Media

On this page, you will find an overview of our media guidelines and policies.

Embargo Policy

PLOS ONE articles are embargoed until 5 p.m. Eastern Time, USA, on the date of publication. This is the time when the article becomes available online, allowing the public to read the open-access article at the same time as it is reported in the media.

It is our policy to not discuss a manuscript with anyone other than the corresponding author before the manuscript has been accepted for publication in PLOS ONE and assigned a publication date. Unless otherwise noted, all information provided by PLOS ONE is subject to a press embargo whose date and time will be clearly stated.

PLOS believes that this embargo policy serves scientists, journalists, and the public by ensuring that the article is available to everyone when it is reported in the media.

For more information on PLOS’s embargo policy please click here.

Contents:

• Information for Authors
• Information for Press Officers
• Information for Journalists and Bloggers

Information for Authors

Overview of the PLOS ONE Press Release Process

Every week, our media relations team identifies accepted manuscripts that we believe contain new, interesting, or important research. Our press releases are written in a straightforward manner by a PLOS ONE editor and aim to accurately report the research presented in the manuscript.

If we choose to press release your manuscript, a member of our media relations team will contact you for contact information, quotes, and supplementary images or video, if applicable. Given our tight press release timeline, we will need you to respond as soon as possible to any requests. Before we send a press release to our embargoed press list and EurekAlert, we will give the authors 24 to 48 hours to review the press release for accuracy and approve it. If we do not receive approval within this time frame, your press release will not be sent to our press list or posted on EurekAlert.

Please understand that we only have space for a limited number of press releases during any given week. If we choose not to press release your research, we are happy for you to work with your institution to organize and promote your paper. Given enough time, many press offices may be able to help you promote your research. We suggest you contact your institution as soon as your paper receives a publication date. If you choose to go this route, you must contact our media relations team and let us know you are planning to press release your research via your institution. We will be able to assist your press office with embargoed press materials.

Promoting Your Research via Social Media

We recognize that blogging, Twitter, Facebook, and many other social media sites are powerful tools in information dissemination. If you choose to blog or promote your manuscript via social media, please wait until the embargo on your paper lifts and include a link to your article. For an example of how social media can be used to help promote your research, read this post on how deep social network “roots” help scientists communicate their research.

Speaking to the Media

If you agree to be the contact for journalists, please note that you could be contacted by reporters from around the world. It is important that you respond to their queries in a timely manner as journalists work under tight deadlines. Failure to respond to them could result in a story being published without your input and might end up containing inaccurate information. Before giving an interview, please ensure that the journalist will agree to abide by the embargo. It is also helpful to share the link to your manuscript so that the journalist may include it in their article. For more information on giving media interviews, read this blog post.

Tracking Media Coverage

In 2011, we implemented our Media Tracking Project. Our intention is to collect news coverage that adds to the post publication discussion of your manuscript. We encourage authors to post links to media coverage of their article within the comments section of their article and to send our media relations team a list of these links so we can add relevant coverage to our Diigo archive of media coverage. For a more information on the tracking project see this blog post.

Who Covers PLOS ONE

Every day we see PLOS ONE articles in the news. In 2010, over 300 PLOS ONE manuscripts received media attention. Though we cannot guarantee the media will cover any one article, we regularly see PLOS ONE research being reported on by The New York Times, WIRED, BBC, Xinhua, Times of India, Wall Street Journal and by many well-known science bloggers.

You can read regular updates of recent coverage via the Media category of this blog. A more detailed list of our news and blog coverage is available on our Media Archive page. For media updates prior to 2009, see the In the News channel of the PLOS Blog, where you will also find a round-up of some of PLOS ONE’s media coverage in 2008. See also an archive of our press releases on EurekAlert.

PLOS ONE Media Relations Contact Information

To contact our media relations team, email us at ONEpress [at] plos [dot] org or call us at 1.415.624.1220.

Jen Laloup
PLOS ONE | Media Relations
Editorial Manager

Jyoti Madhusoodanan
PLOS ONE | Media Relations
Press Manager

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Information for Press Officers

If your institution is planning to promote research publishing in PLOS ONE, please contact our media relations team as soon as possible. We will be able to provide your office with embargoed press materials. In your press release we request two things:

1. Please refer to us as PLOS ONE not Public Library of Science ONE.
2. Include a link to the manuscript in the press release.

About PLOS ONE

PLOS ONE publishes primary research from all areas of science and employs a combination of peer review and post-publication rating and commenting, to maximize the impact of every report it publishes. We are 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. All works published in PLOS ONE are Open Access.

Press Lists and Embargos

All papers are under embargo until 5 p.m. ET, USA on the date of the paper’s publication. We understand that sometimes press offices like to send trusted journalists press releases before the paper’s publication date; this is acceptable provided that these journalists agree to abide by the embargo.

Press releases may not be distributed publicly prior to the embargo lifting. Releases that are sent to private press lists and sent to press release services like EurekAlert must clearly be labeled with the embargo time and date.

PLOS ONE Media Relations Contact Information

To contact our media relations team, email us at ONEpress [at] plos [dot] org or call us at 1.415.624.1220.

Jen Laloup
PLOS ONE | Media Relations
Editorial Manager

Jyoti Madhusoodanan
PLOS ONE | Media Relations
Press Manager

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Information for Journalists and Bloggers

All manuscripts that are press released via PLOS ONE are sent to our private press list and posted to EurekAlert. The releases will be clearly labeled with the embargo date and time, contact information, a link to the location of the manuscript once the embargo lifts, and a press preview PDF.

In your article please refer to us as PLOS ONE not Public Library of Science ONE (as this is not our name). We also request that if your news article will be published online you include a link to the freely available manuscript.

If you are interested in joining PLOS’s press list, please visit PLOS’s embargo policy page for eligibility requirements and conditions. If you have questions or need to get in touch with us, please contact our media relations team via email at ONEpress [at] plos [dot] org or call us at 1.415.624.1220.

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