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Frequently Asked Questions
Contents:
Questions about open-access publishing
What is open access?
The PLoS open-access license allows anyone, anywhere, with a connection to the Internet to read, download, print, copy, and redistribute any published article or to use its contents in derivative works, such as databases, textbooks, or other teaching materials. Under open access, all material is also deposited in an archival public repository (such as PubMed Central), which enhances the utility of all deposited papers by allowing sophisticated searching, manipulation, and mining of the literature, using new and emerging tools.
Why is open access important?
Published scientific discoveries and ideas are the foundation for future progress in science and medicine. The more widely and freely accessible they are, the greater their value to scientists, doctors, and the public. Unfettered access to research literature will allow scientists, physicians, educators, students, and the general public to find and read the latest scientific and medical discoveries.
I have free online access to all the journals I need at my institution, so why do we need open-access journals?
Although the journals might seem free, in reality your institution has paid a substantial site license fee to provide online access to journals at any computer (even your home computer) that accesses them through your institutional server. There are also strict conditions associated with this access, which limit uses such as archiving the journal content locally, creating teaching materials, incorporating published information into databases, posting articles on institutional web sites, and so on. Site licenses are expensive and cumbersome and can involve complex negotiations, because publishers use many different ways to figure out how much to charge, and of course, many institutions simply cannot afford these licenses. Open access solves all of these problems.
Why do we need open-access publications when many journals release their content after 6-12 months?
The vast majority of journals never release their content. Furthermore, timeliness of publication is very important - to readers and to authors - and even a 6- to 12-month delay is detrimental to research, especially in the biomedical sciences. (Would you be willing to wait 6-12 months to read articles in your field?) In any case, there is no real need to restrict access to the scientific and medical literature, now that we have a better alternative. Open access, supported by publication charges, is a more efficient, effective, and equitable means to disseminate scientific and medical literature. As soon as it is published, a research paper can and should be available to all.
Who else promotes open access?
PLoS is one of several initiatives that promote open access to scientific and medical literature. Although they still represent only a tiny fraction of the published research literature, many open-access journals have already been launched. A related project is the Open Archives Initiative, which encourages researchers and their institutions to establish free electronic repositories of research literature throughout the world. BioMed Central is a commercial publisher that is publishing original research papers using an open-access model. There are also groups, such as the Open Society Institute and the Scholarly Publishers and Academic Resource Coalition, that are providing support and advocacy for open-access publishing.
BioMed Central already publishes open-access journals, so why does PLoS need to launch more open-access journals?
The entire open-access literature - which includes BioMed Central journals - still represents less than 1% of the published literature. To shift the balance in favor of open-access publishing, more open-access journals are needed to cover the full range of research activity, both in terms of the field and the perceived impact of the work. Existing commercial publishers are unlikely to encourage this shift unless there are open-access journals that are competing effectively for their business, and that's not happening yet. Furthermore, while we applaud and support the efforts of BioMed Central to establish open-access publishing as a viable commercial business model, PLoS, a nonprofit organization run for and by scientists, is a different type of organization with a different mission.
Questions about the Public Library of Science
Who runs PLoS?
PLoS is a tax-exempt, 501(c)3, nonprofit corporation headquartered in San Francisco, California (Federal Tax ID 68-0492065). PLoS is governed by a Board of Directors and an Editorial Board that help to set and implement the policies of the PLoS journals.
Why is PLoS launching journals?
Access to the vast majority of scientific and medical literature is currently restricted to those individuals and institutions that can afford to pay for subscriptions. Even though the vast majority of the research is publicly financed, access to research literature - the product of that research - is not freely and publicly available. Even institutions find it increasingly difficult to provide access to all the journals that their communities need. The Internet makes it possible to provide access to the literature to anyone in the world who has an Internet connection. PLoS is launching open-access journals based on a new generalizable business model, as a decisive step toward the goal of universal open access.
Why should I have to pay to publish my paper?
It costs money to produce a peer-reviewed, edited, and formatted article that is ready for online publication, and to host it on a server that is accessible around the clock. Prior to that, a public or private funding agency has already paid a great deal more money for the research to be undertaken in the interest of the public. This real cost of "producing" a paper can be calculated by dividing your laboratory’s annual budget by the number of papers published. We ask that--as a small part of the cost of doing the research--the author, institution, or funding agency pays a modest fee, $1500, to help cover the actual cost of the essential final step, the publication. (As it stands, authors now often pay for publication in the form of page or color charges.) Endorsing the view that biomedical research should published in a manner that is accessible without barriers, the Howard Hughes Medical Institute has committed to supplementing publication costs (of up to US$3000 per year) for the scientists whose work it funds, so long as the work is published in an open-access journal.
