Comment by paulpauper
Comment by paulpauper 12 hours ago
It's interesting how so many important papers are always on arxiv first. it makes me wonder what purpose peer reviews serves. I think also, this is to help establish priority over the result. So getting it up on arxiv is like a timestamp to avoid someone else deriving it at the same time and getting credit by having it published first.
The purpose of the (pre-print) arChive is to allow for a wider circulation during review. That many today simply leave their stuff on Arxiv without publishing is arguably a bit of “cargoculting”, as it signals legitimacy without any quality control.