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PLoS ONE Guidelines for Authors

  1. About PLoS ONE
  2. Criteria for Publication
  3. Overview of the Editorial Process
  4. Presubmission Inquiries
  5. Preparation of Research Manuscripts
  6. Discipline-Specific Requirements
  7. Overview of the Production Process
  8. Post-Publication Process

1. About PLoS ONE

Scientific progress requires the exchange and discussion of data and ideas. PLoS ONE is a unique publication dedicated to presenting the results of scientific research from any scientific discipline in an open-access environment. At the same time, it provides a forum in which to discuss that scientific research and so provide for each and every paper its maximum possible impact. To achieve this, PLoS ONE combines traditional peer review with 'Web 2.0' tools to facilitate community evaluation and discourse around the published article.

The peer review of each article is rigorous and concentrates on objective and technical concerns to determine whether the research has been sufficiently well conceived, well executed, and well described to justify inclusion in the scientific record. Then, after publication, all papers are opened up for interactive discussions and assessment in which the whole scientific community can be involved.

Unlike many journals which attempt to use the peer review process to determine whether or not an article reaches the level of 'importance' required by a given journal, PLoS ONE uses peer review to determine whether a paper is technically sound and worthy of inclusion in the published scientific record. Once the work is published in PLoS ONE, the broader community is then able to discuss and evaluate the significance of the article (through the number of citations it attracts; the downloads it achieves; the media and blog coverage it receives; and the post-publication Notes, Comments and Ratings that it receives on PLoS ONE etc).

To provide open access, PLoS journals use a business model in which our expenses—including those of peer review, journal production, and online hosting and archiving—are recovered in part by charging a publication fee to the authors or research sponsors for each article they publish. For PLoS ONE the publication fee is US$1300. Authors who are affiliated with one of our Institutional Members are eligible for a discount on this fee.

We offer a complete or partial fee waiver for authors who do not have funds to cover publication fees. Editors and reviewers have no access to payment information, and hence inability to pay will not influence the decision to publish a paper. These policies ensure that the fee is never a barrier to publication.

2. Criteria for Publication

To be accepted for publication in PLoS ONE, research articles must satisfy the following criteria:

  1. The study presents the results of primary scientific research.
  2. Results reported have not been published elsewhere.
  3. Experiments, statistics, and other analyses are performed to a high technical standard and are described in sufficient detail.
  4. Conclusions are presented in an appropriate fashion and are supported by the data.
  5. The article is presented in an intelligible fashion and is written in standard English.
  6. The research meets all applicable standards for the ethics of experimentation and research integrity.
  7. The article adheres to appropriate reporting guidelines (e.g. CONSORT, MIAME, STROBE, EQUATOR) and community standards for data availability.

The PLoS ONE board of Academic Editors, and any invited external peer reviewers, will evaluate submissions against these criteria.

To expand on each of these criteria:

1. Does the manuscript report on primary research?

PLoS ONE is designed specifically as a medium for primary, scientific research. As such, it is not suitable for the publication of reviews, mini-reviews, opinion pieces, commentaries, essays or other items of secondary literature (unless invited for a specific purpose by PLoS staff).

Systematic reviews and meta-analyses can be considered for publication in PLoS ONE but must apply the utmost rigour in the comprehensive and unbiased sampling of existing literature and must describe the methods used for the selection, inclusion and exclusion of data (see below).

Individual case reports are not considered for publication in PLoS ONE. However, papers describing the results of studies involving only one individual (ie, n-of-1 studies) can be considered for publication in PLoS ONE if evidence is provided that the paper describes the results of a preplanned research project, rather than a description of the clinical care received by an individual patient.

2. Have the results reported been published elsewhere?

PLoS ONE does not accept for publication work that has already been published elsewhere. However, studies that replicate results that are already in the literature may be considered for publication in PLoS ONE, as the independent confirmation of results can often be valuable, as can the presentation of a new dataset (for example, a new clinical trial).

3. Are the experiments, statistics, and other analyses performed to a high technical standard and are described in sufficient detail?

The research must have been performed to a technical standard high enough to allow robust conclusions to be drawn from the data. Methods and reagents must also be described in sufficient detail so that another researcher is able to reproduce the experiments described.

4. Are the conclusions presented in an appropriate fashion with speculations and hypotheses identified as such?

The results must be interpreted appropriately, such that all conclusions are justified. However, authors may discuss possible explanations for their results as long as these are clearly identified as speculations or hypotheses, rather than as firm conclusions. Inappropriate interpretation of results is a justifiable reason for rejection.

