Journal profile · Biology
PLoS One
ISSN 1932-6203 · Public Library of Science · UNITED STATES · Irregular · Founded 2006
PLoS One: CAS Zone 3 · Multidisciplinary (2025 upgraded edition); impact factor 2.84; fully open access; APC about USD 2,477; median 168 days to acceptance (187 articles, last 24 months); community-reported acceptance: 88%; 19,608 articles in 2025; indexed in SCIE and Scopus.
Scope
Aims, scope and focus
Types of articles PLOS ONE welcomes original research submissions from the natural sciences, medical research, engineering, as well as the related social sciences and humanities, including: Primary research that contributes to the base of scientific knowledge, including interdisciplinary, replication studies, and negative or null results. Systematic reviews whose methods ensure the comprehensive and unbiased sampling of existing literature. Submissions describing methods, software, databases, or other tools that meet the journal’s criteria for utility, validation and availability. Qualitative research that adheres to appropriate study design and reporting guidelines. Protocols, including Lab Protocols that describe verified methodologies and Study Protocols that describe detailed plans for research projects.
From the journal's Aims & Scope
Research area (LetPub): Biology
Main research topics OpenAlex counts of recent articles; shares are approximate
- HIV/AIDS Research and InterventionsMedicine6%
- Plant and animal studiesAgricultural and Biological Sciences5.1%
- Global Maternal and Child HealthMedicine5.1%
- HIV Research and TreatmentImmunology and Microbiology5.1%
- Genomics and Phylogenetic StudiesBiochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology5%
- MicroRNA in disease regulationBiochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology4.7%
- Tuberculosis Research and EpidemiologyMedicine4.4%
- Immune Cell Function and InteractionImmunology and Microbiology4.3%
Rankings & indexing
CAS ranking and database indexing
CAS Journal Ranking
CAS Journal Ranking, upgraded edition (March 2025)Multidisciplinary Zone 3
| Level | Category | Zone |
|---|---|---|
| Major | Multidisciplinary | Zone 3 |
| Minor | Multidisciplinary Sciences | Zone 3 |
Top journal: noReview journal: no
CAS Xinrui Journal Ranking (March 2026)Multidisciplinary Zone 3
| Level | Category | Zone |
|---|---|---|
| Major | Multidisciplinary | Zone 3 |
| Minor | Multidisciplinary Sciences | Zone 3 |
Top journal: noReview journal: not marked
CAS Journal Ranking, previous upgraded edition (December 2023)Multidisciplinary Zone 3
| Level | Category | Zone |
|---|---|---|
| Major | Multidisciplinary | Zone 3 |
| Minor | Multidisciplinary Sciences | Zone 3 |
Top journal: noReview journal: no
Database indexing
SCIEScopusDOAJLetPub
International journal early-warning lists: not listed in any editionLetPub
Indexing the journal's website claims
Web of ScienceMEDLINEPMCEmbaseCASCAB AbstractsPublisher website
Other: Google Scholar, Dimensions, CNKI, AGRICOLA, Crossref, RePEc
As the journal's website lists them, not checked against each database; for Web of Science editions the records above apply.
Editions, and major and minor categories, are shown separately and never merged into one zone; check which edition your institution uses before you submit or report.
Metrics
Impact metrics and publication volume
Impact
- Impact factor
- 2.84LetPub ·
- CiteScore 2026-06
- 4.8LetPub ·
- SJR 2026-06
- 0.73LetPub ·
- SNIP 2026-06
- 1.08LetPub ·
- h-index
- 268LetPub ·
- h-index
- 606OpenAlex ·
- i10-index
- 236,962OpenAlex ·
- 2-year mean citedness
- 3.34OpenAlex ·
- Self-citation rate
- 3.6%LetPub ·
- Share of gold OA articles
- 99.93%LetPub ·
Volume
- Articles per year
- 18,233LetPub ·
Articles by year OpenAlex count · 342,707 in total · the current year is incomplete
| Year | Articles | Open access | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 12,714 | 12,714 | 4,274 |
| 2025 | 19,608 | 19,608 | 53,357 |
| 2024 | 17,743 | 17,743 | 109,587 |
| 2023 | 14,978 | 14,978 | 157,889 |
| 2022 | 16,077 | 16,077 | 242,350 |
| 2021 | 16,647 | 16,647 | 384,794 |
Sources count differently and were observed at different times, so each source's own value is kept; "publisher" marks figures from the journal's website.
Review & acceptance
Review time and acceptance
Review time from article dates manuscript dates registered with PubMed · to
168 daysMedian, submission to acceptance · P25–P75 110 days – 254 days
- Acceptance to online
- median 22 days (187 articles)
- Submission to online
- median 195 days
- Sample
- 187 articles with submission and acceptance dates (36,809 in the window); the latest was accepted on
Only articles that were accepted and published are counted, not the time spent on rejected manuscripts, so this usually runs longer than a publisher's "time to first decision".
