Help Using This Site
Need help using this site? Here are some answers to common support questions.
- Recommended Web Browsers
- PLoS Journals Account
- Journal E-mail Alerts
- Printing PDFs
- Free Readers/Viewers
- Viewing and Using Multimedia Files
- Article Feeds
- XML Content
- Social Bookmark Links
- Related Articles
- Related Blog Posts
Recommended Web Browsers
This site supports the following Web browsers:
- Internet Explorer 6+ for Windows
- Internet Explorer 7+ for Windows
- Firefox 2+ for Windows and Mac OS X
- Firefox 3+ for Windows
- Safari 3+ for Mac OS X
PLoS Journals Account
You may read PLoS journals without creating an account. However, an account is required to receive journal e-mail alerts and to comment on articles. Accounts are free.
Create Account
Create a PLoS Journals account at http://register.plos.org. A confirmation will be sent to your e-mail address with the title "Please verify your PLoS registration". Use the URL in that e-mail to complete your registration.
Login
The "Login" or "My Profile" is available near the top right corner of every journal page.
The first time you log in, you are required to create a profile with basic information, with which you will be identified whenever you rate or comment on an article. As part of your profile, you must choose a username. Your username is attached to all commentary that you make on the PLoS web sites. This means that all your commentary is credited and attributed to you. You cannot change your username. It is possible to get a new username by registering for a whole new account, but anything you have done on your original account will not transfer to the new account with the new username.
Lost Password
If you have forgotten your password, go to http://register.plos.org/reminder, enter your E-mail address, and click "Submit". An e-mail will be sent to the e-mail address you use to log in to your PLoS user account.
Journal E-mail Alerts
Sign up for a PLoS journal e-mail alert at http://register.plos.org. A confirmation will be sent to your e-mail address with the title "Please verify your PLoS registration". Use the URL in that e-mail to complete your registration.
To unsubscribe from a PLoS journal e-mail alert:
- Login at http://www.plosone.org/alerts. Enter your PLoS login E-mail address and Password. Click "Go!".
- Please check/uncheck the boxes to subscribe/unsubscribe from a specific mailing list.
- Scroll to the bottom of the page and click "Save".
To update your e-mail address to which PLoS journal e-mail alerts are sent:
- Login at http://www.plosone.org/profile. Enter your PLoS login E-mail address and Password. Click "Go!".
- Under "Preferences", click "Change your e-mail address".
- Enter the new e-mail address which you wish to use to receive alerts and click "Submit".
Printing PDFs
If you have difficulty printing PDFs, please try updating the drivers on your printer. Printer driver updates are typically available from the printer manufacturer's Web site.
Here are links to several printer manufacturers' download Web sites:
If updating your printer drivers does not resolve the problem, please contact webmaster@plos.org with detailed information, including your Web browser software (e.g., Internet Explorer 6.0), version of Adobe Acrobat Reader (or other PDF reader), computer operating system (e.g., Windows XP), and the URLs of the PDFs you are trying to print.
Free Readers/Viewers
Free software is available for viewing Adobe Acrobat PDF, Microsoft Excel, Word, and PowerPoint files. Download sites for a few popular free programs are listed below.
| Document Type | Free Viewers/Readers |
|---|---|
| Adobe Acrobat Reader (cross-platform) Xpdf (for X Window System under UNIX, VMS, and OS/2) |
|
| DOC | Microsoft Word 97/2000 Viewer (for Windows) |
| XLS | Microsoft Excel 97/2000 Viewer (for Windows) |
| PPT | Microsoft PowerPoint 2003 Viewer (for Windows) and PowerPoint Viewer 97/2000/2002 (for Windows) and PowerPoint 98 Viewer (for Mac OS) |
| All of the above | OpenOffice.org offers a free cross-platform software suite for word-processing, spreadsheets, presentations, drawing, and database design. Download for Windows/Linux/Solaris, Mac OS X, and Linux PPC. |
Viewing and Using Multimedia Files
If your Web browser does not already have a plug-in to play videos and use Flash, Shockwave, and SVG (Scaleable Vector Graphics) files, there are free players and viewers available for download. We list just a few popular programs below.
| File Type | Free Players |
|---|---|
| MOV, MPG, or AVI | Windows Media Player (for Windows and Mac); QuickTime (for Mac and Windows); MPlayer and Totem (for Linux) |
| SWF | Macromedia Flash Player (for Windows, Mac, Linux, Solaris) |
| DCR | Macromedia Shockwave Player (for Windows and Mac) |
| SVG |
Download the Adobe SVG Viewer (for Windows, Mac, Linux, Solaris) installer program. You must run the installer program to install the plug-in, and for some Web browsers, including Netscape, Mozilla, and Opera, you must take additional steps to complete the installation. For more help, read Adobe's installation instructions and be sure to test your SVG plug-in. Opera users should read how to get Adobe SVG Viewer to work with Opera. Here is a list of other SVG viewers. You may right-click or control-click on an SVG figure to save the file to your desktop. |
Article Feeds
Want to keep abreast of PLoS journals content without having to regularly visit the Web sites? Our article feeds will allow you to do just that. Get more information about PLoS article feeds.
XML Content
The XML for an individual article can be downloaded directly from that article's Web page using the "Download Article XML" link in the sidebar. If you wish to download the entire corpus of a PLoS journal, please contact webmaster [at] plos.org.
Social Bookmark Links
The bookmark icons in the right-hand column of every article allow users to save and share links to PLoS articles via a number of popular "social bookmarking" services such as Connotea, digg, and CiteULike.
Related Articles
The "Related Content" tab on each article provides links to:
- PLoS articles that share the same assigned topics (authors are responsible for assigning topics when they submit articles to PLoS and may assign more than one topic to their paper).
- articles related to the PLoS article in PubMed and Google Scholar.
- articles that have cited the PLoS article in PubMed Central and Scopus (only the first 20 citing articles are shown if the user does not have a subscription to Scopus). The number of citing articles is also provided, and the link is not shown if there are no citing articles.
- bookmarks to the PLoS article in social bookmarking sites such as Connotea and CiteULike.
- a search at Google Scholar for additional articles that cite the PLoS article, although it is not possible to show the number of citing articles at Google Scholar, and sometimes the search will return zero results.
Please note that the above information is automatically generated via information supplied by each service. PLoS is not responsible (nor able to correct) any errors which originate with the third party concerned.
Related Blog Posts
The "Related Content" tab on each article provides links to blog posts citing each PLoS article via a number of blog aggregation services: Bloglines, Postgenomic and Nature Blogs. A link is also provided to blog posts that have linked to the article via a "Trackback".
Please note that the above information is automatically generated via information supplied by each service. PLoS is not responsible (nor able to correct) any errors which originate with the third party concerned.