The nano.org project is currently in early beta testing. However, the features described below are already in effect. One exception to the description below is that, during beta, all users automatically have the scholar rank. Read more about the beta test here.

Background
Within some scientific disciplines it has become common practice to upload manuscripts to internet preprint archives at about the same time that the manuscript is submitted to a print journal for review. The strongest example of such an archive is the arxiv.org system. This is a repository for papers on topics within physics, mathematics, computer science and quantitative biology. Within some fields, such as quantum information science for example, it is now standard practice for all authors to use the archive. Researchers in this area check the archive daily for the latest submissions.

The arxiv.org system is exemplary in several respects. One very important feature is that submissions are permanently available - so that even if a preprint is replaced with a newer version, the old one remains accessible too. Coupled with a clear dating system, this ensures accountability and prevents plagiarism. The URL (that is, the internet address starting http://) of a preprint is short, human readable and permanent - so it is appropriate to use it as a means of citing a preprint from another publication.

The nano.org facility
The nano.org project now provides a similar preprint archive feature to the nanoscience community. We have adopted the strengths mentioned above,

• All manuscripts are retained permanently. If a manuscript's authors upload a newer version, the new version becomes the default seen by readers - however, links are available to prior versions.

• All URLs (internet addresses) for accessing articles are static, with a simple human readable structure that contains the date of the original submission. An example is nano.org/06-03-442 which means the 442nd article submitted in March (03) of 2006 (06). This URL never changes, even when the paper is replaced, and so it can be used as a citation.

One important respect we do differ from arxiv.org

• We have a simple requirement for the format of submissions - all manuscripts must be PDF files. We provide help for authors who need advice on saving MS Word documents as PDFs. We have a generous size allowance of 8MB, and larger files can be uploaded by making a request to an Operator.

But the essential novel feature is that our preprint system is integrated with the Discussion system described above and (optionally) with the Community Peer Review system described below. When a preprint is uploaded to the site, the system automatically creates a new discussion thread where any scholar can post comments, queries etc. Indeed the article's URL, nano.org/06-03-442, corresponds to the discussion thread, which provides links to download the article itself. This thread is permanent association with the preprint (except for possible Operator-level intervention to remove abusive posts, etc). The authors themselves may of course post to the thread - indeed this is encouraged. Because of the permanence of the thread, authors can feel free to invest time in careful exposition of points in their paper - in this respect the discussion thread is like an interactive extension of the paper itself.

Example: Upload your article - suppose that you an author of a new research paper, and you have the permission of all the authors to upload your paper to nano.org. Perhaps this article is in review with a print journal, and you wish to make the results disclosed by the paper immediately available to the community. Note that some journals have established policies permitting the submission of preprints to online archives - others have no stated policy, and should be approached to confirm that this is acceptable. To upload your article, you would first prepare a PDF version of it, perhaps testing the PDF file with a couple of different PDF viewer programs to be sure that it 'works'. (It is straightforward to generate PDF format papers from a source that is either in MS Word format, or LaTeX format - we provide a help page about this.) Then you'd visit the Articles section of nano.org, and choose "New Article Thread". You'd fill out a few key pieces of information, just as if you were starting a discussion about a 3rd party paper. Then you would select the PDF file to upload and wait a brief time for the transfer to complete. At this point your paper will be available for all users to download, and there will be a discussion thread attached to it. You might choose to make an initial post in that new thread, perhaps giving an informal summary along the lines of "Joe Bloggs and I took a look at the question of whether X=Y, here's what we came up with. Note that we didn't need to rely on any assumption about Z". You can replace your manuscript file with a newer one at any time. For example, another scholar might post saying "Interesting stuff, but I think there is a confusing typo in equation 4: shouldn't that be a minus sign?". If indeed there is a typo, you will want to fix it, replace the paper, and post saying "Indeed, sorry about that, fixed now". The older version(s) of the paper will be available for download, though marked as obsolete.

We provide help on uploading a manuscript here. Note that this service requires you to be a registered with nano.org and designated as a scholar - a simple process described here.