In general, Elsevier is permissive with respect to authors and electronic preprints. If an electronic preprint of an article is placed on a public server prior to its submission to an Elsevier journal or where a paper was originally authored as a thesis or dissertation, this is not generally viewed by Elsevier as “prior publication” and therefore Elsevier will not require authors to remove electronic preprints of an article from public servers should the article be accepted for publication in an Elsevier journal.

However, please note that Cell Press and The Lancet have different preprint policies and will not consider articles that have already been posted publicly for publication. This is a rule agreed upon by The International Committee of Medical Journal Editors.