The Public Library of Science (PLoS) is a nonprofit organization of scientists and physicians committed to making the world's scientific and medical literature a public resource. Following its founding in October 2000 by biomedical scientists Harold E. Varmus, Patrick O. Brown, and Michael B. Eisen, PLoS's first action was to circulate an open letter encouraging scientific publishers to make the research literature available for distribution through free online public archives such as the US National Library of Medicine's PubMed Central. This letter, signed by nearly 34,000 scientists from 180 countries, prompted significant steps by many scientific publishers towards freer access to published research. Unfortunately, the publishers' responses fell far short of the reasonable policies advocated.

In 2003, PLoS launched a nonprofit scientific and medical publishing venture that provides scientists and physicians with high-quality, high-profile journals in which to publish their most important work. Under the open access model, PLoS journals are immediately available online, with no charges for access and no restrictions on subsequent redistribution or use, as long as the author(s) and source are cited, as specified by the Creative Commons Attribution License.

PLoS received a $9M start-up grant from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation and has received support from the Sandler Family Supporting Foundation, the Open Society Institute, the Irving A Hansen Memorial Foundation, the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, the Ellison Medical Foundation, the Burroughs Wellcome Fund, and many other foundations, universities, other organizations and individuals.

THE PROJECT

As PLoS grows, effective communication about its content, products, and innovations will play an increasingly important role in supporting and building its brand and reputation within the scientific community. PLoS also needs a strategy to ensure that more people know about its content, success, what emerging communication techniques PLoS should be utilizing and how to handle its detractors.  

PLoS has asked for a Community Partners team to develop a comprehensive communications strategy that supports the future growth of PLoS and effectively reaches out to authors, users, and other stakeholders on issues important to advancing its mission. The goal of this project is to develop a comprehensive Communications Strategy that will:       

• Identify the key communications needs for PLoS and its stakeholders
• Identify areas for improvement and highlight gaps (people, roles, processes,  channels etc.)
• Highlight “best practice” communications concepts and trends
• Provide a set of recommendations for establishing and maintaining effective communications in the future