5. Is the article presented in an intelligible fashion and written in English?

PLoS ONE staff do not copyedit the text of accepted manuscripts; it is therefore important for the work, as presented, to be intelligible. Perfect, stylish English is not essential but the language must be clear and unambiguous. If the language of a paper is poor, Academic Editors should recommend that authors seek independent editorial help before submission of a revision. A list of scientific editing services can be found in the PLoS ONE Guide to Authors. Poor presentation and language is a justifiable reason for rejection.

6. Does the research meet all applicable standards with regard to the ethics of experimentation and research integrity?

Research published in PLoS ONE must have been conducted to the highest ethical standards. A brief description of the most common of these is described in our Editorial and Publishing Policies. Please contact PLoS ONE staff (plosone [at] plos.org) if you have queries as to whether these standards have been met.

7. Does the article adhere to appropriate reporting guidelines (e.g. CONSORT, MIAME, STROBE, EQUATOR) and community standards for data availability?

PLoS ONE aims to promote openness in research and intends that all work published in PLoS ONE can be built on by future researchers. We therefore demand conformity to standards for the public deposition of data (for example gene sequences, microarray expression data, and structural studies). Other similar standards that are applicable to specific communities should also be upheld. Failure to comply with community standards is a justifiable reason for rejection.

3. Overview of the Editorial Process

PLoS ONE provides all authors with an efficient and 'hassle-free' editorial process. Our aim is to identify those submissions that warrant inclusion in the scientific record and present them to the scientific community with as few hurdles as possible.

The editorial process is run by the journal's extensive board of Academic Editors (AEs) who work together to orchestrate the peer-review process. AEs are invited to handle submitted manuscripts on the basis of the content of the manuscript and their own expertise. The AE evaluates the paper and decides whether it describes a body of work that meets the editorial criteria of PLoS ONE. AEs can employ a variety of methods alone or in combination, to reach a decision in which they are confident:

After appropriate consideration by the AE, a decision letter to the author is drafted. This letter may also be circulated to other members of the editorial board, who are given a short time to comment on the editorial decision.

There are several types of decisions possible:

If authors are unsatisfied by the decision they receive they can submit an appeal, in the first instance to the paper's original Academic Editor. However if the author is still unsatisfied they can request a second opinion. In such cases the appeal will be considered by at least one further member of the Editorial Board. If this second opinion supports the original decision that decision is final. Appeal requests should be addressed to plosone [at] plos.org.

Upon acceptance, the manuscript is checked by PLoS ONE staff to ensure that it is in a form that will allow it to be efficiently handled by our production system. The authors will be queried and allowed to make any final minor revisions that are needed.

This is the final stage at which an author will see their manuscript before publication. The authors' files will be carefully tagged to generate XML and PDF files, but will not be subject to detailed copyediting (see Overview of the Production Process). It is therefore essential that authors provide a thoroughly proofread and checked manuscript, following the manuscript checklist and any comments from PLoS staff.

4. Presubmission Inquiries

PLoS ONE does not consider presubmission inquiries. Such inquiries essentially request that the editors of a journal assess whether the paper is of potential interest to that journal by virtue of its subject area, novelty, or anticipated impact. In general, such subjective opinion would have little bearing on whether a paper should be published in PLoS ONE. First of all, all subject areas are of interest to PLoS ONE, and furthermore, to judge whether a study has been sufficiently well performed and well documented to permit publication in PLoS ONE requires submission of the full paper.

5. Preparation of Research Manuscripts

PLoS ONE considers manuscripts of any length; we encourage the submission of both substantial full-length bodies of work and shorter manuscripts based on a more limited range of experiments. There are no explicit word, figure, or supporting information restrictions, although we encourage a concise and accessible writing style. Editors may make suggestions for how to achieve this, as well as suggestions for cuts or additions that could be made to the article to strengthen the arguments made. Authors are encouraged to use their own voice and to decide how best to present their ideas, results, and conclusions.

Although we encourage submissions from around the globe, we require that manuscripts be submitted in English. As a step toward overcoming language barriers, we encourage authors fluent in other languages to provide copies of their full articles or abstracts in other languages; these will be made available along with the published paper. Translations should be submitted as supporting information.

Cover Letter

It is important that you include a cover letter with your manuscript. Please explain why this manuscript is suitable for publication in PLoS ONE. How does your paper provide a worthwhile addition to the scientific literature? How does your paper relate to previously published work? Which types of scientists do you believe will be most interested in your study?