Other sources
- Average review time (community reports)
- about 2.6 monthsLetPub ·
- Average acceptance (community reports)
- 88%LetPub ·
- Acceptance rate (publisher) 2023H1
- 30.74%Publisher website ·
- Acceptance rate (publisher) 2022H2
- 37.26%Publisher website ·
- Acceptance rate (publisher) 2022H1
- 41.36%Publisher website ·
- Acceptance rate (publisher) 2021H2
- 47.9%Publisher website ·
- Acceptance rate (publisher) 2021H1
- 49.9%Publisher website ·
- Acceptance rate (publisher) 2020H2
- 49%Publisher website ·
- Acceptance rate (publisher) 2020H1
- 48.2%Publisher website ·
- Desk decision 2023H1
- 17 daysPublisher website ·
- Desk decision 2022H2
- 22 daysPublisher website ·
- Desk decision 2022H1
- 17 daysPublisher website ·
- Desk decision 2021H2
- 15 daysPublisher website ·
- Desk decision 2021H1
- 12 daysPublisher website ·
- Desk decision 2020H2
- 16 daysPublisher website ·
- Desk decision 2020H1
- 12 daysPublisher website ·
- Submission to first decision 2023H1
- 45 daysPublisher website ·
- Submission to first decision 2022H2
- 56 daysPublisher website ·
- Submission to first decision 2022H1
- 62 daysPublisher website ·
- Submission to first decision 2021H2
- 53 daysPublisher website ·
- Submission to first decision 2021H1
- 48 daysPublisher website ·
- Submission to first decision 2020H2
- 47 daysPublisher website ·
- Submission to first decision 2020H1
- 44 daysPublisher website ·
- Submission to final decision 2023H1
- 87 daysPublisher website ·
- Submission to final decision 2022H2
- 117 daysPublisher website ·
- Submission to final decision 2022H1
- 118 daysPublisher website ·
- Submission to final decision 2021H2
- 105 daysPublisher website ·
- Submission to final decision 2021H1
- 90 daysPublisher website ·
- Submission to final decision 2020H2
- 84 daysPublisher website ·
- Submission to final decision 2020H1
- 83 daysPublisher website ·
- Submission to acceptance 2023H1
- 188 daysPublisher website ·
- Submission to acceptance 2022H2
- 200 daysPublisher website ·
- Submission to acceptance 2022H1
- 196 daysPublisher website ·
- Submission to acceptance 2021H2
- 170 daysPublisher website ·
- Submission to acceptance 2021H1
- 157 daysPublisher website ·
- Submission to acceptance 2020H2
- 149 daysPublisher website ·
- Submission to acceptance 2020H1
- 144 daysPublisher website ·
- Acceptance to publication 2023H1
- 10 daysPublisher website ·
- Acceptance to publication 2022H2
- 10 daysPublisher website ·
- Acceptance to publication 2022H1
- 10 daysPublisher website ·
- Acceptance to publication 2021H2
- 9 daysPublisher website ·
- Acceptance to publication 2021H1
- 10 daysPublisher website ·
- Acceptance to publication 2020H2
- 11 daysPublisher website ·
- Acceptance to publication 2020H1
- 13 daysPublisher website ·
- Submission to publication 2023H1
- 204 daysPublisher website ·
- Submission to publication 2022H2
- 215 daysPublisher website ·
- Submission to publication 2022H1
- 205 daysPublisher website ·
- Submission to publication 2021H2
- 177 daysPublisher website ·
- Submission to publication 2021H1
- 170 daysPublisher website ·
- Submission to publication 2020H2
- 162 daysPublisher website ·
- Submission to publication 2020H1
- 169 daysPublisher website ·
- Submission to publication (journal-reported)
- about 29 weeksDOAJ ·
- Peer review
- Single anonymous peer reviewDOAJ
Community reports come from authors' own submissions (confidence 0.5) and are not a promise from the journal; for publisher figures, the journal's own definitions apply.
Fees & open access
APC and open-access policy
Fully open accessDOAJ
Every article is open access; authors usually pay an article processing charge (APC).
| Source | APC | Fee waiver | License | Observed |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| DOAJ | USD 2,477 | Yes | CC BY | |
| OpenAlex | USD 2,382 | — | — | |
| LetPub | USD 2,290 | Yes | — |
The journal's website is authoritative for fees; sources were observed at different times and each keeps its own value, without averaging.
