Progress towards more responsible research assessment requires implementing and supporting more equitable and transparent standards of practice in the scientific community. Some journals have been considering these changes in how they operate, one of which is PLOS Biology. This article discusses PLOS Biology’s commitment to increasing code sharing and publishing peer review files in 2024 as part of their ongoing efforts to promote open science. PLOS Biology has long championed open science, advocating for transparent sharing of research components beyond just publications. They’ve implemented policies like data availability requirements, preprint integration, and recognition of various contributors. They analyze adoption rates and barriers, using tools like the Open Science Indicators dataset, finding steady progress in open science practices among their authors. They continually evolve policies to encourage better practices, like advising authors to use compliant repositories for data and code.
In addition to increasing code sharing and peer review file publication in 2024, they also highlight their engagement with topics relating to changing the mindset and standards in research. These topics include research assessment, research reporting, measurement of open science practices, biases within the scholarly system, hurdles faced by non-native English speakers and mothers in science, and editorial bias in biomedical journals.
Cadwallader L, Pariente N (2024). Supporting open science at PLOS Biology. PLoS Biol 22(1): e3002516. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3002516