How to Cite a Preprint or Working Paper

Preprints on servers such as arXiv, SSRN or bioRxiv, and working papers.

Read it in a journal or a book of proceedings? Use Journal Article or Conference Paper. For any other kind of article, see how to cite an article.

What You'll Need

Title
Short title
Author(s)
Server or Repository
Date Published
DOI
URL
Kind or Series
Paper Number
Date Accessed

Check whether the paper has since come out in a journal or proceedings. If you read that version, cite it as a journal article or a conference paper. Otherwise note the server, the date of the version you read and the DOI on its page. For a working paper, note its series and its number too.

Example Citations

APA 7th edition
Perelman, G. (2002). The entropy formula for the Ricci flow and its geometric applications. arXiv. https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.math/0211159
In-text (Perelman, 2002)
MLA 9th edition
Perelman, Grisha. “The Entropy Formula for the Ricci Flow and Its Geometric Applications.” arXiv, 11 Nov. 2002, https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.math/0211159.
In-text (Perelman)

Fix by hand: Set arXiv in italics, as MLA sets the site or repository a work is in.

Chicago 18th edition (notes and bibliography)
Perelman, Grisha. “The Entropy Formula for the Ricci Flow and Its Geometric Applications.” Preprint, ArXiv, November 11, 2002. https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.math/0211159.
Footnote Grisha Perelman, “The Entropy Formula for the Ricci Flow and Its Geometric Applications,” preprint, arXiv, November 11, 2002, https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.math/0211159.

Fix by hand: Write arXiv with a small a in the bibliography entry, as the note does.

Harvard (Cite Them Right 12th edition)
Perelman, G. (2002) ‘The entropy formula for the Ricci flow and its geometric applications’. arXiv. Available at: https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.math/0211159.
In-text (Perelman, 2002)
IEEE
[1]
G. Perelman, “The entropy formula for the Ricci flow and its geometric applications,” Nov. 11, 2002, arXiv. doi: 10.48550/arXiv.math/0211159.
In-text [1]

Numbered by order of appearance in your document.

Fix by hand: Give the year alone, and end with the arXiv number in place of the server and the DOI: …applications,” 2002, arXiv:math/0211159.

Vancouver
1.
Perelman G. The entropy formula for the Ricci flow and its geometric applications [Internet]. arXiv; 2002. Available from: https://arxiv.org/abs/math/0211159
In-text (1)

Numbered by order of appearance in your document.

Fix by hand: Fill in Date Accessed so the date you read it follows the year as [cited …]. Then delete [Internet] after the title, and change “arXiv;” to “arXiv:math/0211159 [Preprint].”

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