Launch of PLoS ONE

[Guest guest]

The Public Library Of Science Launches PLoS ONE

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/medicalnews.php?newsid=59617 & nfid=nl

21 Dec 2006

Until now, online scientific journals have been little more than

electronic versions of the printed copy. That all changes with the

launch of PLoS ONE, which publishes primary research from all areas

of science and employs both pre- and post-publication peer review to

maximize the impact of every report it publishes. PLoS ONE is

published by the Public Library of Science (PLoS), the open access

publisher whose goal is to make the world's scientific and medical

literature a public resource.

PLoS has taken a close look at the way scientific and medical

publishing works now, and has asked how the Internet can be used to

make it work better. As a result, virtually everything about PLoS ONE

is new: the peer-review strategy, the production workflow, the author

experience, the user interface, and the software that provides the

publishing platform.

Harold Varmus, Co-Founder and Chair of the Board of PLoS and

President of the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, remarks,

" For those of us who have been engaged with PLoS from its conception,

the launch of PLoS ONE is tremendously exciting;this is the moment

when we seize the full potential of the Internet to make

communication of research findings an interactive and fully

accessible process that gives greater value to what we do as scientists. "

PLoS ONE was first described to the research community back in June

2006, and the response to the proposal has been enthusiastic and

sustained. Although PLoS ONE opened its doors to manuscript

submissions only in August, it already receives in excess of 100

submissions each month and launches with the publication of 100

peer-reviewed research articles. The volume of articles is

unprecedented for a journal launch, and is an indication of the

strong support within the research community for the PLoS ONE approach.

The articles published today have been peer-reviewed under the

guidance of an extensive academic editorial board, and cover a broad

range of research topics, from basic molecular science to clinical

studies. Specific subjects include the evolution of language1, the

control of rabies2, mimicry of jumping spiders3, and Alzheimer's

disease4. And because the articles are published under an open access

license, these scientific riches are free for everyone to read,

reuse, and build upon.

The work published at the launch of PLoS ONE is impressive in its own

right, but the power of this project really lies in what happens

after publication. In almost all other journals, publication of a

research paper is a full stop. The next significant step forward will

be the publication of another paper following on from the previous

work. But in PLoS ONE, as soon as an article is published, a

conversation between authors and readers can begin. There might be a

question about a method that is described in the article, a link to

another useful work or resource that can be added, or an alternative

interpretation that can be offered for some of the results. In each

case, readers and authors can respond to the addition, and everyone

else can benefit from the resulting dialogue. The possibilities are

without limit, and the applications of this technology will no doubt

hold some surprises.

The beta version5 of PLoS ONE that is launched today is a

work-in-progress. It is presented in beta because PLoS wishes the

community to help shape PLoS ONE, and the underlying publishing

platform, into its most valuable form. The software is open source6,

and will form the first part of an innovative and flexible publishing

system that will be developed over the next two years and will be

available to all groups for storing, disseminating, and sharing

literature and data.

PLoS ONE will accelerate the pace of scientific research because

publication is faster and more interactive than ever before. No

longer need there be months of delay between submission and

publication. Now there is a way to share not only the results of

research but also the responses, ideas, and opinions of fellow

researchers as well.

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/medicalnews.php?newsid=59617 & nfid=nl