Please ensure that your cover letter also includes suggestions for PLoS ONE Academic Editors who would be suitable to consider your submission (view full list of academic editors). Please suggest as many Academic Editors as you like, but note that we cannot guarantee that they will be used.

Electronic Formats

Our publication system supports a limited range of formats for text and graphics. Text files can be submitted in only the following formats: Word or RTF. Please convert LaTeX files to Word or RTF format. Graphics files can only be submitted in the following formats: EPS or TIFF.

If you experience difficulties with the manuscript submission Web site or are concerned about the suitability of your files, please contact the journal (plosone [at] plos.org).

Prior Publication

When submitting their article, all authors are asked to indicate that they have not submitted a related manuscript for publication elsewhere. If similar or related work has been submitted elsewhere, then a copy must be included with the article submitted to PLoS. Reviewers will be asked to comment on the overlap between related submissions.

Funding

Before submitting your manuscript, please collect information on the sources of funding that have supported the work. When you submit, you will be required to provide a statement in the online submission system declaring the funding sources, and also stating the role of the study sponsor(s), if any, in study design; collection, analysis, and interpretation of data; writing of the paper; and decision to submit it for publication.

Please also include the following statement, if pertinent: "The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript." If this statement is not correct you must amend it as needed.

Author Status

The involvement of any professional medical writer in publication must be declared. We encourage authors to consult the European Medical Writers' Association Guidelines on the role of medical writers. For all PLoS journals, the corresponding author must submit the manuscript, related files, and all required data and information. From the point of submission through to publication, all communication related to that manuscript will be directed to and received from the corresponding author only.

PLoS ONE bases its criteria for authorship on those outlined in the Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals, which are summarized below. However, if you believe that a particular individual should be an author, you may include them, provided they are able to take responsibility for a given part of the study. The contributions of all authors must be described. Contributions that fall short of authorship should be mentioned in the acknowledgements.

"Authorship credit should be based on
1) substantial contribution to conception and design, or acquisition of data, or analysis and interpretation of data;
2) drafting the article or revising it critically for important intellectual content; and
3) final approval of the version to be published.

Authors should meet conditions 1, 2, and 3.

When a large, multi-center group has conducted the work, the group should identify the individuals who accept direct responsibility for the manuscript (3). These individuals should fully meet the criteria for authorship defined above and editors will ask these individuals to complete journal-specific author and competing interests disclosure forms. When submitting a group author manuscript, the corresponding author should clearly indicate the preferred citation and should clearly identify all individual authors as well as the group name.

Acquisition of funding, collection of data, or general supervision of the research group, alone, does not justify authorship. All persons designated as authors should qualify for authorship, and all those who qualify should be listed. Each author should have participated sufficiently in the work to take public responsibility for appropriate portions of the content."

Competing Interests

The submitting author is asked at submission to declare, on behalf of all authors, whether there are any financial, personal, or professional interests that could be construed to have influenced the paper. Reviewers are also asked to declare any interests that might interfere with their objective assessment of a manuscript. Any relevant competing interests of authors must be available to editors and reviewers during the review process and will be stated in published articles. Read more about the policy of PLoS regarding competing interests.

Abbreviations

Please keep abbreviations to a minimum and define them upon first use in the text. Non-standard abbreviations should not be used unless they appear at least three times in the text.

Figures

For the article to be accepted for publication, the author will need to supply high-resolution versions of the figures. When preparing your figures, please ensure that the files conform to our Guidelines for Figure and Table Preparation. Please do not upload panels for a single figure separately (for example, Figure 1A, Figure 1B-1D, Figure 1E); each figure file should be a single montage of all panels.

Please note that PLoS ONE can only accept figures submitted as either TIFF or EPS files.

All figures will be published under a Creative Commons Attribution License, which allows them to be freely used, distributed, and built upon as long as proper attribution is given. Please do not submit any figures that have been previously copyrighted unless you have express written permission from the copyright holder to publish under the CCAL license.

Organization of the Manuscript

Most articles published in PLoS ONE are organized in one of three fashions:

We advise that abstracts should not exceed 250–300 words. There are no specific length restrictions for the remaining sections of the manuscript; however, we urge authors to present and discuss their findings concisely.

You should include continuous line numbering throughout your manuscript.

