In the past, I used the title "PLoS ONE Release Candidate." But with this release candidate, the Topaz framework [1] allows multiple journal websites to use a single repository. So the release candidate isn't specific to just PLoS ONE [2]. 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 [3] will be available for all journals hosted on Topaz. This will include articles originally published in PLoS Clinical Trials [4] and articles soon-to-be published in PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases [5].

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 [6] 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 [7], 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 [8] - 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 [9] (compatible with EndNote, Reference Manager, ProCite, RefWorks) or BibTex [10] (compatible with BibDesk, LaTeX). Test the feature out by downloading the citation [11] for the article on Protein-Tyrosine Kinase Activity Profiling in Knock Down Zebrafish Embryos [12].
• 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 [13] web application framework. Struts 2 is a merger of Struts and another popular J2EE framework, WebWork [14]. This release offers many enhancements and refinements while retaining the same general architecture of the original Struts framework.

Props to Russ [15], Susanne [16] and the entire Topaz development team!