Examples
Worked examples
- Is an instance
A senior colleague who read three drafts and proposed restructuring the discussion, acknowledged by name with consent
Counter-examples
Looks similar, but isn't
- Not an instance
A casual 'looks good' email response is not pre-submission feedback in the creditable sense
Editorial commentary
Pre-submission feedback contribution is substantive intellectual input — comments, critique, suggested restructuring, or methodological advice — that a colleague gives on a draft manuscript or proposal before it is formally submitted to a journal or funder. It sits outside the formal peer-review system entirely: the feedback is informal, requested directly by the author, and typically unpublished.
How it differs from related terms: Unlike peer review, which a journal or funder commissions as part of a formal evaluation process, pre-submission feedback is solicited by the author from a trusted colleague, with no institutional evaluative role attached. It also differs from mentorship contribution, which is an ongoing relationship rather than commentary on a single draft, though the same person can obviously provide both.
Feedback that materially changed the work’s design or conclusions is typically recognised through a named, consented acknowledgement — “we thank X for comments on an earlier draft” — while feedback that rises to substantive intellectual contribution to the work’s actual claims may instead warrant authorship under ICMJE’s four criteria.
References
- ICMJE Recommendations (2024)
- COPE Authorship Discussion Document (2019)
Also known as
Draft feedback · Pre-submission review
Machine-readable encodings
Use in your systems
<role vocab="credit"
vocab-identifier="https://casrai.org/dictionary/"
vocab-term="Pre-submission feedback contribution"
vocab-term-identifier="https://casrai.org/dictionary/term/pre-submission-feedback-contribution" />{
"@context": "https://schema.org",
"@type": "DefinedTerm",
"@id": "https://casrai.org/dictionary/term/pre-submission-feedback-contribution",
"name": "Pre-submission feedback contribution",
"identifier": "https://casrai.org/dictionary/term/pre-submission-feedback-contribution",
"description": "Substantive intellectual input — comments, critique, suggested revisions, or methodological advice — provided by a colleague on a draft manuscript or proposal before it is submitted to a journal or funder, recognised in acknowledgements rather than as authorship.",
"inDefinedTermSet": "https://casrai.org/dictionary/domain/credit-extensions#set",
"url": "https://casrai.org/dictionary/term/pre-submission-feedback-contribution",
"sameAs": [
"Draft feedback",
"Pre-submission review"
],
"license": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
"publisher": {
"@id": "https://casrai.org/#organization"
},
"author": {
"@id": "https://casrai.org/#editorial-team"
},
"datePublished": "2026-05-21T01:58:22",
"dateModified": "2026-08-22T15:04:46",
"inLanguage": "en-GB",
"isAccessibleForFree": true
}
