PLoS

A new publishing platform for PLoS Currents

Liz Allen — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 21:59:24 +0000

We are pleased to announce that PLoS Currents has moved to a new publishing platform, offering easier interaction to all users.

This innovative, online publication channel for the rapid communication of new scientific research and ideas aims to minimize delays between the generation and publication of new research. All content published is peer-reviewed, citable, publicly archived in PubMed, and indexed by Scopus.

PLoS Currents removes barriers to communication and exchange through:

A single, integrated solution for writing and publishing
Flexible article format for increased ease of submission
Streamlined peer-review process that establishes the legitimacy of the work
Individual sections tailored to a specific research community

Its six sections include:

PLoS Currents: Disasters
PLoS Currents: Muscular Dystrophy (Produced with support from Parent Project Muscular Dystrophy)
PLoS Currents: Huntington Disease (Produced with support from CHDI Foundation)
PLoS Currents: Tree of Life
PLoS Currents: Evidence on Genomic Tests
PLoS Currents: Influenza

For this redesign, we partnered with Solvitor LLC* to implement Annotum (the name of this new publishing platform). Carl Leubsdorf, Jr., founder of Solvitor LLC, describes Annotum as “an open-source, open-access, open-process authoring and publishing system based on WordPress.”

You are welcome to browse articles and submit your research to one of the PLoS Currents sections today. Contact us at currents@plos.org.

*Annotum is a product of Solvitor LLC with heavy lifting by Crowd Favorite, and with special thanks to Google, PLoS, NIH/NLM/NCBI, and Automattic.

Cameron Neylon to Join PLoS as Director of Advocacy

Darlene Yaplee — Tue, 27 Mar 2012 15:46:46 +0000

PLoS is pleased to announce the appointment of Cameron Neylon as Director of Advocacy. Cameron is well known in the scientific community, recognized for his professionalism, experience, vision and influence in scholarly publishing, communication, and research. His attendance at the Budapest Open Access Initiative meeting, advisory role for the Scholarly Communication in Africa Program, and leadership of the Open Society Foundation funded Beyond Impact project are recent examples of his focus on web technology to enhance research communication. After earning his PhD in Chemistry from Australian National University, Cameron worked as a Wellcome Trust International Fellow at the University of Bath; a lecturer in chemical biology at the University of Southampton; and most recently a senior scientist at the Science and Technology Facilities Council, UK. He has also served as an academic editor for PLoS ONE—one of many commitments he will transition prior to joining PLoS in early July.

In his new position, Cameron will promote advocacy of open access and develop strategies to drive the broader reinvention of research communication, both within the existing PLoS journals and beyond. He will work with other Open Access advocates, funders, publishers and scholarly societies to raise awareness and promote the adoption of research communication systems that support the public’s access and contribution to research. Cameron’s passion and dedication to Open Access are manifest in his speaking engagements and leadership in online media. His knowledge of policy and the scientific community in the EU and Asia/Pacific region will be a great asset to PLoS. He is among the most effective, articulate and balanced advocates of open and collaborative science, and of quality, speed and sustainability in research communication. Please join us in welcoming Cameron and congratulating him on his new role.

Expand public access to research in the US

Liz Allen — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 17:26:03 +0000

We have a unique opportunity to ignite change by supporting the Federal Research Public Access Act (FRPAA). This bill will ensure free, timely, online access to the published results of research funded by eleven U.S. federal agencies. Significantly, at the Federal level FRPAA has been introduced into the House and Senate at the same time and it is also being supported at a State level through an initiative called the Taxpayer Access to Publicly Funded Research Act (TAPFR) in New York.

We invite you to take part in a campaign of direct action to let congress know that we support broader access to research. The Alliance for Taxpayer Access (ATA) has many different ways for you to get involved (and they make it easy to participate):

Ask your representative to co-sponsor FRPAA
Thank the representatives that re-introduced the bill
Ask your organization to write a letter in support of the bill or make a public statement about it
Sign the ATA petition
Show everyone that you care by displaying the I support Public Access banner
Like SPARC’s Facebook Page and follow them on Twitter, then share with your friends and followers

Remember, the more you do the more congress will know how we feel, so let’s get busy in support of FRPAA!

Protect public access to research in the U.S.

Liz Allen — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 21:07:19 +0000

There’s a bill before Congress called the Research Works Act that if passed could reverse the popular and successful NIH open access policy and block similar developments at other federal agencies. In a recent New York Times Opinion Piece, PLoS co-founder Mike Eisen argued that rather than “rolling back public access, Congress should move to enshrine a simple principle in United States law: if taxpayers paid for it, they own it”. We urge you to contact your representative and let them know that you oppose this retrograde step – simple guidelines (template letters, contact information) are available from the Alliance for Taxpayer Access.

PLoS Expands Mission

Gary Ward — Wed, 28 Sep 2011 03:00:57 +0000

Since 2000, PLoS’s mission has been to make “the world’s scientific and medical literature a freely available public resource.” But more broadly, our goal has always been to reinvent research communication from top to bottom to fully exploit the potential offered by digital media. Today, PLoS is making this broader view of our mission explicit. As Chairman of the Board, I want to take this opportunity to explain the thinking behind this important change.

Since PLoS became a publisher a little over eight years ago, substantial progress has been achieved toward opening access to research findings. PLoS and others have shown that open-access publishing can be both high quality and economically sustainable. Despite this progress, open access still represents only around 10% of the research literature, so there’s still a long way to go before universal access is achieved for all. Looking ahead, therefore, PLoS remains committed to this task.

To drive the continued reinvention of research communication, PLoS has also pushed ahead on a number of other fronts: by launching a journal – PLoS ONE – that accelerates the communication of new research findings, by developing new mechanisms for publishing (PLoS Currents) and organizing (PLoS Hubs) research, and by pioneering alternative methods for research assessment (article-level metrics). Open access is central to all these initiatives and efforts.

Given the broad front along which PLoS is progressing, the PLoS staff and Board of Directors have developed a revised mission that builds on PLoS’s successes and reflects our aspirations. That mission is summarized as “accelerating progress in science and medicine by leading a transformation in research communication.” The mission also includes aims in three specific areas, which are to:

Eliminate unnecessary barriers to immediate availability, access, and use of research
Pursue a publishing strategy that drives openness, quality, and integrity
Develop innovative approaches to the assessment, organization, and reuse of ideas and data

Over the coming months, we’ll be announcing some exciting new initiatives aimed at making our expanded mission a reality. To mark the restatement of our mission, we have also given our organizational website PLoS.org a complete facelift. In the meantime, if you have feedback on the updated mission or on the new PLoS.org website, feel free to share it with us.

In the News

Liz Allen — Tue, 31 May 2011 17:54:50 +0000