PLoS JOURNALS

Thank you and your staff so much for making the publication process very simple. I feel that PLoS Pathogens fills a critically important niche that is not served by other high-profile journals, and I look forward to reading the outstanding work of my colleagues (and hopefully more from my lab) in your journal." — Aaron Mitchell, Harold S. Ginsberg Professor of Molecular Pathogenesis, Columbia University

Creative Uses of PLoS Journal Content

We have established this section of the Web site to feature creative uses of the open-access material in PLoS journals. Read our editorial essay "PLoS Biology in Action" for a preliminary overview of how our journal content is being used.

We Want Your Stories and Feedback

Tell us how you use PLoS journal content -- in your classroom, on your web site, in your publication, and so on -- and we may include your story on this page, as an inspiration to others. Or tell us how you'd like to use PLoS journal content, and we'll see what we can do to make it possible.

How Creative Can You Get?

In addition to being immediately freely available online, all content in PLoS journals is made available under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which allows reproduction, distribution, derivative works, and commerical use as long as the source of the content and terms of the license are properly cited.

Real World Examples

Reuse and Transformation

A figure of "The Drug Development Pipeline" created for PLoS Medicine by Giovanni Maki was reused and enhanced in the Drugs for Neglected Diseases Initiative Newsletter (DNDi), giving proper credit to the original artist and source.
example

New York Times Learning Network

This New York Times Learning Network lesson plan, "Monkey See, Monkey Do," grades 6-8 and 9-12, April 13, 2004, was made available to teachers on the same day the research article by Sapolsky and Share and the primer article by de Waal were published in PLoS Biology. The lesson plan instructs older students to read the primary articles in PLoS Biology and propose a follow-up study. Immediate, open access to the primary literature makes it possible for high school students to rapidly and directly benefit from the latest research findings.

Internet Encyclopedia

An example of derivative use of PLoS journal content is the Internet Encyclopedia, which has adapted content from several PLoS articles for its encyclopedic entries. According to the requirements of our open-access license, permission was not required to adapt these articles as long as the source was properly cited. See for example the encyclopedia entry for "Borneo Elephant", which is adapted from the Fernando et al. research article.

Translation and Republication

A PLoS Medicine article by Ann Taket, C. Nadine Wathen, and Harriet MacMillan on whether health professionals should screen all women for domestic violence was republished in Aerzte-Seite. PLoS Biology feature articles such as those by Virginia Gewin on genetically modified corn and Kendall Powell on the emergining field of neuroeconomics have been translated into languages like Spanish and Malayalam, for republication in other journals and newspapers (e.g., Gerencia Ambiental). According to the requirements of our open-access license, permission is not necessary to translate or republish articles from PLoS Journals as long as the source is properly cited.

We are keen to help readers overcome language barriers, and would like to collaborate with individuals and/or organizations to produce quality translations of some or all of our content on a regular basis. Please contact us if you are interested in this project.