These Payment Terms & Conditions (“Payment Terms”)  are a contract between you and Public Library of Science (“PLOS”) and govern your payment to PLOS for publishing on a PLOS Site.  “You” refers to authors who pay as an individual, institutions who pay on behalf of their authors, and consortia who pay on behalf of their institutions.  If you are an author, your publication with PLOS continues to be bound by PLOS’ Terms of Use, incorporated by reference herein.  Capitalized terms that are not defined in these Payment Terms have the meaning given to them in PLOS’ Terms of Use.

1. If you are an author, you agree to pay the applicable publication fee listed here. If you are an institution or consortium, you agree to pay the applicable fee based on the agreement negotiated between you and PLOS.  

2. All fees are denominated in U.S. currency. 

3. You are responsible for providing PLOS with accurate information when submitting payment.  PLOS will not issue any refund or credit to the extent the total amount charged is based on your failure to provide accurate information, through mistake or error.

4. The amounts charged to you may be subject to and include applicable taxes and fees, including withholding taxes. You are responsible for remitting any taxes that apply, which are based on the information you have provided. 

5. You represent and warrant that you have the legal right to use any payment method used by you in connection with making payment to PLOS .

6. If you submitted a paper to PLOS Biology, PLOS Medicine or PLOS Sustainability and Transformation, you will have the option to view a quote of your publication fee through the “View Publication Fees” button on Editorial Manager. By clicking on “View Publication Fees,”  you will be redirected to PLOS’ third-party service provider to perform payment processing (“Payment Agent”). If you accept the publication fee, you will receive a notification from our Payment Agent. Any payment processing will be subject to the terms and privacy policy of our Payment Agent, in addition to these Payment Terms. Our current Payment Agent is Copyright Clearance Center, Inc., and your payments are processed by our Payment Agent in accordance with the Payment Agent’s terms of service and privacy policy. PLOS may share transaction information (namely, the amount of payment due) with our Payment Agent, but not credit card information, which you provide to the Payment Agent directly and not to PLOS.  PLOS may replace its Payment Agent at any time.

7. If PLOS has agreed to take payment from you via cheque/wire transfer then you may make payments in that manner, provided that you hereby agree to the additional terms specified here. You can change your preferred payment method as provided for in PLOS’ invoice.

8. If you have a separate agreement with PLOS to make an advance payment, amounts prepaid are non-refundable except where required by law. PLOS does not offer banking services; accordingly, prepaid amounts do not earn interest, are not deposit obligations, and are not insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the Financial Services Compensation Scheme, or any other entity or insurance scheme, whether governmental or private.

9. For information on how we treat personally identifiable information, please read our Privacy Policy, which is hereby incorporated by reference.  Consistent with our Privacy Policy, we reserve the right to contact law enforcement or relevant third parties and share details of any payments you are associated with, if we believe doing so may prevent financial loss or a violation of law.

10. If you believe that a problematic transaction has taken place under your account, you agree to notify us immediately, so that we may take action to prevent financial loss.

11. You will indemnify and hold us harmless from and against any and all claims, costs, actions, suits, or demands and any related losses, damages, judgments, tax assessments, penalties, interest, and expenses (including without limitation reasonable attorneys’ fees) arising out of any claim, action, audit, investigation, inquiry, or other proceeding instituted by a person or entity that arises out of or relates to (a) any actual or alleged breach of your representations, warranties, or obligations set forth in these Payment Terms and (b) any transaction submitted by you to PLOS.

12. There may be countries that restrict or prohibit your ability to make payments to PLOS. Nothing in these Payment Terms should be read to override or circumvent any such foreign laws.

13. We may modify these Payment Terms at any time. If we amend material terms to this agreement, such amendment will be effective after we send you reasonable notice of the amended agreement. Such notice could include, for example, via email, posted notice on the plos.org website or Editorial Manager, or other manner. Your continued use of PLOS’ services after reasonable notice to you of any material changes to the Payment Terms or after non-material changes, constitutes acceptance of those changes. 

14. For consortia and institutions only: in the event of a conflict between these Payment Terms and your agreement with PLOS, your agreement with PLOS will govern.