PLOS ONE Year in Review
2020 was a year of growth for PLOS ONE. We introduced a new article type, launched several new collections, and published important research that made an impact in the global Covid-19 conversation. Discover journal updates, a message from the Editor-in-Chief, updated offerings, new collections, and more.
87,951
Published authors
16,047
Published articles
219
Countries represented by submitting authors
63,732,242
Article views
This year, we launched Registered Report Protocol and Registered Reports, new article types that enable authors to preregister and publish their study design protocol before they begin their investigation. Published in two stages, this article type is designed to:
- Increase the robustness and reproducibility of a study
- Set clear expectations for authors from the outset
- Guarantee an outcome-neutral assessment of the final research
Research Highlights
PLOS ONE considered nearly 1,000 submissions in response to our 2020 calls for papers! Explore research from new and noteworthy collections:
Ready to feature new research in 2021? Submit to our open Calls for Papers.
In 2020, PLOS ONE articles were referenced an estimated 81,800 times by media outlets around the world! Explore articles that made the news.
- Extreme mortality and reproductive failure of common murres resulting from the northeast Pacific marine heatwave of 2014-2016
- High frequencies of theropod bite marks provide evidence for feeding, scavenging, and possible cannibalism in a stressed Late Jurassic ecosystem
- Honey bees (Apis cerana) use animal feces as a tool to defend colonies against group attack by giant hornets (Vespa soror)
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“Thank you so much for all you’ve done to champion Open Science and PLOS ONE in a very challenging year. 2020 brought a surge of submissions to the journal, and I deeply appreciate your support as Academic Editors, authors, reviewers and readers. The new year brings fresh commitments from us to reach out to and develop deeper relationships with our research communities, so that we can better meet your needs. The journal staff editors have been incredibly busy behind the scenes developing new ways to interact with our communities, including attending virtual conferences and leading events on social media, and are excited to plan more of these activities in the coming months. We hope to meet as many of you as possible over the next year to hear your feedback on the journal and learn more about how we can support you and your research communities. I am also really looking forward to the launch of our two new protocol article types, which deepen PLOS’ support of reproducibility and transparency in research, and facilitate discoverability, collaboration and credit and recognition. We are excited to bring these innovative protocol articles to our community and very much hope to involve you as contributors this year. ”
Emily Chenette, Editor-in-Chief
orcid.org/0000-0003-0393-395X
We received an average of 100 submissions per week* from the PLOS ONE community describing research on all aspects of the coronavirus pandemic.
To date, over 700 papers on COVID-19 have now been accepted for publication in the journal.
*since March 2020
Read
The first COVID-19 related paper published from Yi Hu and colleagues:
Discover
Our dedicated collection of COVID-19 research:
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