PLOS (for Public Library of Science; PLoS until 2012 [1]) is a nonprofit publisher of open-access journals in science, technology, and medicine and other scientific literature, under an open-content license. It was founded in 2000 and launched its first journal, PLOS Biology, in October 2003.
As of 2022,[update] PLOS publishes 12 academic journals,[2] including 7 journals indexed within the Science Citation Index Expanded, and consequently 7 journals ranked with an impact factor.
The first video published alongside a PLOS article: a model of how the human transferrin receptor assists transferrin in releasing iron[3]
PLOS created this fictional thank you note from the future to contemporary researchers for sharing their research openly
The Public Library of Science began in 2000 with an online petition initiative by Nobel Prize winner Harold Varmus, formerly director of the National Institutes of Health and at that time director of Memorial Sloan–Kettering Cancer Center; Patrick O. Brown, a biochemist at Stanford University; and Michael Eisen, a computational biologist at the University of California, Berkeley, and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.[4][5] The petition called for all scientists to pledge that from September 2001 they would discontinue submission of articles to journals that did not make the full text of their articles available to all, free and unfettered, either immediately or after a delay of no more than six months. Although tens of thousands signed the petition, most did not act upon its terms; and in August 2001, Brown and Eisen announced that they would start their own nonprofit publishing operation.[6] In December 2002, the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation awarded PLOS a $9 million grant, which it followed in May 2006 with a $1 million grant to help PLOS achieve financial sustainability and launch new free-access biomedical journals.[7]
The PLOS organizers turned their attention to starting their own journal, along the lines of the UK-based BioMed Central, which has been publishing open-access scientific articles in the biological sciences in journals such as Genome Biology since 2000.
As a publishing company, the Public Library of Science officially launched its operation on 13 October 2003, with the publication of a print and online scientific journal entitled PLOS Biology, and has since launched 11 more journals.[8] One, PLOS Clinical Trials, has since been merged into PLOS ONE. Following the merger, the company started the PLOS Hub for Clinical Trials to collect journal articles published in any PLOS journal and relating to clinical trials; the hub was discontinued in July 2013.
The PLOS journals are what is described as "open-access content"; all content is published under the Creative Commons"attribution" license. The project states (quoting the Budapest Open Access Initiative) that: "The only constraint on reproduction and distribution, and the only role for copyright in this domain, should be to give authors control over the integrity of their work and the right to be properly acknowledged and cited."
In 2011, the Public Library of Science became an official financial supporting organization of Healthcare Information For All by 2015,[9] a global initiative that advocates unrestricted access to medical knowledge, sponsoring the first HIFA2015 Webinar in 2012.[10]
In 2012 the organization quit using the stylization "PLoS" to identify itself and began using only "PLOS".[1]
In 2016, PLOS confirmed that their chief executive officerElizabeth Marincola would be leaving for personal and professional reasons at the end of that year.[11] In May 2017, PLOS announced that their new CEO would be Alison Mudditt with effect from June.[12]
In 2021, PLOS announced a policy that required changes in reporting for researchers working in other countries as an attempt to address neo-colonial parachute research practices.[13]
Financial model
To fund the journals, PLOS charges an article processing charge (APC) to be paid by the author or the author's employer or funder. In the United States, institutions such as the National Institutes of Health and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute have pledged that recipients of their grants will be allocated funds to cover such author charges. The Global Participation Initiative (GPI) was instituted in 2012, by which authors in "group-one countries" are not charged a fee, and those in group-two countries are given a fee reduction. (In all cases, decisions to publish are based solely on editorial criteria.)
PLOS was launched with grants totaling US$13 million from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation and the Sandler Family Supporting Foundation.[14] PLOS confirmed in July 2011 that it no longer relies on subsidies from foundations and is covering all of its operational costs.[15][16] Since then the PLOS balance sheet has improved from $20,511,000 net assets in 2012–2013 to $36,591,000 in 2014–2015.[17][18]
PLOS has its main headquarters in Suite 225 in the Koshland East Building in Levi's Plaza in San Francisco.[20] Previously, the company had been located at 185 Berry Street.[21] In June 2010, PLOS announced that it was moving to a new location in order to accommodate its rapid growth. The move to the Koshland East Building went into effect on 21 June 2010.[22]
^ abKnutson, David (23 July 2012). "New PLOS look". PLOS BLOG. Public Library of Science. from the original on 1 August 2012. Retrieved 6 August 2012.
