Overlay Journals provide editorial selection and peer review for scholarly works that are already openly available through suitable preprint servers or research repositories — adding an organized layer of editorial assessment, peer review, and metadata around the existing research object, rather than requiring the journal to host a duplicate primary copy.
How the Model Works
- An author deposits a manuscript in an appropriate preprint server or repository
- The manuscript is submitted or nominated for consideration by an overlay journal
- Editors assess its suitability and arrange peer review according to the journal's published policy
- Authors address reviewer comments and, where required, deposit an updated version
- If accepted, the overlay journal publishes an editorial record linking to the appropriate version of the underlying work
Repository-Agnostic Approach
DUF's overlay-journal framework is not intended to depend on a single preprint provider. Depending on discipline and journal policy, suitable sources could include arXiv, bioRxiv, medRxiv, SSRN, institutional repositories, or other trusted repositories. The fact that a manuscript appears on a preprint server does not mean it has been peer reviewed or endorsed by the overlay journal.
Editorial Responsibility
Overlay publication does not eliminate editorial responsibility. Editors remain responsible for establishing appropriate review procedures, managing conflicts of interest, recording decisions, and clearly identifying which version has been evaluated.