Join the Editorial Board

Are you a scientist looking to contribute your expertise and give back to the scientific community? If you believe that rigorous research deserves to be published, regardless of outcome or perceived impact, you might be a perfect fit for the PLOS ONE Editorial Board.

Apply now by completing a short form.

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PLOS ONE is an inclusive venue for rigorous primary scientific research across all areas of science and medicine. Read more about the journal’s scope and publication criteria.

Editorial Board Values

We aim to provide fast, fair, and objective scientific assessment of research articles. Our editorial philosophy is built on four key values:

Scientific Rigor and Objectivity
We believe submitted research articles should be evaluated on technical rigor, not on perceived novelty, impact, or “journal fit.” We believe that the research community determines the value of the work based on what we read, download, cite, and share.

Openness and Transparency
We publish all articles at PLOS under a CC BY license, and authors are required to make the data underlying their findings fully available. Anyone may read, reuse, remix, or mine PLOS publications or data for any purpose, with author attribution.

Integrity
We are committed to upholding the highest standards in human and animal research ethics, and in publication ethics. We play an active role in shaping journal policies.

Speed
We accelerate the rate of research communication and dissemination, as well as scientific innovation by reducing “journal shopping” and overall time from first submission to publication. We also aim to reduce wasted time researchers spend repeating the work of other research groups.

Academic Editor Responsibilities

We independently manage the peer review process for each manuscript that we agree to handle. We take responsibility for evaluating submissions, finding and inviting reviewers, reviewing their feedback, making editorial decisions, and communicating the details of our assessment to authors. Further details about the Academic Editor role and responsibilities can be found here.

Interested in serving on the Editorial Board?

PLOS welcomes volunteers to the Editorial Board who support our mission, values, and commitment to providing a high-quality experience for our authors.

Academic Editors for PLOS ONE...

are active, funded researchers who are either Principal Investigators or who have an equivalent experience level
have a strong publication record (20 or more peer-reviewed articles, varies by discipline)
are affiliated with an academic, governmental, or non-profit institution
have enough room in their professional schedule to accommodate handling one or two manuscripts per month as a new Editor

If you are interested in serving as an Academic Editor, please complete this short form. The PLOS editorial office will be in touch as soon as we are able.