PLOS announces partnership with EarthArXiv

The Public Library of Science (PLOS) today announced that it has partnered with EarthArXiv, which enables authors submitting to PLOS Climate, PLOS Sustainability and Transformation, and PLOS Water to post preprints with ease. Beginning next year, submitting authors will have the option to automatically forward their manuscript to the EarthArXiv preprint server, directly from our submission system.

STM Solutions Builds Collaboration Platform to Safeguard Research Integrity

STM Solutions, the operational arm of STM (The International Association of Scientific, Technical
and Medical Publishers) today announced that it has started the development of a powerful new
platform to detect integrity issues in manuscripts submitted for publication to scholarly journals.

B2X – a new pipeline for author services

“For several years, bioRxiv has made life easier for authors by enabling them to send their papers directly from bioRxiv to journals. This B2J (bioRxiv-to-journal) technology saves people time by automatically transferring their PDF, metadata and any source files to journal submission systems so they don’t have to upload these again at the journal website and re-enter all the information. Around 200 journals now participate in B2J, and portable peer review services such as Review Commons also participate.

We are now introducing a new delivery pipeline – B2X – that will enable authors to send their manuscripts to a variety of third-party services. These services are completely independent of bioRxiv and may include groups that assess particular aspects of manuscripts, help authors improve them, or check for compliance with specific funder requirements. The first organization to join B2X is DataSeer, a service that helps researchers navigate open data policies.

DataSeer scans articles for datasets collected and provides recommendations for how these should be shared. Authors receive a brief report on the data that should be shared and advice on metadata, file formats, and appropriate repositories. They can also obtain an Open Data certificate documenting data deposited in public repositories….”

An easier way to submit research at PLOS – The Official PLOS Blog

“What is Format-Free Submission?

Format-free submission is part of our 3-step submission process which includes:

Initial submission. Participating journals waive all formatting requirements and will request formatting changes only after initial editorial evaluation or initial peer review depending on the journal. Simply upload your manuscript in a single PDF file (which can include text and figures) and submit to the journal’s online submission system. 

Editorial assessment. Our editors and reviewers review and provide initial feedback on your submission as quickly as possible.

Full submission. Make any additional formatting changes only after initial feedback is received. 

Together, these 3 steps are designed to help ease initial submission so you spend as little time in the article submission process as possible. …”

PBJ ranks higher, enhances diversity and offers free global access – Daniell – 2021 – Plant Biotechnology Journal – Wiley Online Library

“Since I started as the Editor?in?Chief in 2012, submission of manuscripts has almost tripled, despite transition to an open access journal a few years ago. Despite COVID?19, the number of submissions to PBJ [Plant Biotechnology Journal] continued to increase in 2020….”