^"Choose Your Journal". PLOS. Retrieved 23 November 2022.
^Giannetti, A. M.; Snow, P. M.; Zak, O.; Björkman, P. J. (2003). "Mechanism for Multiple Ligand Recognition by the Human Transferrin Receptor". PLOS Biology. 1 (3): e1. doi:10.1371/journal.pbio.0000051. PMC300677. PMID 14691533.
^. Archived from the original on 11 August 2014. Retrieved 24 August 2014.
^. The Tower. 2014. Archived from the original on 1 November 2015. Retrieved 26 October 2015.
^Brower, V. (2001). "Public library of science shifts gears: As scientific publishing boycott deadline approached, advocates of free scientific publishing announce that they will create their own online, free-access archive". EMBO Reports. 2 (11): 972–973. doi:10.1093/embo-reports/kve239. PMC1084138. PMID 11713184.
^"Public Library of Science to launch new free-access biomedical journals with $9 million grant from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation". Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation. 17 December 2002. Retrieved 24 August 2014.
^. Internet Archive Wayback Machine. PLoS. 10 March 2008. Archived from the original on 10 March 2008. Retrieved 4 March 2012.
^Allen, Liz (16 June 2010). "PLoS San Francisco office is moving | The Official PLOS Blog". PLOS. Retrieved 4 March 2012.
References
Adam, David. "Scientists Take on the Publishers in an Experiment to Make Research Free to All" The Guardian, 6 October 2003.
Albanese, Andrew. "Open Access Gains with PLoS Launch: Scientists Call for Cell Press Boycott; Harvard Balks on Big Deal." Library Journal, 15 November 2003, 18–19.
Brown, Patrick O.; Eisen, Michael B.; Varmus, Harold E. (2003). "Why PLoS Became a Publisher". PLOS Biology. 1 (1): e36. doi:10.1371/journal.pbio.0000036. PMC212706. PMID 14551926.
Butler, Declan. "Public Library Set to Turn Publisher as Boycott Looms." Nature, 2 August 2001, 469.
Butler, Declan (2003). "Who will pay for open access?". Nature. 425 (6958): 554–555. doi:10.1038/425554a. PMID 14534559.
Case, Mary. "The Public Library of Science." ARL: A Bimonthly Report on Research Library Issues and Actions from ARL, CNI, and SPARC, no. 215 (2001): 4.
Case, Mary M. (2001). "Public Access to Scientific Information: Are 22,700 Scientists Wrong?". College & Research Libraries News. 62 (7): 706–709, 716. doi:10.5860/crln.62.7.706. hdl:10027/83.
Cohen, Barbara (2004). "PLoS Biology in Action". PLOS Biology. 2 (1): e25. doi:10.1371/journal.pbio.0020025. PMC314475. PMID 14737199.
Doyle, Helen J (2004). "The Public Library of Science—Open Access from the Ground Up". College & Research Libraries News. 65 (3): 134–136. doi:10.5860/crln.65.3.134.
Eaton, L. (2003). ""Free" medical publishing venture gets under way". BMJ. 326 (7379): 11b–11. doi:10.1136/bmj.326.7379.11/b. PMC1168941. PMID 12511446.
Mason, Betsy (13 January 2003). "Cell Editor Joins PLoS". The Scientist.
Mason, Betsy (20 December 2002). "New Open-Access Journals". The Scientist.
McLaughlin, Andrew (2000). "Senior scientists promise to boycott journals". Genome Biology. 1: spotlight–20001113–02. doi:10.1186/gb-spotlight-20001113-02.[permanent dead link]
Medeiros, Norm (2004). "Of budgets and boycotts: The battle over open access publishing" (PDF). OCLC Systems & Services: International Digital Library Perspectives. 20: 7–10. doi:10.1108/10650750410527278.
