PLOS Global Public Health and PLOS Digital Health now indexed in PubMed Central | STM Publishing News

“The Public Library of Science (PLOS) is pleased to announce that PLOS Global Public Health and PLOS Digital Health are now fully indexed in PubMed Central (PMC), expanding our reach and furthering our mission of ensuring research content is accessible and discoverable as widely as possible.

Both journals have an explicit mandate to promote equity in research that can tackle the most urgent priorities for the field, such as access to healthcare, or addressing bias in AI and developing machine learning tools for underserved communities. PLOS is proud to feature perspectives from all over the world, and we make sure that research is peer reviewed by experts with significant, context-appropriate expertise….

Work published in PLOS Digital Health and PLOS Global Public Health will now be accessible to an even wider audience, meeting researchers where it is convenient for them to access knowledge. With the vast majority of article views coming from PMC or Google Scholar searches, it is imperative that research in both journals be highly visible on these platforms.

Critically, the inclusion of PLOS Digital Health and PLOS Global Public Health in PMC is an endorsement of the rigor and reliability of the work published within and is the principle reason that researchers prefer to browse research on the platform. Journals indexed in PMC have undergone both technical and scientific benchmarking checks, allowing researchers to trust the findings, methods, and datasets shared. Of particular importance to the mission of both journals, this means local perspectives and expertise reported in rigorously reviewed published research will receive the attention and visibility that it deserves….”

Trends in preprint, data, and code sharing, 2019-2022

“PLOS recently introduced Open Science Indicators (OSIs), a large public dataset identifying and quantifying Open Science practices like preprint posting, data sharing and code sharing in PLOS articles, as well as a selection of comparator articles published elsewhere. Now, we are delighted to release another six months of data from the second half of 2022, providing a new view of Open Science practices by researchers, over four years. The latest results continue to show incremental growth in all three areas. Read on for more details on the project, detailed numbers, and a closer look at preprints….”

PLOS Announces Newest Joiners to the CRL/NERL Agreement – The Official PLOS Blog

“The Public Library of Science (PLOS) welcomes several new participants to its ongoing three-year consortial agreement with Center for Research Libraries (CRL) and the Northeast Research Libraries (NERL) program. Joining twenty fellow member institutions who signed on during the first year, newly participating institutions for the second year include Duke University, Macalester College, University of Arizona, University of Denver, and University of Southern California, University of Texas at Austin, and University of Washington.

This agreement provides researchers with unlimited publishing privileges in PLOS journals without incurring fees. All PLOS journals are underpinned by institutional business models that move beyond article processing charges (APC) to ensure more equitable and regionally appropriate ways to support Open Access publishing. PLOS’ institutional models are Community Action Publishing (CAP)[1], Flat Fees [2], and the Global Equity model[3] …”

Chefs de Cuisine: Perspectives from Publishing’s Top Table – Alison Mudditt – The Scholarly Kitchen

“I believe that we’re finally at a tipping point not only for open access, but for a transformation to open research more broadly. Throughout the pandemic, we’ve seen global scientific collaboration on an unprecedented scale: results were shared immediately, and online sharing became the norm. It’s hard to make a moral case that other diseases or crises don’t deserve the same urgency. Support has been steadily building for years across national and international governments, agencies and funders. And now a growing voice of scientists and science organizations have joined them. Just one example: in a recent report, the International Science Council found the current system of scientific publishing to be failing in its ability to deliver on any of the core principles which affirm the record of science.

Critically, many of us are focused on how we can make the transition to open research in ways that embrace diversity and foster equity from the start. It’s been a fundamental failing of the “old” system and I’m relieved to see that an increasing number of us understand that tweaking that system just won’t do, and that more fundamental change is needed. With this comes the opportunity to rethink what gets shared and when, and how it gets both assessed and credited. It’s an incredible opportunity to build a system that better serves both science and scientists. While there are clearly systemic changes needed in the incentive and reward systems in academia, our work at PLOS demonstrates that meaningful progress can be made by pushing on elements of the current system….”

View of What is the Future of Preprint Peer Review?

“Another organization that is blurring the lines between preprint review and journals is eLife. eLife is an open access journal funded by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI), the Wellcome Trust, and the Max Planck Society. It has required all authors to post preprints since 2020 but recently took the bold step of re-defining itself as a peer review service: eLife no longer accepts or rejects papers it considers; it simply peer reviews them and posts the reports online alongside the preprint.7 PLOS Biology has also experimented with preprint peer review by asking editors to consider both formal peer reviews and unsolicited comments on bioRxiv preprints they are considering for publication.