Standard Microsoft Word templates are available to help authors prepare their manuscripts. The templates consist of a standard set of headings that make up research articles of various types, with guidance regarding what to include in each section.

Download templates:

Title (150 characters or fewer)

The title should be specific to the project, yet concise. It should be comprehensible to readers outside your field. Avoid specialist abbreviations, if possible. Titles should be presented in title case, meaning that all words except for prepositions, articles, and conjunctions should be capitalized.

Example:
Detection of Specific Sequences among DNA Fragments Separated by Gel Electrophoresis

During the online submission process, you will also provide a brief "running head" of fewer than 30 characters.

Authors and Affiliations

Provide the first names or initials (if used), middle names or initials (if used), surnames, and affiliations—department, university or organization, city, state/province (if applicable), and country—for all authors. One of the authors should be designated as the corresponding author. It is the corresponding author’s responsibility to ensure that the author list, and the summary of the author contributions to the study are accurate and complete. If the article has been submitted on behalf of a consortium, all author names and affiliations should be listed at the end of the article.

Abstract

The abstract succinctly introduces the paper. We advise that it should not exceed 250 - 300 words. It should mention the techniques used without going into methodological detail and should summarize the most important results. The abstract is conceptually divided into the following three sections: Background, Methodology/Principal Findings, and Conclusions/Significance. Please do not include any citations in the abstract. Avoid specialist abbreviations if possible.

Registration

Registration details should be included when reporting results of a clinical trial (see "Reporting Clinical Trials" for details). For each location that your trial is registered, please list: name of registry, registry number, and URL of your trial in the registry database.

Introduction

The introduction should put the focus of the manuscript into a broader context. As you compose the introduction, think of readers who are not experts in this field. Include a brief review of the key literature. If there are relevant controversies or disagreements in the field, they should be mentioned so that a non-expert reader can delve into these issues further. The introduction should conclude with a brief statement of the overall aim of the experiments and a comment about whether that aim was achieved.

Results

The results section should provide details of all of the experiments that are required to support the conclusions of the paper. There is no specific word limit for this section. The section may be divided into subsections, each with a concise subheading. Large datasets, including raw data, should be submitted as supporting information files; these are published online alongside the accepted article. We advise that the results section be written in past tense.

Discussion

The discussion should spell out the major conclusions of the work along with some explanation or speculation on the significance of these conclusions. How do the conclusions affect the existing assumptions and models in the field? How can future research build on these observations? What are the key experiments that must be done? The discussion should be concise and tightly argued. Conclusions firmly established by the presented data, hypotheses supported by the presented data, and speculations suggested by the presented data should be clearly identified as such. The results and discussion may be combined into one section, if desired.

Materials and Methods

This section should provide enough detail to allow full replication of the study by suitably skilled investigators. Protocols for new methods should be included, but well-established protocols may simply be referenced. We encourage authors to submit, as separate supporting information files, detailed protocols for newer or less well-established methods. These are published online only, but are linked to the article and are fully searchable.

Acknowledgments

Details of the funding sources that have supported the work should be confined to the funding statement provided in the online submission system. Do not include them in the acknowledgments.

References

Only published or accepted manuscripts should be included in the reference list. Meetings abstracts, conference talks, or papers that have been submitted but not yet accepted should not be cited. Limited citation of unpublished work should be included in the body of the text only. All personal communications should be supported by a letter from the relevant authors.

Mac users, hold down "Option" key and click the link to download the file to your computer.

PLoS uses the numbered citation (citation–sequence) method. References are listed and numbered in the order that they appear in the text. In the text, citations should be indicated by the reference number in brackets. Multiple citations within a single set of brackets should be separated by commas. Where there are three or more sequential citations, they should be given as a range. Example: "... has been shown previously [1,4–6,22]." Make sure the parts of the manuscript are in the correct order before ordering the citations.

Because all references will be linked electronically as much as possible to the papers they cite, proper formatting of the references is crucial. Please use the following style for the reference list:

Published Papers
1 Sanger F, Nicklen S, Coulson AR (1977) DNA sequencing with chain-terminating inhibitors. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 74: 5463–5467.

Please list the first five authors and then add "et al." if there are additional authors. Use of a DOI number to the full-text article is acceptable as an alternative to or in addition to traditional volume and page numbers.

Accepted Papers
Same as above, but "in press" appears instead of the page numbers. Example: Adv Clin Path. In press.

