How to cite a preprint in ABNT
A scientific manuscript posted before peer review (ArXiv, bioRxiv, medRxiv). Associação Brasileira de Normas Técnicas (NBR 6023). The national standard across Brazilian universities and journals.
Quick answer
To cite a preprint in ABNT, include the author(s), year, title, and container or publisher details. A concrete example is below.
Example
CHEN, L.; MARTINEZ, S.. Large Language Models Meet Clinical Reasoning. arXiv, 2024. https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2406.12345
This example is rendered with the official CSL definition for ABNT. For the exact style required by your journal, paste your references into DEEPNOTIS and pick that style from the dropdown — the app covers 2,800+ variants.
What you need
For a preprint, ABNT expects these fields at minimum:
- Author(s)
- Year
- Title
- Preprint server (arXiv, bioRxiv, SSRN…)
- DOI or server ID
- Label: [Preprint]
Common mistakes
- Forgetting to mark the reference as [Preprint]. Every major style wants this flag.
- Citing the preprint after the peer-reviewed version has been published — cite the published version instead.
- Forgetting the DOI. When a DOI exists, most styles now require it (usually as a full https://doi.org/… URL).
Cite every reference in ABNT — at once
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Last updated: 5 May 2026