Mellman, Ira. "Setting Logical Priorities: A Boycott Is Not the Best Route to Free Exchange of Scientific Information." Nature, 26 April 2001, 1026.
Ojala, Marydee (2003). "Intro to Open Access: The Public Library of Science". EContent. 26 (10): 11–12.
Olsen, Florence. "Scholars Urge Boycott of Journals That Won't Join Free Archives." The Chronicle of Higher Education, 6 April 2001, A43.
Peek, Robin. "Can Science and Nature Be Trumped?" Information Today 20, no. 2 (2003): 19, 50–51.
———. "The Future of the Public Library of Science." Information Today 19, no. 2 (2002): 28.
———. "The Scholarly Publisher as Midwife." Information Today 18, no. 7 (2001): 32.
Thibodeau, Patricia L.; Funk, Carla J. (2004). "Quality Information for Improved Health". PLOS Biology. 2 (2): e48. doi:10.1371/journal.pbio.0020048. PMC340951. PMID 14966541.
Twyman, Nick (2004). "Launching PLoS Biology - six months in the open". Serials: The Journal for the Serials Community. 17 (2): 127–131. doi:10.1629/17127.
plos, public, library, science, plos, until, 2012, nonprofit, publisher, open, access, journals, science, technology, medicine, other, scientific, literature, under, open, content, license, founded, 2000, launched, first, journal, biology, october, 2003, publi. PLOS for Public Library of Science PLoS until 2012 1 is a nonprofit publisher of open access journals in science technology and medicine and other scientific literature under an open content license It was founded in 2000 and launched its first journal PLOS Biology in October 2003 Public Library of SciencePLOS logo since March 2020Founded20002003 public operations FounderPatrick O BrownMichael EisenCountry of originUnited StatesHeadquarters locationLevi s PlazaSan Francisco CaliforniaKey peopleAlison Mudditt CEO Publication typesAcademic journalsNonfiction topicsScienceOfficial websiteplos wbr orgAs of 2022 update PLOS publishes 12 academic journals 2 including 7 journals indexed within the Science Citation Index Expanded and consequently 7 journals ranked with an impact factor PLOS journals are included in the Directory of Open Access Journals DOAJ PLOS is also a member of the Open Access Scholarly Publishers Association OASPA a participating publisher and supporter of the Initiative for Open Citations and a member of the Committee on Publication Ethics COPE Contents 1 History 2 Financial model 3 Publications 4 Other partners 5 Headquarters 6 See also 7 Footnotes 8 References 9 External linksHistory Edit The Open Access logo source source source source source source source source source source The first video published alongside a PLOS article a model of how the human transferrin receptor assists transferrin in releasing iron 3 source source source source source source source source source source source source source source PLOS created this fictional thank you note from the future to contemporary researchers for sharing their research openly The Public Library of Science began in 2000 with an online petition initiative by Nobel Prize winner Harold Varmus formerly director of the National Institutes of Health and at that time director of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center Patrick O Brown a biochemist at Stanford University and Michael Eisen a computational biologist at the University of California Berkeley and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory 4 5 The petition called for all scientists to pledge that from September 2001 they would discontinue submission of articles to journals that did not make the full text of their articles available to all free and unfettered either immediately or after a delay of no more than six months Although tens of thousands signed the petition most did not act upon its terms and in August 2001 Brown and Eisen announced that they would start their own nonprofit publishing operation 6 In December 2002 the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation awarded PLOS a 9 million grant which it followed in May 2006 with a 1 million grant to help PLOS achieve financial sustainability and launch new free access biomedical journals 7 The PLOS organizers turned their attention to starting their own journal along the lines of the UK based