Electronic Journal Articles 1 Loker WM (1996) "Campesinos" and the crisis of modernization in Latin America. Jour Pol Ecol 3. Available: http://www.library.arizona.edu/ej/jpe/volume_3/ascii-lokeriso.txt. Accessed 2006 Aug 11.

Books
1 Bates B (1992) Bargaining for life: A social history of tuberculosis. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. 435 p.

Book Chapters
Hansen B (1991) New York City epidemics and history for the public. In: Harden VA, Risse GB, editors. AIDS and the historian. Bethesda: National Institute of Health. pp. 21–28.

Figure Legends

The aim of the figure legend should be to describe the key messages of the figure, but the figure should also be discussed in the text. An enlarged version of the figure and its full legend will often be viewed in a separate window online, and it should be possible for a reader to understand the figure without switching back and forth between this window and the relevant parts of the text. Each legend should have a concise title of no more than 15 words. The legend itself should be succinct, while still explaining all symbols and abbreviations. Avoid lengthy descriptions of methods.

Tables

Tables should be included in the text file, at the very end of the manuscript. All tables should have a concise title. Footnotes can be used to explain abbreviations. Citations should be indicated using the same style as outlined above. Tables occupying more than one printed page should be avoided, if possible. Larger tables can be published as online supporting information. Please ensure that table formatting conforms to our Guidelines for Figure and Table Preparation.

Multimedia Files and Supporting Information

We encourage authors to submit essential supporting files and multimedia files along with their manuscripts. All supporting material will be subject to peer review.

Multimedia files should be smaller than 10 MB in size because of the difficulties that some users will experience in loading or downloading files. Preferred formats for PLoS ONE are:

Figures, tables, multimedia files, and datasets that make up the supporting information should be referred to in the manuscript with a leading capital S (e.g., Figure S4 for the fourth supporting information figure) and should fall into one of the following categories: Figure, Table, Text, Dataset, Audio, or Video. The numbered title and caption for each supporting information file should be entered into the appropriate fields in the online submission system. The information entered here will appear in the published version, so no supporting information titles or captions should be listed in the manuscript file.

6. Discipline-Specific Requirements

PLoS ONE fully supports the established standards of the fields that it covers. Some of these are detailed below:

Nomenclature

The use of standardized nomenclature in all fields of science and medicine is an essential step toward the integration and linking of scientific information reported in published literature. We will enforce the use of correct and established nomenclature wherever possible:

Accession Numbers

All appropriate datasets, images, and information should be deposited in public resources. Please provide the relevant accession numbers (and version numbers, if appropriate). Accession numbers should be provided in parentheses after the entity on first use. Suggested databases include, but are not limited to:

In addition, as much as possible, please provide accession numbers or identifiers for all entities such as genes, proteins, mutants, diseases, etc., for which there is an entry in a public database, for example:

Providing accession numbers allows linking to and from established databases and integrates your article with a broader collection of scientific information.

Ethical Treatment of Research Subjects and Patient Consent

All research involving humans and animals must have been approved by the authors' institutional review board or equivalent committee and that board must be named by the authors in their manuscript. In the case of human participants, informed consent must have been obtained and all clinical investigation must have been conducted according to the principles expressed in the Declaration of Helsinki. Authors must describe the process used for obtaining informed consent in their manuscript. Authors should submit a statement from the ethics committee or institutional review board indicating their approval of the research. We also encourage authors to submit a sample of a patient consent form and may require submission of completed forms on particular occasions.

For studies involving humans categorized by race/ethnicity, age, disease/disabilities, religion, sex/gender, sexual orientation, or other socially constructed groupings, authors should, as much as possible,

In addition, outmoded terms and potentially stigmatizing labels should be changed to more current, acceptable terminology. Examples: "Caucasian" should be changed to "white" or "of [Western] European descent" (as appropriate); "cancer victims" should be changed to "patients with cancer".

Patient Privacy and Informed Consent for Publication

Our human participant policy conforms to the Uniform Requirements of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors:

"Patients have a right to privacy that should not be infringed without informed consent. Identifying information should not be published in written descriptions, photographs, and pedigrees unless the information is essential for scientific purposes and the patient (or parent or guardian) gives written informed consent for publication. Informed consent for this purpose requires that the patient be shown the manuscript to be published.

Complete anonymity is difficult to achieve, and informed consent for publication should be obtained if there is any doubt. If data are changed to protect anonymity, authors should provide assurance that alterations of the data do not distort scientific meaning.

When informed consent has been obtained it should be indicated in the published article."