What if I can't afford the publication charges?
The ability of authors or their institutions to pay publication charges will never be a consideration in the decision whether to publish.
Can't PLoS use the US$9 million grant from the Moore Foundation to defray all publication costs?
The grant from the Moore Foundation enables us to set up and develop PLoS during our first four years of operation. However, our aim is to become a self-sustaining organization and to provide a model for sustainable open-access publication; we can only achieve this by charging publication fees, $1500, that reflect the cost of online publication.
How will PLoS affect journals published by scientific societies?
Some of the most important scientific and medical literature is published by scholarly societies and associations. In many cases, the societies publish the journals according to the traditional subscription-based model, and with the publishing revenue, they can provide support and services for their members, their communities, and the general public. However, it is our belief that this type of publishing, relative to open-access publishing, hinders the progress of science and medicine and reduces the benefits of research to the public. By switching to open-access publishing, a scientific society has the opportunity to do an even greater good. There would be risks associated with such a change, both to income and possibly to membership, but societies that grasp this opportunity will be demonstrating a fundamental commitment to the public good - a powerful message for their membership. Even though PLoS might launch journals in areas that could overlap with existing society journals, our goal is not to compete with the societies. PLoS would be happy to hear from and to work with any societies that are contemplating launching open-access journals or converting their existing journals to an open-access model.
Is PLoS trying to monopolize scientific publishing?
PLoS is launching journals to demonstrate the enormous benefits of open-access publishing. Our goal is to make the scientific and medical literature a freely accessible resource, but the literature is huge, and we cannot (nor do we want to) do it all by ourselves. Using the success of our own journals as a template, we hope to encourage other publishers to adopt the open-access model. This has always been our goal.
I want my journal to provide open access. How can PLoS help?
PLoS welcomes and actively seeks opportunities to work cooperatively with any group (scientific/scholarly societies, physicians, patient advocacy, educational organizations) and any publisher that shares our commitment to open access. If you are interested in working with us or just need some help, please get in touch with us. There are also two very helpful documents that have been published by the Open Society Institute: the Guide to Business Planning for Converting a Subscription-Based Journal to Open Access and the Guide to Business Planning for Launching a New Open Access Journal. Both articles are by Raym Crow and Howard Goldstein of the SPARC Consulting Group.
What is the relationship between PLoS and PubMed Central?
PubMed Central is an archive created by the National Center for Biotechnology Information of the National Library of Medicine; it is not itself a publisher. It provides a single free repository for the published literature, and several journals - such as the Molecular Biology of the Cell and the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA - deposit content at PubMed Central and allow free access a few months after articles have been published. PLoS journals will be deposited in PubMed Central immediately upon publication.
How will PLoS serve the needs of developing nations?
PLoS will provide immediate, free, and unrestricted access to all the research literature that we publish. To this end, we will provide that research in formats that are suitable for readers with Internet access of limited bandwidth. We will also waive or defray author charges for any author who cannot afford to pay publication charges. In addition, we will cover issues in our journals that are relevant to and help to promote the work of researchers, educators, and physicians in the developing world.
How can I support PLoS?
To ensure the success of our launch journals, we need scientists to send us manuscripts of the highest possible quality. This will help us to achieve our initial goal of establishing open-access journals for the publication of the very best research. In addition to submitting your own best work, we need advocates within the community: tell your colleagues about PLoS; if you hear from colleagues about a great piece of research, suggest that they submit it to PLoS for publication; sign up for alerts; if you are a member of a society, consider whether your society journals would do a better job if they were open access. Above all else, PLoS is a community initiative, and if there's something that we are doing well or not as well as we could or if there's a new project that we should be thinking about, please let us know what you think.
Can I make a financial contribution to the work of PLoS?
If you are interested in supporting our work by providing a donation or grant, please call +1 415.624.1201 or email Stephany Foley.
Is PLoS hiring?
If you are interested in working with PLoS in any capacity, please let us know. For current openings, please see our jobs listing.
Questions about the PLoS journals
What type of journals will PLoS be launching, and when?
PLoS launched a high-quality biology journal, PLoS Biology, in October 2003, and this will be followed by a high-quality medical journal in 2004. These journals will be broad in their scope and will publish papers that provide significant advances that will drive their respective fields forward. Ultimately, we will launch new journals that focus on specific fields within biology and medicine. We hope that the success of our journals will stimulate other organizations to publish open-access journals, either on their own or through partnerships and collaborations.
It sounds as if PLoS is launching elitist journals, just like Science, Nature, Cell, and the New England Journal of Medicine. Why?
