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PLoS ONE Wins ALPSP Award for Publishing Innovation 2009 – "bold and successful and shaping the future of publishing"

On Sept 10th, 2009 the annual awards of the ALPSP (Association of Learned and Professional Society Publishers) were announced at their International Conference Dinner at the Oxford Belfry.

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We are extremely proud to say that PLoS ONE was presented with the 2009 award for Publishing Innovation. We blogged the award ceremony last week, but we now have the official Press Release and announcement from ALPSP.

In the Press Release, PLoS ONE was recognized as follows:

The winner was PLoS ONE from the Public Library of Science. This combines the traditional values of the journal with innovative online features to create an inclusive and efficient publication channel. It is bold and successful and shaping the future of publishing.

This award is made annually,

in recognition of a truly innovative approach to any aspect of publication. Applications are judged on their originality and innovative qualities, together with their utility, benefit to their community and long term prospects. Any area of innovation is eligible – it could, for example, be a novel type of print or online publication or service, or even a radically different approach to a marketing campaign.

PLoS ONE is proud to have won this prestigious award. The innovations that we have implemented have ranged from our innovative editorial criteria (which mean that all submissions are judged based purely on whether they deserve to join the scientific literature, and not on some subjective measure of ‘impact’ or ‘quality); our innovative features and functionality (such as our Commenting, Note Making and Rating functionalities); our innovative outreach to the community (via, for example, this blog, our twitter stream, our facebook page, our FriendFeed presence and our employment of an online discussion expert);  and our continuing innovation (for example, our article-level metrics program). However, it is not sufficient just to be innovative, you also have to be successful (!), and considering the fact that in just 3 years we have grown to become (currently) the 3rd largest journal in the world, I believe that PLoS ONE has demonstrated that we are not just innovative but also widely adopted and extremely successful – something this award confirms.

We thank the ALPSP for recognizing these qualities by presenting us with this award. Chair of the judging panel was Hazel Woodward (University Librarian & Director of Cranfield Press) and her fellow judges were Richard Gedye (Research Director, Oxford Journals), Geoffrey Bilder (Director of Strategic Initiatives, CrossRef), Ann Lawson (Publisher Relations Executive, EBSCO Information Services), Mark Ware (Director, Mark Ware Consulting) and Hugh Look (Senior Consultant, Rightscom).

From left to right - Lindsay King and Rebecca Walton (both Publishing Managers at PLoS ONE and with the journal since before launch), Lesley Ogg, Hazel Woodward
From left to right - Lindsay King and Rebecca Walton (both Publishing Managers at PLoS ONE and with the journal since before launch), Ann Lawson (EBSCO), Hazel Woodward (chair of the judges)

The award recognizes the contribution and efforts of many people, including all the staff who have worked on the journal since launch in 2006, our team of volunteer Academic Editors (who now number almost 900), all our authors, all our reviewers and of course all our readers. As the Managing Editor of PLoS ONE, I would like to take this opportunity to thank all of these people for the support and encouragement they have shown us and that they continue to show us.

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