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When you choose to publish with PLOS, your research makes an impact. Make your work accessible to all, without restrictions, and accelerate scientific discovery with options like preprints and published peer review that make your work more Open.

Commitment to Open Science

A commitment to Open Science is a commitment to advance trust and inclusion in research communication.

Open Science encompasses the entire research process and the entire research community. It empowers researchers everywhere to share valuable artifacts from each stage of their investigation and increase visibility and collaboration around their work. Every research community and individual has an opportunity to shape the activities and norms that inspire trust in their work. A commitment to Open Science, therefore, is not a pledge to adopt a few specific behaviors, but to advance openness, transparency and reproducibility in daily life as a researcher.

Together, we can cultivate a more inclusive and trustworthy future for science.

Join the commitment to Open Science below.

I commit to inclusion

I will strive to make my research available to the widest possible audience, leaving no one behind regardless of readers’ ability to pay for access.

(For example by posting preprints, publishing in Open Access journals, and depositing my non-OA articles, data, and protocols in Open repositories.)

I will strive to engage with researchers beyond my immediate circle, institution and discipline during research and the peer review and publication process.

(For example, by joining in conversations around my own and others’ research, submitting to journals with diverse editorial boards, inviting public comment on my own posted preprints and commenting on others’ research in turn, and always collaborating with relevant local experts.)

I will strive to cultivate a deeper understanding of the impact of inclusion in research and scholarly publishing, and to remain cognizant of issues of inclusion.

(For example, by acknowledging the importance of inclusion, understanding that my perspective is not the default and working to educate myself, and keeping inclusion top-of-mind in my daily work and when making decisions.)

I commit to increase trust in research

I will strive to ensure that my research is appropriately described and fully reproducible, both for contemporary and future readers.

(For example, by making the full arc of scientific knowledge—including raw data, curated data, detailed methodological documentation, tools, study designs, protocols, code, materials, reagents—a part of the permanent scientific record, where applicable.)

I will strive to contextualize and illuminate the peer review process, both for the manuscripts that I submit and those I help to peer review.

(For example, by choosing to publish peer reviews alongside my finished articles and by signing my name to the reviews I write when I have the opportunity and I feel safe doing so.)

I will strive to minimize bias in the peer review and publication process.

(For example, by preregistering my research to ensure that it is evaluated on the strength of the study design and research question, volunteering as a peer reviewer for preregistered studies, declaring my own competing interests when serving as an editor or peer reviewer, and considering competing interests in my reading of articles).

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