Aperta: Smoother Submission to PLOS Biology

UPDATE June 8, 2018: PLOS Biology uses the Editorial Manager submission system. Find out how to submit.

Today, PLOS Biology blazes a new trail for PLOS; we’re the first journal to go live on PLOS’ new manuscript submission system, Aperta™. Aperta offers a refreshing look and feel, with a unique and clean user experience. Our initial focus has been on the authors’ journey; we’re implementing a brand new process whereby authors need initially only submit minimal information alongside their manuscript, figures and cover letter that we’ll use to determine whether the research meets our criteria for peer review at PLOS Biology. Only then, with our editorial commitment to review, would authors be requested to provide additional information (e.g. conflict of interest, ethics statements, author contributions). This streamlined process will, we hope, be a more sensible approach to our initial consideration of your manuscripts.

It’s early days, and we’re looking to you – our community of authors, reviewers, and academic editors – to provide feedback on your experiences with this new system. What do you like? What could be improved upon? We’re ideally placed with our team of in-house editors to work with you to explain the processes and answer any questions that you might have along the way. We’ll digest any feedback you provide and act as a conduit to our developers.

There’s now lots of documentation online about our new system. Watch the Introduction to Aperta video or take a look at the features highlighted in the ‘Quickstart‘ guides for Authors, Reviewers and Academic Editors.

Even better, submit your cool next research paper to us, and let us know what you think.