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When you choose to publish with PLOS, your research makes an impact. Make your work accessible to all, without restrictions, and accelerate scientific discovery with options like preprints and published peer review that make your work more Open.

Institutional Account Program

Through the PLOS Institutional Account Program, participating institutions can pay full publication fees for their researchers.

  • Eliminate cumbersome reimbursement protocols
  • Consolidate individual author invoices
  • Reduce author inquiries about payment arrangements
  • Eliminate per-invoice purchase orders
CHOOSE FROM TWO ACCOUNT OPTIONS

Deposit Account

Provides greater flexibility and reduced per-article administration costs. Deposit Accounts allow institutions to budget APC expenditures for a fiscal year. The institution deposits funds into an account with PLOS to facilitate APC payment throughout the year. Corresponding authors affiliated with the institution are eligible; contributing authors are not.

How it works:

  • Initial deposit: The institution determines the amount to be deposited into their APC account (subject to a minimum threshold) PLOS can prorate estimates to correspond to an institution’s fiscal year/budget cycle.
  • Account debited for accepted manuscripts: The deposit account is not debited until the manuscript of a corresponding author who is a member of the institution is accepted by a PLOS journal.
  • Monthly statements: Regular reports are provided for institutions to track and manage APC expenditures. A monthly statement details each corresponding author’s manuscript that has been accepted for publication.
  • Low balance alert: When the Deposit Account balance falls to 25% of the initial total, a low-balance alert and replenishment invoice will be sent to the institution as part of the monthly billing process. At the end of the year, any residual balances of prepaid deposits within the fiscal year will be applied toward the balance of the next fiscal year.
  • Exiting the Deposit Account: Institutions choosing not to add additional money to a Deposit Account have the option to:
    • Convert to Direct Billing, or
    • Exit the Deposit Account program entirely. Participating institutions can exit the Deposit Account arrangement with a 90 days advance notice, per contract agreements. Any unused deposits will be refunded promptly to institutions, with clear accounting after 45 days to allow for final settlement.

Direct Billing (Pay As You Go)

Favored by institutions with budget flexibility to cover variable publishing volume. Institutions selecting the Direct Billing option are billed monthly by PLOS for accepted manuscripts authored by corresponding authors of their institutions. Contributing authors are not eligible.

Benefits:

  • Consolidation of all PLOS APCs into a single monthly bill
  • No advance payments or purchase orders required
  • Regular reports for institutions to track and manage APC expenses

Publishing Terms of Service

All PLOS partnership models are subject to PLOS’ Master Publishing Terms of Service. Institutions or consortia that wish to partner with us should contact us for further information.

For more information, or to become a participating institution please contact us below.

CONTACT

Do you already have an account with us and have a question about it? If so, please contact institutionalaccounts@plos.org

Not sure if your institution is already participating? View our current institutional account customer list.

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