BioMed Central which has been publishing open access scientific articles in the biological sciences in journals such as Genome Biology since 2000 As a publishing company the Public Library of Science officially launched its operation on 13 October 2003 with the publication of a print and online scientific journal entitled PLOS Biology and has since launched 11 more journals 8 One PLOS Clinical Trials has since been merged into PLOS ONE Following the merger the company started the PLOS Hub for Clinical Trials to collect journal articles published in any PLOS journal and relating to clinical trials the hub was discontinued in July 2013 The PLOS journals are what is described as open access content all content is published under the Creative Commons attribution license The project states quoting the Budapest Open Access Initiative that The only constraint on reproduction and distribution and the only role for copyright in this domain should be to give authors control over the integrity of their work and the right to be properly acknowledged and cited In 2011 the Public Library of Science became an official financial supporting organization of Healthcare Information For All by 2015 9 a global initiative that advocates unrestricted access to medical knowledge sponsoring the first HIFA2015 Webinar in 2012 10 In 2012 the organization quit using the stylization PLoS to identify itself and began using only PLOS 1 In 2016 PLOS confirmed that their chief executive officer Elizabeth Marincola would be leaving for personal and professional reasons at the end of that year 11 In May 2017 PLOS announced that their new CEO would be Alison Mudditt with effect from June 12 In 2021 PLOS announced a policy that required changes in reporting for researchers working in other countries as an attempt to address neo colonial parachute research practices 13 Financial model EditTo fund the journals PLOS charges an article processing charge APC to be paid by the author or the author s employer or funder In the United States institutions such as the National Institutes of Health and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute have pledged that recipients of their grants will be allocated funds to cover such author charges The Global Participation Initiative GPI was instituted in 2012 by which authors in group one countries are not charged a fee and those in group two countries are given a fee reduction In all cases decisions to publish are based solely on editorial criteria PLOS was launched with grants totaling US 13 million from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation and the Sandler Family Supporting Foundation 14 PLOS confirmed in July 2011 that it no longer relies on subsidies from foundations and is covering all of its operational costs 15 16 Since then the PLOS balance sheet has improved from 20 511 000 net assets in 2012 2013 to 36 591 000 in 2014 2015 17 18 Publications EditTitle Inception ISSNPLOS Biology 2003 10 01 ISSN 1544 9173PLOS Medicine 2004 10 01 ISSN 1549 1676PLOS Computational Biology 2005 05 01 ISSN 1553 7374PLOS Genetics 2005 06 01 ISSN 1553 7404PLOS Pathogens 2005 09 01 ISSN 1549 1676PLOS Clinical Trials later merged into PLOS ONE 2006 04 01 ISSN 1555 5887PLOS ONE 2006 12 01 ISSN 1932 6203PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases 2007 10 01 ISSN 1935 2735PLOS Hub for Clinical Trials 2007 09 01 PLOS Currents 2009 08 01 ISSN 2157 3999PLOS Climate 2021 ISSN 2767 3200PLOS Digital Health 2021 ISSN 2767 3170PLOS Global Public Health 2021 ISSN 2767 3375PLOS Sustainability and Transformation 2021 ISSN 2767 3197PLOS Water 2021 ISSN 2767 3219Other partners EditIn April 2017 PLOS was one of the founding partners in the Initiative for Open Citations 19 Headquarters EditPLOS has its main headquarters in Suite 225 in the Koshland East Building in Levi s Plaza in San Francisco 20 Previously the company had been located at 185 Berry Street 21 In June 2010 PLOS announced that it was moving to a new location in order to accommodate its rapid growth The move to the Koshland East Building went into effect on 21 June 2010 22 See also EditList of open access journals arXiv e print archive Open Archives Initiative Open Access