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Collaboration with Microsoft Extends Article Visibility and Lifecycle

Sheryl P. Denker Open Access Technology

As part of ongoing efforts to improve discovery, reuse and impact of PLOS content, articles published by PLOS and available in PDF can be easily uploaded, discovered, shared and recombined on the new online service from Microsoft, Docs.com. This provides authors an environment to package their PLOS articles with related content post-publication – such as additional data or slides – thus extending the life of the article. In addition, exposing content through diverse venues enables the broader community to interact with PLOS content.

Docs.com from Microsoft allows individuals to create their own content collections around a particular theme or scientific topic. For example, users can now combine PLOS articles with PowerPoint presentations, Word documents, Excel spreadsheets, PDFs and links to websites, including discussion venues such as the PLOS Science Wednesday on redditscience Ask Me Anything series, to generate personalized, comprehensive and cohesive collections for easy sharing.

Microsoft reached out to PLOS to add quality scientific content to Docs.com in order to create an environment where scientists and the public see trusted work. Initially the top 400 articles from each PLOS journal by PubMed Central download metrics were uploaded to Docs.com to establish a foundation of diverse and highly regarded scientific content ready to discover and share. More articles will be added in the future. Anyone browsing Docs.com can easily discover PLOS content: a search using “science research” brings up PLOS articles with the option to like, share and add to a collection. PLOS collaborated with the Docs.com team to ensure that PLOS articles uploaded to the platform are clearly legible and maintain the integrity of the CrossMark badge. Clicking on the badge will direct viewers to the update status of the document.

This collaboration adds to the list of organizations such as Dryad and figshare working together with PLOS to increase the visibility, reach and reuse of Open Access content and to ensure that content lives beyond the publication. As the Docs.com platform develops, personal collections will be an interesting tool for scientists to curate pertinent and up-to-date content for online CVs, resumes and portfolios, journal clubs, group meetings and research collaborations.

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