Year: 2023
Type: editorial
Abstract: The Public Library of Science (then PLoS, now PLOS) was created to further the mission of open-access publishing.The argument was simple: in the digital era, when the cost of producing and sending one copy of a journal was infinitesimal, why could publication not be paid for up front, to release the fruits of publicly funded research for the benefit of the world?We created PLOS Biology in service of that mission and of the scientific community.PLOS Biology did not have a Chief Editor at the outset.PLOS was a startup and PLOS Biology was our first product, so it was all hands on deck for that first issue [1].Not because we believed anyone needed yet another journal, let alone a so-called elite scientific journal, but because the stark obstacle to persuading scientists to publish open access was the perceived lack of high-quality venues in which to do so.Scientists repeatedly said they simply could not choose any of the existing open-access options over the traditional high-profile journals because it would be career suicide.Moreover, proponents of the publishing status quo argued that paying publication fees up front was incompatible with high editorial standards.To meet these challenges, the entire PLOS team-including our founders-worked together to recruit the academic editorial board, solicit manuscript submissions, and make decisions about the process, look, and feel of the journal.Twenty years is a long time.Remember, if you can, a time before Facebook, Twitter (ahem, X), and Gmail.In science publishing, AAAS had a single journal, Science, while Nature Publishing Group and Cell Press had short lists of titles one could easily memorize.None of them were open access.That is the world into which we launched PLOS Biology.We opened our digital doors with bated breath on October 13, 2003.It was as if we had spent months planning a
Source: PLoS Biology
Institution: BMJ Group (United Kingdom)
Language: English
Subfield: Library and Information Sciences
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: gold
Estimated APC paid: $5,500
OpenAlex ID: W4387344875