Scholarly Publishers Association of which PLOS is a founding memberFootnotes Edit a b Knutson David 23 July 2012 New PLOS look PLOS BLOG Public Library of Science Archived from the original on 1 August 2012 Retrieved 6 August 2012 Choose Your Journal PLOS Retrieved 23 November 2022 Giannetti A M Snow P M Zak O Bjorkman P J 2003 Mechanism for Multiple Ligand Recognition by the Human Transferrin Receptor PLOS Biology 1 3 e1 doi 10 1371 journal pbio 0000051 PMC 300677 PMID 14691533 History Archived from the original on 11 August 2014 Retrieved 24 August 2014 Professor Michael Eisen A Pioneer of Open Access Science The Tower 2014 Archived from the original on 1 November 2015 Retrieved 26 October 2015 Brower V 2001 Public library of science shifts gears As scientific publishing boycott deadline approached advocates of free scientific publishing announce that they will create their own online free access archive EMBO Reports 2 11 972 973 doi 10 1093 embo reports kve239 PMC 1084138 PMID 11713184 Public Library of Science to launch new free access biomedical journals with 9 million grant from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation 17 December 2002 Retrieved 24 August 2014 Submit PLOS Retrieved 29 November 2021 How organisations support HIFA2015 Retrieved 22 July 2013 HIFA2015 Webinars Retrieved 22 July 2013 PLOS on Twitter Twitter Retrieved 31 October 2016 PLOS Appoints Alison Mudditt Chief Executive Officer STM Publishing News www stm publishing com Retrieved 19 May 2017 Announcing a new PLOS policy on inclusion in global research The Official PLOS Blog 27 September 2021 Retrieved 11 October 2021 Declan Butler June 2006 Open access journal hits rocky times Nature 441 7096 914 Bibcode 2006Natur 441 914B doi 10 1038 441914a PMID 16791161 2010 PLOS Progress Update The Official PLOS Blog Blogs plos org 20 July 2011 Retrieved 27 February 2012 Sugita Shigeki 2014 How far has open access progressed SPARC Japan Retrieved 26 October 2015 2012 2013 Progress Update PDF PLOS 19 September 2013 Archived from the original PDF on 7 October 2014 Retrieved 1 January 2014 2014 2015 Progress Update PDF PLOS 15 September 2015 Archived from the original PDF on 4 March 2016 Retrieved 26 October 2015 Press Initiative for Open Citations 6 April 2017 Retrieved 6 April 2017 Contact PLoS Retrieved 4 March 2012 Contact Internet Archive Wayback Machine PLoS 10 March 2008 Archived from the original on 10 March 2008 Retrieved 4 March 2012 Allen Liz 16 June 2010 PLoS San Francisco office is moving The Official PLOS Blog PLOS Retrieved 4 March 2012 References EditAdam David Scientists Take on the Publishers in an Experiment to Make Research Free to All The Guardian 6 October 2003 Albanese Andrew Open Access Gains with PLoS Launch Scientists Call for Cell Press Boycott Harvard Balks on Big Deal Library Journal 15 November 2003 18 19 Bernstein Philip Cohen Barbara MacCallum Catriona Parthasarathy Hemai Patterson Mark Siegel Vivian 2003 PLoS Biology We re Open PLOS Biology 1 1 e34 doi 10 1371 journal pbio 0000034 PMC 212705 PMID 14551925 Brower Vicki 2001 Public library of science shifts gears EMBO Reports 2 11 972 973 doi 10 1093 embo reports kve239 PMC 1084138 PMID 11713184 Brown Patrick O Eisen Michael B Varmus Harold E 2003 Why PLoS Became a Publisher PLOS Biology 1 1 e36 doi 10 1371 journal pbio 0000036 PMC 212706 PMID 14551926 Butler Declan Public Library Set to Turn Publisher as Boycott Looms Nature 2 August 2001 469 Butler Declan 2003 Who will pay for open access Nature 425 6958 554 555 doi 10 1038 425554a PMID 14534559 Case Mary The Public Library of Science ARL A Bimonthly Report on Research Library Issues and Actions from ARL CNI and SPARC no 215 2001 4 https web archive org web 20151110091642 http www arl org newsltr 215 plos html Case Mary M 2001 Public Access to Scientific Information Are 22 700 Scientists Wrong College amp Research Libraries News 62 7 706 709 716 doi 10 5860 crln 62 7 706 hdl 10027 83 Cohen Barbara 2004 PLoS Biology in Action PLOS Biology 2 1 e25 doi 10 1371 journal pbio 0020025 PMC 314475 PMID 14737199 Cohen Barbara 2004 PLoS Medicine PLOS Biology 2 2 e63 doi 10 1371 journal pbio 0020063 PMC 340963 PMID 14966553 Doyle Helen Public Library