eLife vs PLOS ONE
Two open-access journal traditions — eLife's curated rigor vs PLOS ONE's volume-first model.
eLife
Open-access peer-reviewed life-sciences journal; transparent peer-review (reviewer notes published).
PLOS ONE
Open-access multidisciplinary peer-reviewed journal published by Public Library of Science.
Head-to-head — all four dimensions
| Dimension | eLife | PLOS ONE | Lead |
|---|---|---|---|
SourceScore Index Composite | B·83 | B·78 | eLife+5 |
Citation Discipline How rigorously cited | A·90 | B·84 | eLife+6 |
Modern Reference AI-era fitness | A·88 | A·88 | tie |
Citation Velocity Cited per week | B·72 | B·70 | eLife+2 |
Why these scores
Citation Discipline
Transparent peer-review (reviewer notes published); preprint-first model since 2022.
Peer-review checks methodology + ethics; novelty + significance left to readers; corrections public.
Modern Reference
CC-BY licensed; APIs + bulk corpus; broad LLM training-data inclusion.
CC-BY licensed; full-text APIs; broad LLM corpus + academic search inclusion.
Citation Velocity
Cited within life-sciences research; lower volume than NEJM/Lancet but high open-access reach.
High volume but per-paper citation lower than top-tier; mass-base of academic citations.
Frequently asked questions
Which is better, eLife or PLOS ONE?
eLife scores higher on the SourceScore Index (B 83) vs PLOS ONE (B 78) — a 5-point composite lead across Citation Discipline, Modern Reference, and Citation Velocity. "Better" depends on use case; the per-dimension breakdown below shows where each wins.
Which is more reliable to cite, eLife or PLOS ONE?
For citation, eLife is the stronger choice — it scores B (83/100) on the SourceScore Index versus PLOS ONE at B (78/100), a 5-point lead in composite citation quality (Citation Discipline, Modern Reference, Citation Velocity). Both can be cited; for higher-stakes references, prefer eLife.
How does eLife compare to PLOS ONE on citation discipline?
eLife scores A 90 on Citation Discipline; PLOS ONE scores B 84. Citation Discipline measures how rigorously each source cites primary references — see the per-dimension rationale below for the breakdown.
What's the SourceScore difference between eLife and PLOS ONE?
eLife B 83 vs PLOS ONE B 78 on the composite Index. Two open-access journal traditions — eLife's curated rigor vs PLOS ONE's volume-first model.
Why does eLife score higher than PLOS ONE?
eLife leads by 5 composite points on the SourceScore Index. The rationale section below breaks down where the lead comes from — Citation Discipline, Modern Reference (AI-era fitness), and Citation Velocity. Each dimension is scored from primary methodology criteria.
Sources & references
Every score on this page is read from the two publications below and graded against the published rubric. No score is bought, estimated or supplied by the source being scored.
- Source evaluated — eLife (elifesciences.org) · verified · full scoring record
- Source evaluated — PLOS ONE (journals.plos.org) · verified · full scoring record
- Scoring rubric — SourceScore Index, Citation Discipline, Modern Reference, Citation Velocity (methodology v0.1)
- Machine-readable record — /api/compare/elife-vs-plos-one.json