PLOS ONE Formatting Requirements: Complete Author Guide

PLOS ONE sets a 300-word limit for the abstract.

• Word limit: 300 words maximum

• Citations: Not allowed in the abstract

• Content: Should describe the main objective of the study, explain how the study was done (including any model organisms used) without methodological detail, and summarize the most important results and their significance

The 300-word cap gives you more room than Nature's summary paragraph, which Nature asks to be no more than about 200 words. Use this space wisely. You can include more methodological detail and quantitative results than at most journals.

Your abstract should follow a logical flow: what the problem is, how you addressed it, what you found, and what it means. Some PLOS ONE reviewers specifically comment on abstracts that lack this implicit structure.

Keywords: PLOS ONE's submission form lists keywords as optional and asks you to select one category that most closely matches the research area of the manuscript.

PLOS ONE places no strict limit on the number of figures or tables, which aligns with its no-word-limit philosophy. However, the journal has specific technical requirements for figure quality.

Figure specifications:

PLOS-specific figure rules:

• Figures must be uploaded as separate files, not embedded in the manuscript

• Each figure file must be named according to PLOS convention: Fig1.tif, Fig2.tif, etc.

• Figure width runs from 6.68 cm (2.63 inches) to 19.05 cm (7.5 inches), and PLOS says a figure no wider than 5.2 inches (13.2 cm) aligns with the text column of the PDF version of the article

• No text should be smaller than 8 pt in the final figure

Table requirements:

• Tables must be editable, cell-based objects placed in the manuscript file directly after the paragraph where each is first cited, not graphic objects or separate files

• Put the table label and a brief descriptive title above the table, put legends and footnotes below it, and keep text color black

• Tables have no strict width or height requirements, and PLOS says not to split a table to make it fit within the manuscript margins

Supporting Information figures and tables: Labeled as S1 Fig, S2 Fig, S1 Table, S2 Table, etc. These appear in the Supporting Information section. Each is uploaded as a separate file.

PLOS ONE uses the Vancouver reference style as outlined in the ICMJE sample references, with numbered citations.

In-text citations: Reference numbers in square brackets, not superscripts. PLOS gives this example: "We used the techniques developed by our colleagues [19] to analyze the data."

This is a critical detail. PLOS ONE uses brackets, not superscript numbers and not parentheses. Authors who've been formatting for Nature (superscript) or PNAS (parentheses) need to adjust.

Reference list format:

1. Hou WR, Hou YL, Wu GF, Song Y, Su XL, Sun B, et al. cDNA, genomic sequence cloning and overexpression of ribosomal protein gene L9 (rpL9) of the giant panda (Ailuropoda melanoleuca). Genet Mol Res. 2011;10: 1576-1588.

Key formatting details:

• Author names: Last name, then initials without periods (e.g., "Smith AB")

• List all authors up to 6. For 7 or more, list the first 6 followed by "et al."

• Journal name abbreviations should be those found in the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) databases

• A DOI is acceptable as an alternative to or in addition to volume and page numbers; give the label and full DOI (for example, doi: 10.1016/j.molimm.2014.11.005), not a shortened DOI or the URL

• Online sources follow the "Available from: URL" pattern shown in the PLOS examples

Important: PLOS says the reference list must include full and current bibliographic details for every cited work, and that authors should avoid citing retracted articles unless they need to discuss retracted work, in which case the retracted status must be stated in the text and the reference list.

There's no reference cap. Cite what's necessary.

The Data Availability Statement is one of PLOS ONE's defining features. The journal was a pioneer in requiring open data, and the policy is strictly enforced.

What's required: Every PLOS ONE submission must include a Data Availability Statement specifying where the data underlying all results in the manuscript can be accessed.

Acceptable data locations:

• Within the paper and its Supporting Information files

• In a public repository (Dryad, Figshare, Zenodo, GEO, etc.)

• Available upon request (only when legal or ethical restrictions apply)

What's not acceptable: "Data available upon request from the corresponding author" is not sufficient unless there are documented legal or ethical constraints. PLOS ONE expects data to be freely accessible.

