may prefer that their manuscript is not made public.
  
• While we can tidy up some manuscripts--depending on file format--this effectively means we have to typeset the same paper twice: the final typeset PDF and the provisional PDF. If we have to typeset twice a delay is added to the publication process which undermines the benefit of providing a provisional PDF.
  
• Cannot be cited because pagination is unknown until the final typeset paper is completed.
• May be confused for the final typeset version of the paper.

Authors we asked about provisional PDFs were generally not in favour of them for these reasons. Only for a minority did the benefits out-weigh the drawbacks.

In light of this we decided earlier this year to cease providing provisional PDFs. However, authors who specifically require it may request it during the publication process and we will be happy to provide one.