PLOS earth science authors choose preprints

At PLOS, we are working to extend simple, free, and community-driven preprint options to each of the diverse research communities we serve. We believe that posting preprints empowers authors to take control of their scientific communications, disseminating results sooner and more broadly. At the same time preprinting serves the larger research community, contributing to a more efficient, more robust, and more equitable scientific record.

Earlier this year, we made major progress in our efforts to increase access to preprinting when we partnered with EarthArXiv to offer facilitated preprint posting in the fields of earth and planetary science. Since January 31st, authors submitting to any of our three earth science-related journals have had the option to forward their manuscript to EarthArXiv with just a few clicks. And they have!

At PLOS Climate, 33% of published authors who submitted after the partnership went into effect chose to post a preprint using the integration. For PLOS Water authors that number is 47%. Six months after the launch of the integration, EarthArXiv preprints associated with PLOS submissions have already received more than 7,100 views and 3,900 downloads on the platform. This success follows in the footsteps of longstanding partnerships with the servers bioRxiv and medRxiv.

We’re excited to see how preprint posting rates continue to grow in the future. For now, you can learn more about the exciting work coming out of PLOS’ newest journals, and the preprint integration with EarthArXiv, in our interview with PLOS Water authors Jared Siegel, Aimee Fullerton, Alyssa FitzGerald, Damon Holzer, and Chris Jordan on the Latitude blog.