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Getting Started

Review the quick checklist below to begin preparing your submission.

This will help ensure that your submission is complete and gets handled as quickly as possible. 

PLOS Medicine uses the initial submission process, allowing authors to quickly submit to the journal and obtain rapid feedback from the editors. If the editors decide that the work is suitable for peer review, authors will be asked to provide a full submission with additional information.

✔ Read journal policies

Review the editorial and publishing policies to understand the requirements that apply to your submission.

✔ Check that your study follows appropriate reporting guidelines

Read more about recommended reporting guidelines for different study types.

✔ Read the license agreement

PLOS applies the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license to works we publish. Under this license, authors agree to make articles legally available for reuse, without permission or fees, for virtually any purpose. Anyone may copy, distribute, or reuse these articles, as long as the author and original source are properly cited.

You must be prepared to sign the license agreement on behalf of all the authors. Read our licenses and copyright policy

✔ Prepare funding and competing statements

Read our policies on disclosure of funding sources and competing interests.

✔ Prepare your data

Remember to deposit your data in an appropriate data repository, or format and submit it as Supporting Information. Be ready to provide a Data Availability Statement. Read our policy on data availability.

✔ Confirm the author list

Do you have the following information for all authors listed on the manuscript?

  • Full names, including initials if used
  • Affiliations
  • Email address
  • Any potential competing interests
  • Funding information
  • Author contributions
  • Order of authors

Make sure the corresponding author has an ORCID iD and all authors are aware of the submission. Read more about preparing the author list.

✔ Consider posting a preprint

PLOS encourages authors to post preprints as a way to accelerate the dissemination of research. Authors of manuscripts in the health sciences can take advantage of our partnership with medRxiv to post a preprint as part of the PLOS submission process. Alternatively, authors can provide the DOI for a previously posted preprint at the repository of their choice.

✔ Access the submission system

Submit your Initial Submission in the online submission system.

If you are a new user, click Register Now to create an account. If you are having trouble accessing an existing account, click Login Help or email the journal.

If you have been invited to submit a Full Submission, refer to PLOS’ Submission Guidelines for more detailed instructions.

For revisions read the submission guidelines for information about manuscript style and format.

If you are submitting content other than a research article, read the guidelines for other article types.

Additional guidance is available for the following: