The state of preprints today

Preprints have steadily grown since their introduction, from a hundred papers being posted per month on ar\(\chi\)iv in 1992 to an average of 10,000 per month in 2016. While the growth in preprinting has been quite astonishing in physics, it has been much less so in other fields like the life sciences or psychology where it has been virtually non-existent.  However, a growing awareness of the problems faced in traditional research publishing in fields outside of physics and economics, have pushed researchers to look for "new models," like preprinting.  Accordingly, the adoption of preprints and new preprint servers has started to increase outside of physics and major funders like the NIH, Wellcome Trust, Simons Foundation, and others are starting to look at how to organize and standardize preprinting in the life sciences (see ASAPbio's RFA)