In a major stride towards transforming scholarly publishing, PLOS has been awarded a $3.3 million grant by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. This three-year funding initiative reinforces PLOS’s ongoing commitment to eliminating Article Processing Charges (APCs) and advancing open science practices.
The grant enables authors funded by the Gates Foundation to publish with PLOS without financial barriers. Additionally, it supports open-access publishing opportunities for authors lacking funding, promoting inclusivity in scholarly communication. This funding will also drive the development of innovative publishing models designed to make research more accessible and equitable.
The grant includes provisions to enhance the capture and dissemination of funding metadata and to explore posting peer reviews alongside preprints during the evaluation process. These efforts aim to foster greater transparency and collaboration in scholarly communication.
PLOS has been a pioneer in developing alternative business models to reduce financial barriers since 2020. Its partnerships with platforms like bioRxiv, medRxiv, and eartharxiv highlight its dedication to early research sharing and open access.
“Our goal is to demonstrate the feasibility of APC-free, open science-based publishing models and inspire a transformative shift across the scholarly communication landscape,” said Niamh O’Connor, Chief Publishing Officer at PLOS. She emphasized the importance of transitioning publishing services away from “per published unit” pricing models to incentivize broader dissemination of research outputs.
This initiative marks another significant step in PLOS’s journey to reshape the global scholarly publishing ecosystem, ensuring equitable access to knowledge and promoting the principles of open science.