This isn't a soft requirement. PLOS says publication is conditional on compliance, and that it can post a correction or an expression of concern, or in extreme cases retract a publication, if restrictions on access come to light. If your data has legal or ethical access restrictions (patient identifiers, third-party data), explain the restriction clearly and give contact information for a data access committee, ethics committee or other institutional body, because PLOS does not accept an author as the sole named contact for data requests.

Where it goes: The Data Availability Statement is entered in the Additional Information section of the submission form. If the article is accepted, it is published as part of the article.

PLOS ONE uses the term "Supporting Information" (not "Supplementary Materials" or "SI Appendix"). Supporting Information is published alongside the article and accessible to all readers.

Types of Supporting Information:

• S1 Fig, S2 Fig, etc.: Supporting figures

• S1 Table, S2 Table, etc.: Supporting tables

• S1 File, S2 File, etc.: Supporting documents, datasets, code

• S1 Video, S2 Video, etc.: Video files

• S1 Text: Extended methods or additional narrative

Formatting rules:

• Each Supporting Information item is uploaded as a separate file

• Each item needs a caption listed at the end of the manuscript file: the file name and number are required, a one-line title is strongly recommended, and a legend is optional (do not submit a separate caption file)

• In the main text, cite supporting items as "S1 Fig" not "Supplementary Figure 1"

• There's no limit on the amount of supporting information, and PLOS says files must be smaller than 20 MB (its supporting information page recommends under 10 MB)

• For larger files, use a public repository and cite the DOI

Supporting Information is subject to peer review at PLOS ONE. PLOS says all supporting information will be subject to peer review, so essential supporting files should be complete and cited from the main text.

Title page requirements (first page of manuscript):

• Full title (250 characters max)

• Short title (100 characters max)

• Author names with affiliations

• Corresponding author designation with email

• No abstract on the title page (the abstract comes after the title page)

Cover letter. PLOS ONE asks for the cover letter as a separate file in the online system, with a length limit of 1 page, and says not to include requests to reduce or waive publication fees in it. PLOS ONE evaluates papers on scientific soundness, not perceived impact, so a cover letter arguing for significance isn't necessary.

These are the details that PLOS ONE regulars know:

No assessment of perceived impact. PLOS ONE reviews papers for scientific validity and methodological soundness, not for novelty or significance. This affects formatting indirectly: you don't need to spend word count arguing why your work is major. Just present the science clearly.

Author contributions are mandatory. PLOS ONE requires that author contributions be listed using the CRediT taxonomy. Each author must be assigned at least one CRediT role: Conceptualization, Data Curation, Formal Analysis, Funding Acquisition, Investigation, Methodology, Project Administration, Resources, Software, Supervision, Validation, Visualization, Writing - Original Draft, Writing - Review & Editing.

Financial disclosure statement. Mandatory. Must list all funding sources and grant numbers. If there's no external funding, state "The author(s) received no specific funding for this work."

Competing interests statement. Mandatory. Enter it in the submission system and follow the in-system instructions to draft it; it is published with the article if accepted.

Ethics statement. Required if the study used human or animal subjects and/or tissue, and the statement in the submission form must exactly match the one in the manuscript. PLOS asks for the name of the approving committee, whether human-subject consent was written or oral, and the permit number(s) for animal research.

ORCID iDs. The corresponding author must provide an ORCID iD at the time of submission.

Abbreviations. Define abbreviations upon first appearance in the text. PLOS says not to use non-standard abbreviations unless they appear at least three times in the text, and to keep abbreviations to a minimum.

Heading structure. PLOS ONE asks for the title page, Abstract and Introduction first, then Materials and Methods, Results, Discussion and an optional Conclusions section, which can be renamed and presented in any order, followed by Acknowledgments, References and any supporting information captions. Limit sections and sub-sections to 3 heading levels.

No footnotes. PLOS ONE doesn't allow footnotes in the main text. All clarifying information should be moved into the main text or the reference list, depending on the content.

1. Separate figure files. PLOS ONE asks for the cover letter, manuscript, figures and supporting information as individual files. Do not include figures in the manuscript file.

1. Figure file naming. Files must be named Fig1.tif, Fig2.tif, etc. Not "Figure_1_final_v3.tif" or any other creative naming scheme.

1. Data Availability Statement goes in the submission system. It is entered in the Additional Information section of the submission form and is published with the article if accepted.

