Preprint Policy

Georgian Medical Journal · Publication Policy

Preprint Policy

Public Health Institute of Georgia (PHIG) · ISSN 3088-4322 · Crossref DOI prefix: 10.66636 · ICMJE · COPE · CC BY 4.0

The Georgian Medical Journal (GMJ) supports the early dissemination of health sciences research through preprint servers. Preprints accelerate the communication of findings, invite community feedback, and increase the visibility of research — particularly from underrepresented regions, including the Eastern European and Central Asian (EECA) region.

This policy applies to all article types accepted by GMJ: original research, systematic reviews with meta-analyses, and study protocols. It covers preprints posted on recognised, non-commercial servers prior to, during, or concurrently with submission to GMJ.

 

Key Principles

— GMJ accepts manuscripts that have been previously posted as preprints on recognised servers.
— Preprint posting does not constitute prior publication.
— Authors must disclose any preprint DOI at the time of submission.
— Peer review at GMJ remains fully independent of any preprint posting.
— The GMJ-published version becomes the Version of Record.

Recognised Preprint Servers

GMJ recognises manuscripts posted on the following established preprint servers:

 

medRxiv

Health sciences, clinical medicine, public health. medrxiv.org
 

bioRxiv

Biological sciences. biorxiv.org
 

Preprints.org

Multidisciplinary. preprints.org
 

OSF Preprints

Multidisciplinary (Open Science Framework). osf.io/preprints
 

SSRN

Health economics, health policy. ssrn.com
 

Research Square

Multidisciplinary. researchsquare.com

Manuscripts posted on other recognised preprint servers will be considered on a case-by-case basis. Manuscripts posted on personal websites, institutional repositories, or social media do not qualify as preprints under this policy.

Author Requirements — At the Time of Submission

Authors submitting a manuscript to GMJ that has been posted as a preprint must:
— Disclose the preprint server name and DOI in the cover letter.
— Include the preprint DOI in the manuscript metadata fields in OJS.
— Confirm that all co-authors consented to both the preprint posting and the GMJ submission.
— Declare any differences between the preprint version and the submitted manuscript.

Author Requirements — Upon Acceptance and Publication

After a manuscript is accepted and published in GMJ, authors should update the preprint record on the server to include the GMJ DOI and indicate that the Version of Record is available. Most preprint servers, including medRxiv, add this link automatically through Crossref metadata when the journal registers its DOI.

Editorial Independence

Peer review at GMJ is conducted independently of any preprint posting. The existence of a preprint has no bearing — positive or negative — on the editorial decision. Reviewers are instructed to evaluate the manuscript on its scientific merit, regardless of whether it has been publicly available as a preprint.

Comments, annotations, or reviews posted publicly on a preprint server do not replace or substitute for GMJ's formal peer review process.

Version of Record

The GMJ-published article is the definitive Version of Record. Once published, the GMJ version — with its assigned DOI (prefix 10.66636) — is the authoritative citation for the work. The preprint remains accessible on the server as an earlier version, with a link to the published article.

Authors should cite the published GMJ article rather than the preprint in all subsequent work once the Version of Record is available.

Preprint Linking on GMJ Article Pages

Where a published GMJ article originated as a preprint, the article page on gmj.ge will display:
— A "Preprint" label with the server name and a hyperlinked DOI.
— The posting date of the original preprint.
— A note that the preprint was not peer-reviewed at the time of posting.

Concurrent Submission

Authors may post a preprint on a recognised server at the same time as submitting to GMJ. However, manuscripts that have already been accepted for publication, published, or posted on another peer-reviewed journal's platform are not eligible for submission to GMJ. Posting on a preprint server does not constitute prior publication.

GMJ and medRxiv

 

GMJ's editorial scope — public health, health policy, epidemiology, migration health, health systems, and clinical medicine — aligns with medRxiv's subject categories. GMJ is registered as a Crossref member (DOI prefix 10.66636), enabling automatic metadata linking between GMJ-published articles and their medRxiv preprints.

GMJ is exploring formal integration with medRxiv's transfer programmes (medRxiv-to-Journal, M2J) to enable direct manuscript transfer from medRxiv to GMJ's OJS submission system.

Alignment with International Standards

This policy aligns with the preprint policies of leading international journals and organisations: BMJ, The Lancet, PLOS Medicine, Nature, JAMA, eLife, ICMJE, COPE, and DOAJ.

The International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) states that posting on a preprint server does not constitute duplicate publication. GMJ follows this principle without exception.

Contact

— Email: editor@gmj.ge
— Website: gmj.ge
— Editor-in-Chief: Prof. Giorgi Pkhakadze, MD, MPH, PhD
— ORCID: 0000-0001-7609-4515

Policy Review

This policy is reviewed annually and updated as needed to reflect developments in preprint infrastructure and open science standards. Version 1.0 — Effective 28 May 2026.

 

Georgian Medical Journal (GMJ) · Published by the Public Health Institute of Georgia (PHIG) · ISSN 3088-4322 · DOI prefix: 10.66636 · Open Access · CC BY 4.0 · editor@gmj.ge · gmj.ge