Our philosophy going into this project has been to open up the peer review process in a way that gives authors and reviewers more choices about how they publish and claim credit for their work.
Published Peer Review History
All PLOS journals are single-blind with the option to engage in more transparent peer review.
Choice. Credit. Transparency.
There’s no one right way to peer review. We leave the decision in your hands with our modular, opt-in approach to signed & published peer review, letting you decide what works best for you and your manuscript.
When science becomes more Open, we all advance.

Quality
Publishing reviews reinforces the validity of the work by showcasing the rigorous vetting process that published research undergoes.
Credit
We see peer reviews as essential contributions to the scientific literature in and of themselves. Signed and published peer review expands reviewers’ options for claiming academic credit for their work.
Enrichment
Signed and published reviews help contextualize research, giving readers the benefit of expert opinions that would otherwise remain hidden.
Accountability
Transparency in peer review helps surface potential competing interests and holds everyone involved in the scientific assessment process to the same standard.
- Reviewers choose to sign their review and can take credit for their comments.
- Authors can reveal the expert assessment that has shaped their final work by publishing the editor’s decision letter and reviewer feedback along with their response.
Author and reviewer choices result in four possible degrees of openness. Together, they give an entire community of readers access to more expert perspectives, and insight into the assessment of science.

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PLOS Journals Now OPEN for Published Peer Review
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About Open Peer Review
Open Peer Review has become a popular topic of discussion and debate. Though not as prevalent as blinded models, and often viewed as a progressive or alternative approach, Open Peer Review isn’t really new.
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800+ Published Peer Reviews and Counting
We recently passed our six-month anniversary of published peer review options at PLOS!!! Already you can read more than 800 PLOS articles accompanied by their complete peer review history...
Transform your research with PLOS. Submit your manuscript