Submission
Article types and submission policies (journal website)
What to prepare4 items from the author guidelines
- Reference style
- Vancouver
- First submission
- Free format: the journal's layout is not required
- Suggested reviewers
- Required
- Cover letter
- Required
Article types accepted5
- editorialAcademic Editor Chen Ling, a Principal Investigator at Fudan University, discusses his work in gene therapy and virology, including advances in gene expression …Length not stated
- meta-analysisManuscripts reporting a meta-analysis of genetic association studies must report results of value to the field and should be reported according to the guideline…Length not stated
- protocolPLOS One offers two options for publishing stand-alone protocol articles: Lab Protocols that describe reusable methodologies and Study Protocols that describe d…Length not stated
- registered reportSubmission and format requirements for Registered Report Protocols and Registered Reports are similar to those for a regular submission and may be specific to y…Length not stated
- systematic reviewA systematic review paper, as defined by The Cochrane Collaboration, is a review of a clearly formulated question that uses explicit, systematic methods to iden…Length not stated
Policy excerpts from the journal's websiteAuthorship, Conflicts of interest, Open access, Peer review, Preprints
- Authorship Consortia and group authorship
If a manuscript is submitted on behalf of a consortium or group, include its name in the manuscript byline. Do not add it to the author list in the submission system. You may include the full list of members in the Acknowledgments or in a supporting information file. PubMed only indexes individual consortium or group author members listed in the article byline. If included, these individuals must …
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Conflicts of interest Financial Disclosure Statement
This information should describe sources of funding that have supported the work. It is important to gather these details prior to submission because your financial disclosure statement cannot be changed after initial submission without journal approval. If your manuscript is published, your statement will appear in the Funding section of the article. Enter this statement in the Financial Disclosu…
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Open access Open Access
PLOS applies the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license to works we publish. Under this license, authors agree to make articles legally available for reuse, without permission or fees, for virtually any purpose. Anyone may copy, distribute, or reuse these articles, as long as the author and original source are properly cited. Learn more.
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Peer review Peer Review at PLOS ONE
PLOS ONE is a fully peer reviewed journal with a rigorous multi-stage editorial screening and assessment process. First, we undertake an initial in-house quality check to identify potential issues such as competing interest, compliance with ethical standards for studies involving human and animal subjects, financial disclosures, data availability, and other scientific and policy requirements. Subm…
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Preprints Preprints
PLOS encourages authors to post preprints to accelerate the dissemination of research. Posting a manuscript on a preprint server does not impact consideration of the manuscript at any PLOS journal. Authors posting preprints on bioRxiv or medRxiv can choose to concurrently submit their manuscripts to relevant PLOS journals through the direct transfer service. Authors submitting manuscripts in the l…
Source ↗Publisher website ·
Excerpts are quoted from the journal's website; "model summary" lines are written by Workers AI and checked against the text. The journal's website is authoritative.
Profile
Publication details and official links
- Publisher
- Public Library of Science
- Country or region
- UNITED STATES
- Language
- English
- Frequency
- Irregular
- Founded
- 2006
- ISSN
- 1932-6203
- Official links
- Journal homepage ↗DOAJ
- Submission system ↗Publisher website
- Author guidelines ↗LetPub
- Aims & Scope ↗LetPub
- APC information ↗DOAJ
- Fee waivers ↗DOAJ
- Open access statement ↗DOAJ
- License & copyright ↗DOAJ
- Peer review process ↗LetPub
- Editorial board ↗LetPub
- Plagiarism policy ↗DOAJ
FAQ
Frequently asked questions about PLoS One
What CAS zone is PLoS One in?
In the 2025 upgraded edition of the CAS Journal Ranking, PLoS One is in Zone 3 of Multidisciplinary, and in Zone 3 of the minor category Multidisciplinary Sciences. In the 2026 Xinrui edition it is in Zone 3 of Multidisciplinary. Zones from different editions, and from major and minor categories, are not interchangeable.
What is the impact factor of PLoS One?
The latest impact factor listed by LetPub is 2.84; CiteScore 4.8, h-index 606.
How long does peer review take at PLoS One?
Based on the dates recorded on 187 articles published between October 2024 and October 2026 (the last 24 months), the median time from submission to acceptance is 168 days (interquartile range 110–254 days); authors report an average review time of about 2.6 months; the community-reported acceptance is “88%”; the journal's website gives an acceptance rate of 30.74%. Article statistics cover accepted papers only, publisher figures follow the journal's own definitions, and community reports come from authors' own submissions; none is a promise from the journal.
What are the manuscript requirements of PLoS One?
According to the journal's author guidelines: Reference style: Vancouver; First submission: Free format: the journal's layout is not required; Suggested reviewers: Required; Cover letter: Required. A model extracted these from the author guidelines and each was checked against the text; check the latest version on the journal's website before submitting.
Which databases index PLoS One?
According to LetPub and DOAJ records, PLoS One is indexed in SCIE, Scopus and DOAJ. The journal's website also lists Web of Science, MEDLINE, PMC, Embase, CAS and CAB Abstracts; that list has not been checked against each database.
Is PLoS One open access, and what is the APC?
PLoS One is a fully open-access journal. APC about USD 2,477.
Sources and updates
The facts on this page come from LetPub, Publisher website, OpenAlex, DOAJ; every figure is tagged with its source and the date it was observed, and conflicting values are kept per source. LetPub source page: view ↗ (archived 2026-08-25). Last updated: .