For papers that include identifying information, or potentially identifying information, authors must download the Consent Form for Publication in a PLoS Journal from our site, which the patient, parent or guardian must sign once they have read the paper and been informed about the terms of the PLoS open-access license. (This license means that the images and text we publish online become available for any lawful purpose). Once authors have obtained the signed consent form, it should be filed securely in the patient's case notes and the article submitted to the PLoS journal should include this statement indicating that specific consent to publication was obtained. "The patients in this manuscript have given written informed consent (as outlined in the PLoS consent form) to publication of their case details."

Download "Consent Form for Publication":

Reporting Clinical Trials

We follow the WHO definition of a clinical trial. "A clinical trial is any research study that prospectively assigns human participants or groups of humans to one or more health-related interventions to evaluate the effects on health outcomes. Interventions include but are not restricted to drugs, cells and other biological products, surgical procedures, radiologic procedures, devices, behavioural treatments, process-of-care changes, preventive care, etc"

PLoS supports the position of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) on trial registration. All trials initiated after 1 July 2005 must be registered prospectively in a publicly accessible registry (i.e., before patient recruitment has begun), or they will not be considered for publication. For trials initiated before 1 July 2005, all trials must be registered before submission to our journals. See the ICMJE faq on trial registration on trial registration for further details. The WHO's list of approved registries is listed here http://www.who.int/ictrp/network/list_registers/en/index.html.

Authors of trials must adhere to the CONSORT reporting guidelines appropriate to their trial design. Please check the CONSORT statement Web site for information on the appropriate guidelines for specific trial types. Before the paper can enter peer review authors must: 1) name in the paper trial registry, trial registration number, and IRB and 2) provide a copy of the trial protocol and a completed CONSORT checklist as supporting files (these documents will also be published alongside the paper, if accepted). The CONSORT flow diagram must be included as Figure 1. Any deviation from the trial protocol must be explained in the paper. Authors must explicitly discuss informed consent in their paper, and PLoS reserves the right to ask for a copy of the patient consent form. Information on statistical methods or participants beyond what is indicated in the CONSORT statement should be reported in the Methods section.

PLoS supports the public disclosure of all clinical trial results, as mandated for example by the FDA Amendments Act, 2007. Prior disclosure of results on a public website such as clinicaltrials.gov will not affect the decision to peer review or accept papers at PLoS journals.

Reporting Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses

Reports of meta-analyses of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) should use the QUOROM statement as a guide [Moher D et al. (1999) Lancet 354: 1896–1900] and include a copy of the QUOROM checklist.

Reporting Diagnostic Studies

Reports of studies of diagnostic accuracy should conform to the STARD requirements.

Reporting Epidemiological Studies

For reports of epidemiological studies, you should consult the STROBE initiative.

Reporting Microarray Experiments

Reports of microarray experiments should conform to the MIAME guidelines, and the data from the experiments must be deposited in a publicly accessible database.

7. Overview of the Production Process

Prior to submission, authors who believe their manuscripts would benefit from professional editing are encouraged to use language-editing and copyediting services, such as the ones described on the following Web sites. PLoS does not take responsibility for or endorse these services, and their use has no bearing on acceptance of a manuscript for publication.

Before formal acceptance, the manuscript will be checked by PLoS staff to ensure that it complies with all essential format requirements. The authors' files are then carefully tagged to generate XML and PDF files, but will not be subject to detailed copyediting. Obtaining this service is the responsibility of the author.

Scientific Editing Services (in alphabetical order):

Once an article has been accepted for publication, the manuscript files are transferred into our production system and will be published in PDF and HTML formats, with an XML download option. Articles will also be archived in PubMed Central.

8. Post-Publication Process

Once your article is published, readers of the article are able to annotate parts of the text (via 'notes'), comment on the overall content (via 'comments') or rate the article (via a 5 star rating system covering 'insight', 'reliability', 'style' and 'overall'). By using these feedback tools, the paper gathers 'post publication' commentary that improves the scientific debate around the content. More information is available in our Guidelines for Notes, Comments, and Corrections and we recommend that authors make their communities aware of these tools and encourage their use.

As part of this process, upon publication PLoS ONE routinely posts the referees' reports as comments accompanying the online version of papers. When submitting their reviews, the referees are asked for permission for their comments to be posted. Referees are encouraged to sign these reports but may maintain their anonymity if they wish. By posting the referees comments, with their permission, PLoS ONE hopes to make the review process more transparent as well as stimulating informed debate of the published papers.

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