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Help Using This Site

Need help using this site? Here are some answers to common support questions.

For additional help, please contact webmaster [at] plos.org. Please send details regarding your Web browser software (e.g., Internet Explorer 6.0), computer operating system (e.g., Windows XP), and the relevant page URLs and file names.

Supported Web Browsers

PLoS online journals support the following standard Web browsers:

Browser Version Windows Macintosh
IE 6.0+ yes n/a
Firefox 1.5+ yes yes
Safari 1.2.4+ n/a yes

PLoS Journals Account

You may read PLoS journals without creating an account. However, an account is required to receive journal e-mail alerts and to comment on PLoS ONE articles. Accounts are free.

Create Account

Create a PLoS Journals account at http://register.plos.org. A confirmation will be sent to your e-mail address with the title "Please verify your PLoS registration". Use the URL in that e-mail to complete your registration.

Login

The "Login" or "My Profile" is available near the top right corner of every journal page.

The first time you log in, you are required to create a profile with basic information, with which you will be identified whenever you rate or comment on an article. As part of your profile, you must choose a username. Your username is attached to all commentary that you make on the PLoS web sites. This means that all your commentary is credited and attributed to you. You cannot change your username. It is possible to get a new username by registering for a whole new account, but anything you have done on your original account will not transfer to the new account with the new username.

Lost Password

If you have forgotten your password, go to http://register.plos.org/reminder, enter your E-mail address, and click "Submit". An e-mail will be sent to the e-mail address you use to log in to your PLoS user account.

Journal E-mail Alerts

Sign up for a PLoS journal e-mail alert at http://register.plos.org. A confirmation will be sent to your e-mail address with the title "Please verify your PLoS registration". Use the URL in that e-mail to complete your registration.

To unsubscribe from a PLoS journal e-mail alert:

  1. Login at http://www.plosone.org/alerts. Enter your PLoS login E-mail address and Password. Click "Go!".
  2. Please check/uncheck the boxes to subscribe/unsubscribe from a specific mailing list.
  3. Scroll to the bottom of the page and click "Save".

To update your e-mail address to which PLoS journal e-mail alerts are sent:

  1. Login at http://www.plosone.org/profile. Enter your PLoS login E-mail address and Password. Click "Go!".
  2. Under "Preferences", click "Change your e-mail address".
  3. Enter the new e-mail address which you wish to use to receive alerts.
  4. Click "Submit".

Printing PDFs

If you have difficulty printing PDFs, please try updating the drivers on your printer. Printer driver updates are typically available from the printer manufacturer's Web site.

Here are links to several printer manufacturers' download Web sites:

If updating your printer drivers does not resolve the problem, please contact webmaster [at] plos.org with detailed information, including your Web browser software (e.g., Internet Explorer 6.0), version of Adobe Acrobat Reader (or other PDF reader), computer operating system (e.g., Windows XP), and the URLs of the PDFs you are trying to print.

Print PDF vs. Screen PDF

For most of our journals, we offer you the choice of two different PDF versions per article. The Print PDF is optimized for printing on a high-quality laser printer. The Screen PDF has its images optimized for viewing on screen, so it normally has a smaller file size for quicker download.

The exact resolutions of the files are as follows:
Print PDF: 1200 dpi – general; 300 dpi – color; 300 dpi – greyscale; 300 dpi – monochrome (Adobe's standard print setting).
Screen PDF: 600 dpi – general; 150 dpi – color; 150 dpi – greyscale; 300 dpi – monochrome (Adobe's standard ebook setting).

Free Readers/Viewers

Free software is available for viewing Adobe Acrobat PDF, Microsoft Excel, Word, and PowerPoint files. Download sites for a few popular free programs are listed below.

Document Type Free Viewers/Readers
PDF Adobe Acrobat Reader (cross-platform)
Xpdf (for X Window System under UNIX, VMS, and OS/2)
DOC Microsoft Word 97/2000 Viewer (for Windows)
XLS Microsoft Excel 97/2000 Viewer (for Windows)
PPT Microsoft PowerPoint 2003 Viewer (for Windows) and PowerPoint Viewer 97/2000/2002 (for Windows) and PowerPoint 98 Viewer (for Mac OS)
All of the above OpenOffice.org offers a free cross-platform software suite for word-processing, spreadsheets, presentations, drawing, and database design. Download for Windows/Linux/Solaris, Mac OS X, and Linux PPC.

Viewing and Using Multimedia Files

If your Web browser does not already have a plug-in to play videos and use Flash, Shockwave, and SVG (Scaleable Vector Graphics) files, there are free players and viewers available for download. We list just a few popular programs below.

File Type Free Players
MOV, MPG, or AVI Windows Media Player (for Windows and Mac); QuickTime (for Mac and Windows); MPlayer and Totem (for Linux)
SWF Macromedia Flash Player (for Windows, Mac, Linux, Solaris)
DCR Macromedia Shockwave Player (for Windows and Mac)
SVG

Download the Adobe SVG Viewer (for Windows, Mac, Linux, Solaris) installer program. You must run the installer program to install the plug-in, and for some Web browsers, including Netscape, Mozilla, and Opera, you must take additional steps to complete the installation. For more help, read Adobe's installation instructions and be sure to test your SVG plug-in. Opera users should read how to get Adobe SVG Viewer to work with Opera.

Here is a list of other SVG viewers.

You may right-click or control-click on an SVG figure to save the file to your desktop.

RSS Feeds

Want to keep abreast of PLoS journals content without having to regularly visit the Web sites? RSS will allow you to do just that. Get more information about PLoS RSS feeds.

XML Content

The XML for an individual article can be downloaded directly from that article's Web page using the "Download XML" link in the sidebar. Your web browser will attempt to render the XML document directly in the browser without validation and may return parsing errors. In addition, when viewing the XML, only the XML is returned and there is no way to view the output from the XSLT style sheet that may have been used to transform that XML document into HTML. If you wish to view the XML outside of your web browser, right click on "Download XML" and save the file to your desktop.

If you wish to download the XML of an entire issue, volume, or the entire corpus of a PLoS journal, please contact webmaster [at] plos.org.

All journal content, except where otherwise noted, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License.