PLOS Currents: Tree of Life is one of several PLOS Currents sites, which uses the Annotum platform to encourage open and rapid research communication in selected fields.

PLOS Currents: Tree of Life is a way to share results and ideas immediately while ensuring that they will be permanently archived and citable. The site provides immediate open access to all content, ensuring that authors reach the widest possible audience. The content is published under a Creative Commons Attribution License, enabling unrestricted distribution and use of the published materials, provided that its authors are properly credited. Every accepted submission will receive a permanent identifier that can be linked to and cited in other publications.

PLOS Currents: Tree of Life is a venue for the publication of phylogenetic research that informs our understanding of organismal evolution. The submissions do not have to be full-length articles and could, for example, describe analyses that provide support for existing relationships, large-scale analyses that provide an overview of many taxa, or a novel algorithm for estimating phylogenies. Submissions that report new or novel insights to relationships are also encouraged. The Editors also welcome synthetic papers on groups, particularly enigmatic groups (e.g., retroviruses) that present so many unique challenges to phylogenetics. Such submissions should not only articulate the challenges, but also potential solutions, to share views on where particular research fields might be heading.

The submissions are reviewed by a group of leading researchers in the field – the Board of Reviewers. The reviewers make a rapid determination as to whether a contribution is intelligible, relevant, ethical and scientifically credible, but will otherwise not impose restrictions on the nature, format or content of the contributions. Those submissions deemed appropriate are posted immediately at PLOS Currents: Tree of Life and publicly archived at PubMed Central.

It is assumed, and encouraged, that submissions will often report preliminary data and analyses, and it will be possible to revise contributions, for example in light of new data. Such revisions will also be subject to approval by Reviewer Board, and different versions of the same article will be identifiable and all versions will be archived and separately citable.

The content in PLOS Currents: Tree of Life is subject to the standard PLOS Terms of Use.

Please note, we have been experiencing technical difficulties with our submission system. If you have a technical issue with the submission process, please contact [email protected] with your manuscript title and a brief description of the issue.