Inclusive electron scattering off the proton with CLAS12

Electron scattering data off a proton target has been measured with the CLAS12 spectrometer in Hall B at Jefferson Laboratory in a wide kinematic range covering W up to 2.5~GeV and $Q^2$ up to 10~GeV$^2$. These results allow new opportunities to explore a wide range of physics including inclusive, semi-inclusive and fully exclusive reactions. Preliminary results aimed toward the extraction of the inclusive electroproduction cross section from CLAS12 data collected at a beam energy of 10.6 GeV from an unpolarized liquid-hydrogen target will be presented. The large acceptance and good PID of CLAS12 data offer a unique opportunity to measure the inclusive cross sections from the meson electroproduction threshold up to $W = 2.5$~GeV in many multidimensional bins of $W$ and $Q^2$. The coverage in $W$ and $Q^2$ is of particular importance for the extension of our knowledge of the nucleon parton distribution function from the data on the $F_2$ structure function in the resonance region from existing CLAS results on $\gamma p N^*$-electroexcitation amplitudes. These studies also offer valuable input for the exploration of quark-hadron duality