Preprint peer review thus encompasses a spectrum of activities from informal commenting to new services that can augment or potentially displace journals in the research ecosystem. Perhaps most significantly it prompts us to consider what peer review is and what it should be. Journal peer review is currently mostly concentrated among a small fraction of senior scientists who are overloaded and not representative of the global potential reviewer pool. ECRs are not often involved, nor are scientists from the Global South. Preprint peer review provides an opportunity to involve a more diverse sample of the scientific community. Increasing the representation of researchers from marginalized groups and the Global South in the review of clinical research could boost fields like neglected tropical diseases and socio-economic determinants of health. And since decoupled review is not exclusive or restricted to a single point in time, it could provide the basis for a new, more multi-dimensional approach to the evaluation of scientific research…”

The Open Science Atlas – The Official PLOS Blog

“The Open Science Atlas[1] will be a web-platform that enables continuous, large-scale monitoring of transparent research practices across the scientific ecosystem. The platform will be driven by a unique data extraction engine that combines global crowdsourcing and automated algorithms to produce living maps of the research transparency landscape. These maps can be explored at various levels of detail, from high-level scientific disciplines, down to individual institutions or journals, and will evolve over time to reveal temporal trends….”

Implementing open science in East Africa is picking up speed

“Stakeholders, including academics, researchers and policy-makers in Tanzania, intend to adopt open science and present the plan to the government and implementation partners for funding. However, the decision to make research more accessible means they also have to deal with several challenges.

The East African Science and Technology Commission (EASTECO), Tanzania’s Commission for Science and Technology (COSTECH), Public Library of Science (PLOS), and Training Centre in Communication Africa hosted a High-Level Multi-Sectoral National Open Science Dialogue for Academic and Research Institutions in Tanzania in mid-February 2023 to discuss the matter – three years after the initial decision to enter into a partnership that would promote open-science principles in the region….”

PLOS Release Results from New Scheme & Springer Nature Launches OA Initiative | The Hub by The London Book Fair | Publishing News

The Public Library of Science (PLOS) has released the first results from its new initiative, launched in partnership with AI-driven data sharing support body DataSeer, to measure researchers’ Open Science practices across published literature.

The two organisations have released data on three of the numerical indicators they have developed together – on data sharing, code sharing, and preprint posting – to show that good practices in research data and code sharing, along with the use of preprints, are becoming increasingly prevalent in the research community….”

Open Science Advocacy and Capacity Building for Leadership in African Higher Education Institutions – The Official PLOS Blog

“The Association for African Universities (AAU), the Public Library of Science (PLOS), and the Training Centre in Communication (TCC Africa) are pleased to share the results of the first two of four regional policy workshops that we are hosting with Presidents, Vice Chancellors, Rectors, Deputy Vice Chancellors, Directors of Research and Libraries in African Higher Education Institutions. 

The workshops aimed to increase education and awareness on the benefits of Open Science, to support development and implementation of Open Science policies, and adoption of Open Science and Open Access practices and publishing in African Higher Education Institutions

Workshop programmes included both global and local perspectives on Open Science and its adoption and implementation in institutions, including support and speakers from UNESCO, DORA, University of Leiden, NRF and the African Open Science Platform….”

PLOS partners with Einstein Foundation Berlin on Award for Promoting Quality in Research – The Official PLOS Blog

“We are delighted to once again partner with the Einstein Foundation Award for Promoting Quality in Research.  PLOS is a longtime advocate for quality in research, and we are especially thrilled that the Einstein Foundation Berlin honors researchers who reflect rigor, reliability, robustness, and transparency in their work. Enhancing the quality and reliability of research is essential for trust in research….”

PLOS partners with Einstein Foundation Berlin on Award for Promoting Quality in Research – The Official PLOS Blog

“We are delighted to once again partner with the Einstein Foundation Award for Promoting Quality in Research.  PLOS is a longtime advocate for quality in research, and we are especially thrilled that the Einstein Foundation Berlin honors researchers who reflect rigor, reliability, robustness, and transparency in their work. Enhancing the quality and reliability of research is essential for trust in research….”

PLOS partners with Einstein Foundation Berlin on Award for Promoting Quality in Research – The Official PLOS Blog

“We are delighted to once again partner with the Einstein Foundation Award for Promoting Quality in Research.  PLOS is a longtime advocate for quality in research, and we are especially thrilled that the Einstein Foundation Berlin honors researchers who reflect rigor, reliability, robustness, and transparency in their work. Enhancing the quality and reliability of research is essential for trust in research….”

Pilot project eliminates author processing charges for all PLOS journals | STM Publishing News

“McMaster University Libraries are partnering with the Public Library of Science (PLOS) in a pilot project to remove financial barriers to publishing research. 

The two-year project will see the elimination of author/article processing charges (APCs) in all PLOS journals. Typically, authors incur APCs to cover the cost associated with making their article publicly available for free in open access journals.

This means that McMaster faculty, staff, and students won’t need to worry about the financial implications of publishing in a PLOS journal from Feb. 1, 2023 through Jan. 31, 2025….

McMaster University Libraries is dedicated to innovative open scholarship opportunities, and as such, will cover the cost of the two-year flat fee, based on the university’s current publication output, to allow for unlimited PLOS publishing opportunities by McMaster authors. Library staff will evaluate the effectiveness of the agreement and project future cost implications at the end to determine the project’s sustainability….”