To spread their words faster, scientists have traditionally sent out pre-prints of unpublished articles and, with the advent of the Internet, "e-prints" have now emerged.

When an author sends a manuscript to the database, the manuscript is called an e-print. E-prints would be retrievable free of charge in both the original and a standard format (e.g., PostScript). Articles (selected for long-term storage) would be e-prints that have been refereed by the editor and the reviewers.

Paul Ginsparg shut down the e-print archives of Los Alamos National Laboratory, the physicists' pre-publication bulletin board for a few days.