As things stand, open-access journals are generally viewed as fairly small fish in the publishing pond, and we want to create a few bigger, more noticeable fish. As soon as our launch journals have established their place, PLoS will begin the process of launching - or working with others to launch - diverse open-access journals. In this way, we hope that open-access journals will become the venue of choice for research publications.
How will the PLoS journals be different from other high-profile journals?
PLoS journals will be run as a collaborative effort between academic editors, who are experts in their field, and experienced full-time professional editors, who will facilitate openness and consistency in the review process. In this way, authors will be provided with a transparent, constructive, and high-quality review process. This will be one key difference between PLoS journals and existing high-profile journals, where editorial control tends to rest solely with professional editors.
I am just beginning my scientific career. Why would I want to risk publishing my best work in a journal without a track record?
Publishing in PLoS Biology or PLoS Medicine will ensure that your paper benefits from a stringent selection process as well as open-access publication. Your paper will therefore be published both in print and online alongside other outstanding research and will be read by the broadest possible scientific audience. The academic editors who evaluate your paper will be leaders in your field, and for every accepted manuscript they will supply a signed endorsement explaining the importance of the work and how it has satisfied these rigorous criteria for publication. This letter can be provided as support for grants, job applications, and so on. We will also provide press releases and accessible synopses for many of the papers that we publish so that the media and the general public can fully appreciate the significance of the findings that are published. Open access provides the best opportunity to maximize the impact of your research, and we are committed to achieving that for all authors who choose to work with us. Finally, universities and funding agencies are increasingly recognizing open-access publication as the new standard of good citizenship to the academic and world community.
Why only biology and medicine? What about other disciplines?
The scientific and medical literature is vast; the number of peer-reviewed articles published in these fields exceeds 1000 per day. We are starting our mission to make this literature a free resource by launching two important and high-profile journals in biology and medicine. But this is only the start. We will be expanding our publishing operation by launching new journals in more specialized areas of biology and medicine, as well as in other disciplines. We hope that at the same time other organizations will be launching open-access journals or converting their present journals to the open-access model, and we will be happy to work with any organizations who are interested in doing this.
Will I have to assign copyright to PLoS?
No. It will be up to you as the author to decide whether you wish to retain copyright or transfer copyright to your institution or to PLoS. But no matter who owns the copyright, authors will be required to grant to the public domain an irrevocable license to print, copy, or use the work in any lawful way, subject to the condition that proper attribution is given whenever the work is reproduced or redistributed. Please see our licensing agreement.
Are PLoS journals going to be online only?
Our launch journals, PLoS Biology and PLoS Medicine, will be available in print and online. The online version will always be free, but there will be a charge for the printed version that will be limited to covering the costs of printing and distribution. To subscribe to the print version of PLoS Biology, fill out the print subscription form.
Will articles be published prior to peer review?
Quality control through peer review is judged one of the most valued functions of any journal. The articles in PLoS journals will be published only after they have undergone a rigorous and constructive peer-review process that will be managed by academic editors in collaboration with experienced professional editors.
When can I submit my manuscript to the Public Library of Science?
We began accepting submissions for our first journal, PLoS Biology, on May 1, 2003. Click here for online manuscript submission. For our first journal, we will only be able to publish articles that represent a significant advance - an experimental result, a discovery, or an idea that is likely to drive a broad field forward. If you have work that you think may be appropriate for PLoS Biology, we encourage you to contact us now.
I want to publish my papers with PLoS, but I don't think I have anything appropriate for a top-tier journal. What should I do?
We would still like to hear from you. We might not be able to consider your manuscript just yet, but it won't be long before we have a suitable forum. It is very important that we hear from scientists who do not feel there is a suitable open-access journal for their work. This will identify disciplines for which new journals need to be launched and will help to shape the future development of open-access publishing.
How will PLoS articles be archived, and what happens to the articles if PLoS disappears?
With the amount of support that we have already received from the research community, we cannot envision PLoS faltering. No matter what happens, however, from the beginning PLoS articles will be made available at our own journal sites as well as deposited immediately upon publication in PubMed Central, a publicly accessible, permanent archive for published research that has been established by the National Center for Biotechnology Information of the National Library of Medicine. We will also be working with other organizations to establish similar archives in other parts of the world. Besides this, our licensing agreement allows any third party - librarian, institution, or individual - to establish an archive of PLoS articles, so long as the articles are made available according to open-access principles.
Will all PLoS articles be published in English?
Although our journals will initially be published in English, our mission is to make the scientific and medical literature a freely accessible resource for all. To maximize the usefulness of this resource, we will investigate ways to make our publications available in multiple languages.
What if my question isn't on your list?
Please contact us at plos@plos.org.
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