A year ago I started posting working drafts of my papers before submission. This is a short note on what changed — the good, the awkward, and the genuinely surprising.
The good
Feedback arrived earlier, from people I would never have reached otherwise. Two methodological errors were caught by readers before peer review ever saw them. Citations to the preprint began accumulating months before the journal version existed.
The awkward
Early drafts are early drafts. One was quoted out of context in a policy brief. Another circulated with a figure I later corrected. Versioning helps, but the internet does not always follow your retraction of a sentence.
On balance: worth it. Visibility of process is a form of accountability, and accountability is a form of rigour.