Gates Foundation and PLOS Partnership

Gates-funded researchers can now publish in PLOS journals without paying article processing charges (APCs).  The Gates Foundation is proud to support PLOS with a $3.3 million grant to accelerate its transition away from traditional article processing charges (APCs). Through this three-year partnership (2025–2027), we aim to remove financial barriers for researchers we fund, allowing them to publish in any PLOS journal without incurring APCs. This collaboration reflects our shared commitment to fostering a more equitable and open publishing ecosystem that supports global access to knowledge.

How Gates-Funded Authors Can Participate:

To benefit from the APC-free publishing under this program, authors must:

• Have research funded in part or in whole by the Gates Foundation
• Include a valid Gates Foundation grant number
• Submit articles accepted between January 1, 2025 and December 31, 2027

Importantly: The corresponding or submitting author does not need to be the grant recipient—any co-author may hold the funding, as long as the funding is properly declared.

To Indicate Gates Funding During the PLOS Submission Workflow:
(From PLOS Customer Support)

All PLOS journals are included under Gates Foundation PLOS Grant. To qualify, the author's article must be accepted between 1st January 2025 and 31st December 2027, declare funding from the Foundation, and reference the valid grant number. This information must be entered at two separate stages of the submission workflow:

Financial Disclosure

When the author reaches the ‘Additional Information’ part of the manuscript submission workflow, they must use this section to name the Gates Foundation as a funder of the research. Please note, this field is free-text and will be included on the final published article.

Funding Information and Grant Number

The final section of the submission process is entitled ‘Manuscript Details’. In the ‘Funding Information’ section, please use the ‘Add a Funding Source’ button to find and select the Gates Foundation from the list, as applicable. Authors will be asked to provide a valid grant number in this section. Please ensure they use the ‘Award Number’ free text field to provide a grant number in full. Without a valid grant number, publication fees will not be covered and will be payable by the author.

The final step of the submission process is a review of the expected publication fee. If the author has completed all details required, and their submission is recognized as eligible for coverage by this PLOS grant, they will be shown a publication fee quote of $0. This confirms that, if accepted, the publication fee will be covered in full by the Gates Foundation grant. If they have not entered a grant ID, they will be prompted to do so again at this step.

For questions about the submission process, please contact [e-mail]

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