White papers, working papers, preprints and peer-reviewed journal articles are different from one another. Which is best?
Below is an explanation of each, pointing out their strengths and weaknesses. As always, use care in selecting any research to ground your coverage and fact-check claims.
Peer-reviewed article
Peer-reviewed research — the kind that appears in academic journals and that is highlighted in The Journalist’s Resource — has undergone a detailed critique by scholars with expertise in the field. While peer-reviewed research is generally the most reliable, journalists should keep in mind that publication in a prestigious journal is no guarantee of quality and that no single university or research organisation always does the best research on a given topic.
It is safe to assume, however, that articles published in top-tier journals have been reviewed and given a stamp of approval by a number of accomplished scholars. For journalists who are uncertain, we’ve put together a list of 13 questions to ask to gauge the quality of a research article.
Keep in mind that not everything that appears in a scholarly journal has been peer-reviewed. Journals publish various types of content, including book reviews, editorials, letters to the editor and, sometimes, even poetry.
Working paper
This broad category describes research papers that have not been peer-reviewed or published in a journal. Working papers can be in various stages of completion. One might be ready for publication in a prestigious journal while another requires significant editing and other changes that could actually alter its main findings. Sometimes, working paper findings are so preliminary, authors will advise against citing their work.
Even so, working papers are a great way for journalists to gain access to new research quickly. The peer-review and publication process can take months to a year or longer, which means that by the time studies get published, their findings are sometimes not as useful or the data are old.
In choosing working papers, journalists should communicate with scholars about the progress of their research and how confident they are in their findings. It’s a good idea to seek corroboration from peer-reviewed research and to ask other researchers for help assessing a study.
Preprint
A preprint is similar to a working paper in that it has not been vetted through a formal peer-review process. However, preprints tend to be more complete. Also, preprints submitted to public servers such as the Social Science Research Network and the health sciences server medRxiv get a cursory screening before they’re published online for public view.
Preprints, like academic journal articles, are assigned a Digital Object Identifier, or DOI, and become a permanent part of the scientific record.
White paper
A white paper is a report, often compiled by government agencies, businesses and nonprofit organizations, that outlines an issue and often explores possible solutions to a problem. For example, in November 2021, the federal Office of Community Oriented Policing Services released a white paper looking at factors that help or hinder law enforcement recruitment of Black Americans. Earlier in the year, the Advanced Technology Academic Research Center published a white paper on the American Rescue Plan‘s widespread implications for government agencies.
In the business world, white papers also are used for marketing purposes — to describe a new product or approach, for instance, or diagnose a problem.
While a white paper can help journalists get up to speed quickly on an issue, it’s important to note some white papers advocate a specific position or policy change. Some rely on incomplete research or research that has not been peer-reviewed.
This article first appeared on The Journalist’s Resource and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
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