Safety.Science Preprints
Early dissemination for safety-related scholarship
NEDION Preprints is the preprint and early-dissemination service of NEDION Press, the publishing function and imprint of Stichting NEDION.
The service enables authors to make eligible scholarly and professional work publicly available at an early stage, before, alongside or independently of formal journal publication.
Preprints are moderated before posting but are not peer reviewed unless explicitly stated otherwise.
Posting through Safety.Science Preprints does not constitute:
- acceptance by the Safety.Science journal;
- completion of journal peer review;
- scientific validation or endorsement;
- a favourable editorial decision; or
- publication as a peer-reviewed journal article.
Relationship with the Safety.Science journal
Safety.Science Preprints and the Safety.Science journal are connected within the NEDION publishing ecosystem, but they perform different functions.
The Safety.Science journal maintains the formal scholarly record of journal submissions, peer review, editorial decisions and published journal articles through its Open Journal Systems platform.
Safety.Science Preprints provides an optional early-dissemination route through NEDION Preprints.
For manuscripts that are also submitted to the Safety.Science journal:
- preprint posting is voluntary;
- the preprint submission and journal submission remain separate records;
- the journal’s editorial and peer-review process continues independently;
- posting a preprint does not influence the journal’s editorial decision;
- journal acceptance is not guaranteed;
- the later journal article may be linked to the preprint as a related publication.
Authors must submit a journal manuscript separately through the Safety.Science OJS submission system.
What may be submitted
Safety.Science Preprints may include eligible early scholarly and professional outputs concerning:
- integrated and integral safety;
- safety science and safety theory;
- risk, resilience and prevention;
- safety management and governance;
- human and organisational factors;
- technical and socio-technical systems;
- system safety and systems engineering;
- Safety by Design;
- safety methods, tools and frameworks;
- digital safety, AI safety and cyber-physical risk;
- environmental and third-party safety;
- emergency response and operational safety;
- accident, incident and near-miss analysis;
- education, training and capacity development;
- safety-related research agendas and conceptual work;
- cross-domain and interdisciplinary safety questions.
Submissions must fall within the scope of NEDION Preprints and meet its author, rights, ethics, integrity, metadata and moderation requirements.
Registration or submission does not guarantee approval for posting.
Suitable forms of work
Eligible submissions may include:
- research preprints;
- conceptual manuscripts;
- methods and framework papers;
- working papers;
- preliminary research findings;
- technical documents;
- research agendas;
- evidence syntheses;
- case-based analyses;
- conference-related manuscripts;
- developing scholarly outputs;
- revised versions of previously disclosed work, where appropriately identified.
A preprint should contain sufficient substance, structure and documentation to be useful and responsibly interpreted by readers.
Material that is incomplete, misleading, unlawful, confidential, inadequately attributed or unsuitable for responsible public dissemination may be returned, declined or escalated.
Moderation
Every submission is moderated before it may be posted.
Moderation may consider:
- suitability for the Safety.Science Preprints series;
- minimum scholarly or professional form;
- authorship and contributor information;
- completeness and accuracy of metadata;
- originality and prior dissemination;
- copyright, permissions and third-party material;
- ethical approval and informed consent;
- privacy and data protection;
- competing interests and funding;
- AI-assisted content disclosures;
- data and supporting-material statements;
- legal, safety, security and integrity concerns.
Moderation is not journal peer review and does not establish that the findings, methods, interpretations or conclusions are scientifically correct.
A moderator may:
- approve the submission for posting;
- request clarification or revision;
- recommend another publication series;
- decline posting; or
- escalate a concern for further consideration.
Copyright and licence
Copyright remains with the author or authors unless another rights holder is identified on the individual record.
Unless otherwise stated, preprints posted through NEDION Preprints are made available under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence — CC BY 4.0.
Under this licence, others may share and adapt the work for any purpose, including commercial purposes, provided that appropriate credit is given, a link to the licence is provided and any changes are indicated.
Authors must:
- hold or control the rights required to submit and license the work;
- obtain permission for third-party material;
- identify material that is excluded from the CC BY 4.0 licence; and
- comply with applicable journal, institutional, employer, funder and contractual requirements.
Posting does not transfer copyright to NEDION Press, Stichting NEDION or the Safety.Science journal.
Licence information:
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Versions and later publication
Authors may submit revised versions of a posted preprint.
Earlier versions will normally remain identifiable as part of the public version history. This preserves transparency about the development of the work.
Where a later peer-reviewed journal article is published, the preprint and journal article may be linked as related records. They remain distinct publications with different review status and publication histories.
Authors should notify NEDION Preprints when:
- a later journal article has been published;
- a significant correction is required;
- a rights, ethical, privacy or integrity issue is discovered; or
- withdrawal should be considered.
Withdrawal will normally result in a public withdrawal notice rather than complete deletion of the record.
Authors with manuscripts under review
Authors whose manuscripts are currently under consideration by the Safety.Science journal may choose to post an appropriate version through Safety.Science Preprints.
This opportunity is optional.
Authors should confirm that:
- all co-authors agree to the posting;
- the submitted version is suitable for public dissemination;
- preprint posting is permitted under any relevant agreement;
- confidential peer-review correspondence is not included;
- journal reviewer comments are not disclosed without permission;
- the preprint is clearly identified as not peer reviewed;
- the preprint record does not imply journal acceptance.
The journal review process will continue independently.
Current service status
NEDION Preprints is currently operating as a controlled invitation-only pilot.
Participation is limited to selected authors and contributors invited to take part in the pilot. User accounts are created or managed by the NEDION Preprint Server Manager; public self-registration is not enabled during this phase.
The pilot is being used to validate moderation, communication, metadata, publication-series classification, copyright and licensing, version management, record presentation and operational controls.
Public launch, unrestricted registration, broad indexing and wider production automation remain subject to separate readiness decisions.
Pilot submission — invited authors
Authors invited to participate in the pilot may submit through NEDION Preprints using the account provided or enabled for them by the Preprint Server Manager.
Before submitting
Please read:
About NEDION Preprints
https://nedion.press/preprints/
NEDION Preprints Policies
https://nedion.press/preprints/policies/
Pilot access for invited authors
https://preprints.nedion.press
During submission, select:
Safety.Science Preprints
as the publication series.
Authors must complete the required metadata, declarations, manuscript upload and submission checklist.
Submit to the Safety.Science journal
A preprint submission does not constitute a journal submission.
Authors seeking journal peer review and possible publication in Safety.Science must submit separately through the journal’s OJS platform.
Submit a manuscript to the journal
https://journal.safety.science
Author Guidelines
https://safety.science/author-guidelines/
Questions
Questions concerning preprints, moderation, rights, licensing or the pilot may be sent to:
Questions concerning journal submissions, peer review or editorial decisions may be sent to:
Key distinction
| Safety.Science Preprints | Safety.Science journal |
|---|---|
| Early dissemination | Formal journal publication |
| Moderated | Editorially screened and, where applicable, peer reviewed |
| Not peer reviewed unless stated | Review status documented |
| Hosted through NEDION Preprints | Managed through OJS |
| Does not imply journal acceptance | Subject to a formal editorial decision |
| May have several public versions | Published journal version forms the formal journal record |
Safety.Science Preprints
A publication series within NEDION Preprints
NEDION Press · Stichting NEDION