OPEN ACCESS

We are very pleased that this paper has received the citations it has, in part because in a small way it validates the open access publishing model." — James C. Carrington and Zhixin Xie, whose paper in PLoS Biology was picked as a Thompson-ISI "Fast Breaking Paper" (December 2005)

Publications on Open Access by PLoS Staff and PLoS Board Members

PLoS staff and Board members have written many articles and white papers documenting our history, goals, and vision, including some published in PLoS journals. All articles, including those published in subscription journals such as the Chronicle of Higher Education, are published under the Creative Commons Attribution License and are freely available to read and distribute.

PLoS Paying to Free Science: Costs of Publication as Costs of Research
by Andy Gass in Serials Review (May 12, 2005) refutes the assertion that open-access publishing will be more expensive than subscription-based publishing for research-rich universities, as claimed by a much-discussed Cornell University report.
View as PDF (76k)
PLoS The Reality of Open-Access Journal Articles
by Andy Gass and Helen Doyle in The Chronicle of Higher Education (February 18, 2005) focuses on the exciting possibilities created by having open access to peer-reviewed articles.
View as PDF (105k)
gpgNet Topic #8: Open Access to Scholarly Publications: A Model for Enhanced Knowledge Management?
Report by Helen Doyle and Andy Gass of the UN Development Program's "Global Network on Public Goods" web forum of September 20 - October 4, 2004.
View as PDF (44k)
House of Commons PLoS position statement on the House of Commons Science and Technology Committee report
PLoS's response to the July 20, 2004, report from the Science and Technology Committee of the United Kingdom House of Commons, "Scientific Publications: Free For All?"
View as HTML / View as PDF (97k)
Science and Technology Committee Inquiry into Scientific Publications: Evidence from the Public Library of Science
PLoS provided this written evidence in February 2004 to aid the House of Commons' inquiry into scientific publication practices. This package includes background information on scholarly publishing and open access, recommendations and actions, and supporting documents.
View as PDF (1.4MB)
PLoS A series of articles by PLoS staff about open access published in PLoS Biology (April-October, 2004)
Who Pays for Open Access?
Addresses recurring concerns about the benefits and risks associated with open access publishing in medicine and the biological sciences.
Read Article
Open Access and Scientific Societies
Discusses the potential impact of open access on scientific societies.
Read Article
Whose Copy? Whose Rights?
Describes the reasoning behind PLoS's use of the Creative Commons Attribution License.
Read Article
Open Access As Public Policy
Overview of recent policy developments arising from the global debate over access to primary literature.
Read Article
Editorials by the PLoS Founders Harold Varmus, Patrick Brown, and Michael Eisen
PLoS Biology Why PLoS Became a Publisher
A decription of PLoS's evolution from a grassroots collection of more than 30,000 scientists supporting open access publishing to a publisher in its own right published in the inaugural issue of PLoS Biology (October 2003).
Read Article
PLoS Medicine PLoS Medicine—A Medical Journal for the Internet Age
An explanation of how and why the latest medical information should be made freely available to anyone with an Internet connection published in the inaugural issue of PLoS Medicine. Read Article
whitepaper Publishing Open-Access Journals
This Whitepaper written in February 2004 provides a practical discussion of the steps involved in publishing an open-access journal and the associated costs.
View as PDF (382kb)
backgrounder Open-Access Publication of Medical and Scientific Research
This Background Paper serves as a more thorough introduction to the motivation behind the movement for open access, the challenges that open access poses, and some solutions to those challenges.
View as PDF (288kb)
brochure Open Access Brochure
This Brochure offers brief descriptions of PLoS' mission and strategies.
View as PDF (536kb) | Print US ltr (472kb pdf) | Print A4 (512kb pdf)