1. Vancouver references. Follow the ICMJE sample references, number references in the order they appear, and list the first six authors followed by et al. A DOI is acceptable as an alternative to or in addition to volume and page numbers.

1. No footnotes. This catches authors who habitually use footnotes for definitions or asides.

1. CRediT taxonomy for author contributions. Provide at least one contribution for each author in the submission system, using the CRediT role terms.

1. Short title is 100 characters max. The full title can run to 250 characters.

1. Line numbers. Required. Continuous numbering throughout the manuscript.

PLOS ONE is fully open access under a CC BY 4.0 license. An article processing charge (APC) is required upon acceptance.

The current PLOS ONE APC is $2,477 for a standard research article (PLOS lists $2,477 for all other articles). This is lower than most high-profile open-access journals (Science Advances charges roughly $5,450, for comparison). PLOS offers fee assistance programs for authors who can't pay, and ability to pay never influences editorial decisions.

For PLOS ONE-targeted manuscripts, three patterns consistently predict formatting desk-screen failure at PLOS ONE. The patterns below are the same ones the journal's handling editors and outside reviewers flag at first-pass triage.

Scope-fit ambiguity in the abstract. PLOS ONE editors move fastest on manuscripts whose contribution is obviously aligned with technically sound research evaluated on methodology rather than perceived novelty. The named failure pattern: manuscripts without explicit data-availability and code-availability statements get held at editor review. Check whether your abstract reads to PLOS ONE's scope

Methods package incomplete for the journal's reviewer pool. PLOS ONE reviewers expect specific methodological detail. Methodology sections that defer reproducibility detail to supplementary materials extend revision rounds. Check if your methods package is reviewer-complete

Reference-list and clean-citation failure mode. PLOS ONE's submission guidelines say submitted research should not rely upon retracted research and that retracted articles should not be cited unless needed to discuss retracted work. Check whether your reference list is clean against Crossref + Retraction Watch

Manusights submission-corpus signal for PLOS ONE. Of the manuscripts our team screened before submission to PLOS ONE and peer venues in 2025, the most consistent mismatch was with PLOS ONE's reproducibility-first review: manuscripts missing a data-availability statement get held in editor review.

For manuscripts targeting PLOS ONE, four patterns generate the most consistent desk-rejection outcomes.

Reporting checklist not submitted for clinical or observational studies. PLOS ONE expects reporting guidelines to be followed by study type. Clinical trials need a completed CONSORT checklist and the trial protocol as supporting information before peer review, and systematic reviews and meta-analyses need a PRISMA checklist and flow diagram as supporting information. Observational studies should conform to STROBE, and PLOS encourages an ARRIVE checklist for laboratory animal research. Submissions can be returned to authors for changes at the initial checks. PLOS ONE also requires ethics statements specifying the approving committee for research using human subjects or samples.

Data sharing policy not complied with. PLOS ONE requires that all data underlying the manuscript's findings be deposited in an appropriate public repository or included as Supporting Information; accession numbers or DOIs can be supplied at acceptance in some cases. The data availability statement must specify exactly where the data are available, with a direct link or accession number. "Available from the corresponding author upon request" is not accepted as a standard route, and an author cannot be the sole named contact for restricted data. This is one of the most common avoidable errors: authors who have not prepared their data for deposition should do so before submitting.

Study methodology critiqued as technically sound but novel contribution not articulated. PLOS ONE evaluates papers on technical soundness, not novelty or impact. However, editors still desk reject manuscripts where the technical execution does not meet basic scientific standards: inadequate controls, statistical methods not appropriate for the data, or a sample size with no power justification. The distinction is that PLOS ONE does not require the result to be surprising, but does require the methodology to be sound enough to support the stated conclusions.

Statistical analysis section missing or incomplete. PLOS ONE reviewers evaluate whether the choice of statistical tests is justified for the data type and distribution, whether assumptions are met, and whether the sample size is justified with a power calculation. Manuscripts that report p-values without specifying the test used, or that use parametric tests on non-normally distributed data without justification, are flagged for statistical revision.

A PLOS ONE formatting and readiness check evaluates manuscript structure, data availability compliance, and statistical methodology against these desk-rejection patterns before you submit.

Or see example reports before you finalize.