of Science PLoS Committed to Making the World s Scientific and Medical Literature A Public Resource ASIDIC Newsletter no 87 2004 9 10 https nfais memberclicks net assets ASIDIC Newsletters s04 newsletter pdf Doyle Helen J 2004 The Public Library of Science Open Access from the Ground Up College amp Research Libraries News 65 3 134 136 doi 10 5860 crln 65 3 134 Eaton L 2003 Free medical publishing venture gets under way BMJ 326 7379 11b 11 doi 10 1136 bmj 326 7379 11 b PMC 1168941 PMID 12511446 Eisen Michael Publish and Be Praised The Guardian 9 October 2003 http www guardian co uk life opinion story 0 12981 1058578 00 html Foster Andrea L Scientists Plan 2 Online Journals to Make Articles Available Free The Chronicle of Higher Education 10 January 2003 A29 Gallagher Richard 2003 Will Walls Come Tumbling Down The Scientist 17 5 15 Kleiner Kurt Free Online Journal Gives Sneak Preview New Scientist 19 August 2003 18 https www newscientist com news news jsp id ns99994071 Knight Jonathan 2001 Journal boycott presses demand for free access Nature 413 6851 6 Bibcode 2001Natur 413 6K doi 10 1038 35092675 PMID 11544488 Malakoff David Opening the Books on Open Access Science Magazine 24 October 2003 550 554 Mantell Katie Open Access Journal Seeks to Cut Costs for Researchers SciDev Net 15 January 2004 http www scidev net News index cfm fuseaction readNews amp itemid 1194 amp language 1 Mason Betsy 13 January 2003 Cell Editor Joins PLoS The Scientist Mason Betsy 20 December 2002 New Open Access Journals The Scientist McLaughlin Andrew 2000 Senior scientists promise to boycott journals Genome Biology 1 spotlight 20001113 02 doi 10 1186 gb spotlight 20001113 02 permanent dead link Medeiros Norm 2004 Of budgets and boycotts The battle over open access publishing PDF OCLC Systems amp Services International Digital Library Perspectives 20 7 10 doi 10 1108 10650750410527278 Mellman Ira Setting Logical Priorities A Boycott Is Not the Best Route to Free Exchange of Scientific Information Nature 26 April 2001 1026 Ojala Marydee 2003 Intro to Open Access The Public Library of Science EContent 26 10 11 12 Olsen Florence Scholars Urge Boycott of Journals That Won t Join Free Archives The Chronicle of Higher Education 6 April 2001 A43 Peek Robin Can Science and Nature Be Trumped Information Today 20 no 2 2003 19 50 51 The Future of the Public Library of Science Information Today 19 no 2 2002 28 The Scholarly Publisher as Midwife Information Today 18 no 7 2001 32 Pickering Bobby Medical Journals to Get Open Access Rival Information World Review 21 May 2004 http www iwr co uk iwreview 1155321 permanent dead link Public Library of Science Open Letter to Scientific Publishers 2001 http www plos org about letter html Reich Margaret Peace Love and PLoS The Physiologist 2003 46 4 137 139 141 https web archive org web 20041223045509 http www the aps org news PloS pdf Russo Eugene 2001 New Adventures in Science Publishing The Scientist 15 21 12 Schubert Charlotte 2003 PLoS snaps up Cell editor Nature Medicine 9 2 154 155 doi 10 1038 nm0203 154b PMID 12563324 S2CID 35914398 Stankus Tony 2003 The Public Library of Science Passes Its First Biology Test Technicalities 23 6 4 5 Suber Peter The Launch of PLoS Biology SPARC Open Access Newsletter no 67 2003 http www earlham edu peters fos newsletter 11 02 03 htm launch Thibodeau Patricia L Funk Carla J 2004 Quality Information for Improved Health PLOS Biology 2 2 e48 doi 10 1371 journal pbio 0020048 PMC 340951 PMID 14966541 Twyman Nick 2004 Launching PLoS Biology six months in the open Serials The Journal for the Serials Community 17 2 127 131 doi 10 1629 17127 Velterop Jan Vendor View Information World Review 1 December 2001 http www iwr co uk iwreview 1150688 permanent dead link Wadman Meredith Publishers Challenged over Access to Papers Nature 29 March 2001 502 Walgate Robert 10 October 2003 PLoS Biology Launches The Scientist Archived from the original on 4 December 2003 External links Edit Wikimedia Commons has media related to PLOS Official website Portals San Francisco Bay Area Science Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title PLOS amp oldid 1130848735, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,
