PLoS Biology is an American scientific journal covering the full spectrum of the biological sciences that began operation on October 13, 2003. It was the first journal of the Public Library of Science (PLoS) a non-profit organization which releases scientific content under open access terms. All content in PLoS Biology is published under the Creative Commons "by-attribution" licensel, abbreviated CCAL[1]. To fund the journal, the publication's business model requires that, in most cases, authors will pay publication costs.