In the past, I used the title "PLoS ONE Release Candidate." But with this release candidate, the Topaz framework allows multiple journal websites to use a single repository. So the release candidate isn't specific to just PLoS ONE. Why is this important? Enabling multiple journals on one repository allows articles to be viewed across all sites accessing the repository. The interactive tools of PLoS ONE will be available for all journals hosted on Topaz. This will include articles originally published in PLoS Clinical Trials and articles soon-to-be published in PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases.

Features implemented in Topaz RC 0.8:

• Enable multiple journals using a single repository.
• Skins for multiple journals.
• Filter search results by journal using OTM.
• TrackBack linkbacks for articles. TrackBacks are used primarily to facilitate communication between blogs - a TrackBack allows a blog author to see who is linking back to a blog post. We're using this same feature, based on the Six Apart specification, to see who is linking back to a published article. To create a trackback to a PLoS ONE article, you can use a trackback URL similar to http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0000000/trackback - you just need to change the "0000000" to the actual article number.
• Citation download of the article. Many users have requested this feature and now you can download the citation for an article in the RIS file format (compatible with EndNote, Reference Manager, ProCite, RefWorks) or BibTex (compatible with BibDesk, LaTeX). Test the feature out by downloading the citation for the article on Protein-Tyrosine Kinase Activity Profiling in Knock Down Zebrafish Embryos.
• A fix to a rating display issue in IE7.
• Allow multiple email addresses for "E-mail this Article."
• Administrative modifications to annotations.
• Administrative interface for multiple journals.
• Migration to the Struts 2 web application framework. Struts 2 is a merger of Struts and another popular J2EE framework, WebWork. This release offers many enhancements and refinements while retaining the same general architecture of the original Struts framework.

Props to Russ, Susanne and the entire Topaz development team!