The number of papers published by one of the world's largest open-access journal, PLOS ONE, has plunged over the past few months after rising fairly steadily for years, notes Phil Davis, a scholarly publishing blogger. According to Davis, PLOS ONE may have become a less attractive option for scientists as its impact factor has fallen and other open-access publishers have come on the scene.
Founded 14 years ago, the Public Library of Science (PLOS) has been a leader in open access. However, PLOS has also drawn criticism, because the non-profit broke even only after starting the multidisciplinary PLOS ONE, which accepts all papers that pass technical scrutiny regardless of their importance. The model has drawn the complaint that PLOS ONE bulk publishes low-quality papers to make its more selective journals sustainable. That high volume made PLOS ONE the largest scientific journal in the world in 2010, with more than 8600 research papers. Last year, the site featured 31,509 papers.
But this year, the trend has been downward, notes Davis. PLOS ONE's output peaked in December 2013 at 3039 papers and by May had fallen 25 percent to 2276 papers. The drop in PLOS ONE's impact factor last June could be one explanation, says Davis.
Other factors may include the debut of other open-access journals, last October's 16-day U.S. government shutdown, and a decline in U.S. federal research funding, notes Davis.
In response to questions from ScienceInsider, PLOS cautions against reading too much into the 25 percent drop. As a non-profit, it says, PLOS "is not primarily driven by short-term financial considerations, but rather by a mission to transform research communication."
