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10 Facts about 10 Simple Rules

You are already intrigued, thinking “rules…for what???” There are MANY lists of 10 rules, thanks to a long-running series of articles from PLOS Computational Biology entitled,“10 Simple Rules.” Here are ten reasons to check it out.

  1. To date, there are eighty-four “Ten Simple Rules” articles by multiple authors. According to the editors, the series “provide a quick, concentrated guide for mastering some of the professional challenges research scientists face in their careers.”
  2. The first article in this series was published on October 28, 2005: “Ten Simple Rules for Getting Published.” The most recent article was published on December 7, 2017: “Ten Simple Rules for International Short-Term Research Stays.” That’s twelve years of articles!
  3. Topics in the series cover “everything you always wanted to know about science (but perhaps were afraid to ask),” including “Ten Simple Rules for…”: “Getting Grants,” “a Good Poster Presentation,” “Choosing between Industry and Academia,” “Building and Maintaining a Scientific Reputation,” and “Starting a Company.”
  4. Each article compiles the ten rules in an easy-to-read list next to the main text, allows for comments, and provides related content.
  5. All of the articles include metrics. For example, “Ten Simple Rules for Taking Advantage of Git and GitHub,” has 22,166 Views, 7 Citations, 249 Saves, and 219 Shares.
  6. The most viewed article, “Ten Simple Rules for Writing a Literature Review,” has 972,853 views. Even the least viewed article, “Ten Simple Rules for Successfully Completing a Graduate Degree in Latin America,” has 2,883 views, and it was just published September 2017.
  7. “Ten Simple Rules” articles are freely accessible in PubMed Central.
  8. The series is one of many collections curated by PLOS—the Public Library of Science. The PLOS Collections are broadly categorized into six topics: Biology & Life Sciences, Medicine & Health Sciences, Research Analysis & Science Policy, Computer & Information Sciences, Earth & Environmental Sciences, and Physics, Chemistry, & Materials Science.
  9. “Ten Simple Rules” is part of the Research Analysis & Science Policy Collection, which includes topics such as “Open Data” and “The Missing Pieces: A Collection of Negative, Null, and Inconclusive Results.”
  10. Interested in writing your own “Ten Simple Rules” article? Be sure to read “Ten Simple Rules for Writing a PLOS Ten Simple Rules Article” (which helped with facts three and six), including information for potential authors.

~Carrie Iwema