It is the first journal published by the Public Library of Science.

[1] In addition to research articles, the journal publishes magazine content aimed to be accessible to a broad audience.

Article types in this section are essays, "unsolved mysteries", editorials, and synopses.

[9] The journal does not list this impact factor on its website.

[10] Instead, the journal promotes the use of article level metrics to provide a measure of the impact of their published articles.