We are working to establish online public libraries of science that will archive and freely distribute the complete contents of every published scientific article, and:

• Greatly expand access to scientific knowledge by giving any scientist, physician, student - or anyone with access to the internet, anywhere in the world - unlimited access to the latest scientific research.
• Facilitate research, informed medical practice and education by making it possible to freely search the full text of every published article to locate specific ideas, methods, experimental results and observations.
• Enable scientists, librarians, publishers and entrepreneurs to develop innovative new ways to access and use the information in this immensely rich but highly fragmented resource.

On December 17, 2002, PLoS announced that it has received a $9 million grant from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation to launch a new scientific publishing venture that will expand access to and greatly enhance the usefulness of the scientific literature (read the press release).

The PLoS journals will be controlled and run by scientists, and will retain all of the important features of scientific journals, including rigorous peer-review and high editorial and production standards, but will employ a new publishing model that will allow PLoS to make all published works immediately available online, with no charges for access or restrictions on subsequent redistribution or use.

This site provides more details about the organization, our plans for the new journals, our reasons for starting them and additional information as we prepare to begin publishing in the second half of 2003.