Post-Publication Signaling for Open Scientific Repositories

Open scientific repositories play a central role in modern research dissemination, but often suffer from epistemic flatness: once deposited, contributions appear equally neutral, independent of whether they have been scrutinized, contested, or corrected. This work addresses epistemic flatness by proposing a lightweight, post-publication signaling layer that makes epistemic context visible without restricting openness or replacing peer review. By reducing epistemic flatness, repositories lower cognitive cost for readers, encourage earlier correction and maturation of preprints, and enhance their value as tools for exploration and scientific awareness.