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PLOS iGEM Collection – Open For Submissions

PLOS is pleased to announce that submissions from the iGEM 2015 Jamboree can now be made to the PLOS iGEM Collection.

Igemlogo_bannerThe iGEM Foundation is dedicated to the advancement of synthetic biology through the development of open community and collaboration. These aims are shared by PLOS, whose mission is to advance scientific communication and peer review through increased openness and sharing. The organizations share a belief that all research should be openly available for anyone to access and reuse, and that scientific developments should not be held back by subjective questions about impact and novelty.

Submissions to the PLOS iGEM Collection will be posted for open review on the PLOS Collections blog, where members of the PLOS and iGEM communities will review them. PLOS will draw not only on the PLOS ONE Editorial Board but will also make use of the Syn Bio Community and iGEM alumni to galvanise reviewers. Reviews will be posted as comments on the blog and  all reviewers will be asked to sign their review. Submissions will undergo technical checks by PLOS staff prior to being posted.

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The PLOS iGEM Collection welcomes submissions for all project outputs. We recognize that the scope of the projects will differ and, to accommodate for this, we will consider submissions in two categories:

  • “Research Articles”, intended for publication in PLOS ONE,
  • “iGEM Reports”, intended for project outputs by jamboree participants which might not meet PLOS ONE’s scope or requirements for publication.

Both categories of submissions will be peer reviewed and upon publication, will be featured together in the PLOS iGEM Collection.

All submissions should be submitted as a Word document. Submissions should be sent to PLOS Collections (collections@plos.org). We have created a template for you to make your submission.

All submissions should be written clearly and concisely, and any underlying data should be made available in line with the PLOS Data Policy. Data and methods that are adequately described in the team’s iGEM wiki can be linked to directly in the paper. We also encourage the deposit of data to figshare or Dryad, and the description of protocols at protocols.io, as the team from Northwestern have done.

We encourage groups to use the CRediT taxonomy for authorship and contributions and to include all members of the team as authors, with each individual’s contribution clearly stated as per CRediT guidelines. Writing the paper is not the only requirement for authorship.

All submissions should include statements on competing interests and the sources of funding, as well as a data availability statement, which should provide details about where data can be accessed (see question 3 below).

As reference, the PLOS ONE editorial and publishing policies are available online. Any questions about submissions can be sent to collections@plos.org.

Research articles intended for PLOS ONE

Research articles should meet the publication criteria for PLOS ONE (http://journals.plos.org/plosone/s/criteria-for-publication) and should include an abstract (300 words), introduction, methods, results, and discussion.

A good example of a research article is this PLOS ONE paper.

Reviewers of Research Articles will be asked the following questions:

  1. Does the study present the results of primary scientific research?
  2. Are the manuscript and analysis technically sound?
  3. Are the conclusions supported by the data?
  4. Does the manuscript adhere to the PLOS Data Policy?
  5. Is the manuscript presented correctly and well written?

iGEM Reports

iGEM Reports should detail projects carried out for iGEM 2015, clearly presenting the methodology and results.  The format and structure of iGEM Reports is more flexible, and could consist of as little as a single figure or data set with a description of the project methodology. iGEM Reports must adhere to the PLOS Data Policy.

Reviewers of iGEM Reports will be asked the following questions:

  1. Does the submission accurately and clearly report the experiment carried out?
  2. Does the report adhere to the PLOS Data Policy?
  3. Is the report presented correctly and well written?

iGEM reports could use the following structure:

  • Abstract (300 words)
  • Introduction (c. 500 words)
  • Methods/Protocols
  • Data
  • Interpretation

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Upon submission, papers will be examined by PLOS staff to ensure they are presented correctly. As soon as a paper is submitted and passed these checks, it will be added to the PLOS iGEM Collection page, which will be structured to show the status (under review; accepted) and type of submission. This page can be used to track the status of submissions.

Both Research Articles and iGEM Reports will be reviewed by members of the synthetic biology community as described above. Once reviews have been received, an Academic Editor will make a decision based on those reviews, which could be:

  • Accept
  • Revise
  • Resubmit as alternative article type (i.e. an iGEM Report might invited for resubmission as a Research Article; alternatively, a Research Article might invited for resubmission as an iGEM Report, depending on whether the submission meets the publication criteria)

This decision will be posted as a comment on the original submission.

Research articles that are accepted will then be resubmitted through the PLOS ONE submission system for full publication, upon which a DOI will be assigned.

iGEM Reports that are accepted will not receive a DOI – they will, however, be clearly marked as “accepted” both on the submission and the Collection page. Authors and readers will be able to referred to their published iGEM report using its unique url.

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We have prepared a FAQ below based on feedback we received at the jamboree. If you have any questions during the process please contact collections@plos.org who will be on hand to help out as needed.

FAQs:

1) How can I submit my work?

Please submit for work to collections@plos.org in a Word document

2) Will it be required for all participants?

No, submission to the Collection is completely optional but we encourage all participants teams to submit one report per project.

3) What format should be used for the submission files?

Papers should be submitted as Word files. Figures should be submitted as jpegs with the figure legend stated in the Word file. Tables should be included as Excel spreadsheets as a supplementary file.

Data and methods that are adequately described in the team’s iGEM wiki can be linked to directly in the paper. We also encourage the deposit of data to figshare or Dryad, and the description of protocols at protocols.io, as the team from Northwestern have done.

4) How will PLOS encourage commenting?

We have been working with the PLOS Syn Bio Community, the PLOS ONE Editorial Board and the iGEM alumni to galvanize reviews/commenting. We will be taking advantage of PLOS’ social media outreach to publicize the project.

5) When will it open up for submissions?

You can submit your work now!

6) Can I submit the research to another journal (before or after posting)?

iGEM Reports can be submitted elsewhere. Research articles intended for PLOS ONE should not be submitted elsewhere. If you have submitted your project elsewhere – and it is CC BY – we can include it on the Collection page. Please contact collections@plos.org if this is the case.

7) What are PLOS’ rules if work has been posted on a pre-print server like bioarxiv?

PLOS supports the use of pre-print servers such as bioarxiv and previous posting to such servers is not an issue.

8) Will it be connected to a specific journal, i.e. PLOS ONE or do I get to choose which journal?

This year the project only includes PLOS ONE, but we would consider opening it to other PLOS journals in the future.

9) Who decides on the list of authors and attribution of the work?

We encourage groups to use the CRediT taxonomy for authorship and contributions and to include all members of the team as authors, with each individual’s contribution clearly stated as per CRediT guidelines. Writing the paper is not the only requirement for authorship.

10) How long will the whole process take?

Peer review is very difficult to estimate and will depend greatly on the community’s  input and the authors’ willingness to revise (where needed) papers quickly and in line with the decision. Our aim is that everything will be reviewed and receive a decision before the 2016 jamboree.

11) I participated in iGEM – can I review?

Definitely. You will need to declare any potential conflicts of interest, as other reviewers will, but other than that we welcome your participation in reviewing your peers’ work.

12) When is the deadline for submissions?

There is no set deadline but in order to stand the best chance of your work completing the peer review process before the next jamboree, we encourage papers to be submitted by the beginning of May.

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