PLoS ONE

"PLoS ONE" is an open access, online scientific journal from the Public Library of Science (ISSN 1817-101X). It covers primary research from any discipline within science and medicine. Submissions go through pre-publication peer review but are not excluded on the basis of lack of perceived importance or adherence to a scientific field. Unlike other PLoS journals, the PLoS ONE online platform has post-publication user discussion and rating features. "PLoS ONE" articles are indexed in PubMed, and by Web of Science.

History

PLoS ONE was launched at the end of 2006 as a beta version. As of June 2008, there were over 2,500 articles available. Until March 2008 the Managing Editor was Chris Surridge, and after this date it became Peter Binfield.

Publication concept

"PLoS ONE" is built on several conceptual differences compared to traditional peer-reviewed scientific publishing. According to "Nature", the journal's aim is to "challenge academia's obsession with journal status and impact factors." [Cite journal
author = Giles, J.
year = 2007
url = http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v445/n7123/full/445009a.html
title = Open-access journal will publish first, judge later
journal = Nature
volume = 445
pages = 9] Being an online-only publication allows "PLoS ONE" to publish more papers than a journal that prints a weekly or monthly issue. It does not restrict itself to a specific scientific area in an effort to facilitate publication of research on topics outside, or between, traditional science categories.MacCallum, C.J. (2006) [http://biology.plosjournals.org/perlserv/?request=get-document&doi=10.1371/journal.pbio.0040401 ONE for All: The Next Step for PLoS.] "PLoS Biol" 4(11): e401] In addition, it does not use presumed importance of a paper as a criterion for rejection. Instead, "PLoS ONE" only verifies whether experiments were conducted rigorously and astutely and permits the scientific community to ascertain importance, post publication, through debate and comment:

Business model

As with all journals of the Public Library of Science, "PLoS ONE" is financed by charging authors a publication fee. As of July 2008, "PLoS ONE" charges authors $1,300 to publish an article. It will waive the fee for authors who do not have the funds. [ [http://www.plos.org/journals/pubfees.html PLoS ONE Publication fees] ]

The 'publication fee' model allows "PLoS ONE" (and other PLoS journals) to provide all articles to everybody for free immediately after publication. This is more commonly known as 'Open Access' and the specific usage of articles is subject to a Creative Commons Attribution License, version 2.5. [ [http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.5/ Creative Commons Attribution License, version 2.5] ]

See also

* Directory of Open Access Journals
* BioMed Central

References

External links

* [http://www.plosone.org/ PLoS ONE website]
* [http://openwetware.org/wiki/Seminar_Series/Chris_Surridge lecture by Chris Surridge, Managing Director of PLoS ONE hosted on openwetware wiki, Oct '06]
* [http://pipeline.corante.com/archives/2007/01/08/plos_one.php news column on PLoS ONE by Derek on Corante.com, Jan '06]
* [http://www.plos.org/cms/node/36 technical background on how PLoS ONE platform will be run]