PLOS is a non-profit organization on a mission to drive open science forward with measurable, meaningful change in research publishing, policy, and practice.

Building on a strong legacy of pioneering innovation, PLOS continues to be a catalyst, reimagining models to meet open science principles, removing barriers and promoting inclusion in knowledge creation and sharing, and publishing research outputs that enable everyone to learn from, reuse and build upon scientific knowledge.

We believe in a better future where science is open to all, for all.

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Frequently asked questions

Community Action Publishing (CAP)

What is the goal of this business agreement?

The goal of our Community Action Publishing agreement (CAP) is to eliminate APCs in order to protect authors from selectivity for a more equitable open access future. Cost to publish is assessed based on publication needs of both corresponding and contributing authors so the cost of publishing is distributed more equitably among representative institutions. With the PLOS CAP agreement, any revenue above the cost recovery targets is redistributed to representative institutions in the form of reduced fees the following year

Which journals are included in CAP?

Community Action Publishing is currently only available for PLOS Biology, PLOS Medicine, and PLOS Sustainability and Transformation.

Flat Fee

What is the goal of this business agreement?

The core goals of the Flat Fee agreement is to make it easier for institutions to support their authors’ open access publications through a single, annual invoice to your institution, ensuring equitable access to publishing. The Flat Fee agreement:

  • Streamline and simplifies managing fees (APCs) by shifting the cost from individual articles to an institutional annual fee.
  • Reduces the administrative burden for libraries of managing APC funds, tracking eligibility, and approving funding requests article-by-article
  • Shield institutions from periodic changes to APCs via multi-year contracts and commitments
  • Eliminate financial pressure on authors to find funding to pay for their publications

Which journals are included in Flat Fee agreement?

Our Flat Fee agreement is designed to automatically cover publications in PLOS Complex Systems, PLOS Computational Biology, PLOS Digital Health, PLOS Genetics, PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases, PLOS One, and PLOS Pathogens through a single, annual fee.

Global Equity

What is the goal of this business agreement?

Our Global Equity agreement empowers institutions in every region of the world to provide open access support for their authors by removing financial barriers through an annual fee per journal. Participation fees are based on each institution’s historical research output in the field and are reflective of their regional economy according to their country’s World Bank lending tier.

Which journals are included in Global Equity agreement?

Our Global Equity agreement is currently available for PLOS Climate, PLOS Global Public Health, PLOS Mental Health and/or PLOS Water. The agreement gives institutions the flexibility to choose which journal(s) they would like to participate in.

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