PLoS ONE Introduces Collections

On January 30th, PLoS ONE tried something new. While the pioneering OA journal had always categorized all of its research articles into subject areas (physics, mathematics, biochemistry, etc.) and publication date (PLoS ONE publishes on a daily schedule now in order to facilitate the high volume of research it processes), a new option in the Browse Articles menu was introduced a few days ago.

Collections they are called, and fascinating they are certainly. The idea is similar to the concept-driven magazine issue, with a coherent focus on the theme or topic of the week/month. The only difference being that the articles represent novel research as opposed to journalistic reporting. As PLoS ONE is a formidably large journal, collections will help simplify the organization of research into accessible units.

Not all of the PLoS ONE articles will be published into collections. Instead, according to its website PLoS ONE will "from time to time" develop a collection in order to "highlight specific topics." Though not stated explicitly, it may be a reasonable guess to think that new collections may be a monthly addition, similar to the publishing schedule of its more prestigious sister journals, PLoS Medicine and PLoS Biology.

The first collection is entitled Stress-Induced Depression and Comorbidities: From Bench to Bedside and tackles a research field of growing interest to many neuroscientists. This body of work comprises two Overviews and eleven Research Articles, the collective results produced from several international research institutes. I encourage all of you to check it out.

Nathan