Cookie policy
Updated on January 22nd, 2025
Introduction
We are the Public Library of Science (“PLOS”). This Cookie Policy describes the types of cookies and other tracking technologies we use on the PLOS website, our purposes and basis for using them, and your choices regarding them.
If you have questions about this Cookie Policy, please contact us at privacy@plos.org or send mail to:
Public Library of Science
Attn: Privacy
1875 Mission Street
Suite 103 #188
San Francisco, CA 94103
Cookies and other tracking technologies
Background
PLOS and our third-party partners, such as analytics and advertising partners, use cookies and other tracking technologies to collect certain information. Cookies and other tracking technologies are used to distinguish you from other users on the PLOS website. This helps us provide you with a good experience when you browse our website and allows us to improve our site, analyze the use of our site, and deliver targeted advertising based on your browsing history on our site and other websites. A cookie is a small file of letters and numbers that are stored on your device.
PLOS uses both first party and third-party cookies. First party cookies are served directly by us to your computer or device. Third-party cookies are served by a third party on our behalf. Cookies can be “persistent” or “session” based. Persistent cookies remain on your device after your browser is closed. Session cookies are deleted automatically once your browser is closed. PLOS uses both persistent and session cookies.
We also use technologies that are similar to cookies, such as tags and pixels. Tags are small portions of code which we use on the PLOS website to learn whether you have clicked on certain web content. A pixel is a similar type of technology used on the PLOS website for the purpose of counting the number of views for each of its published articles. Pixels are sent directly to our servers or to the third-party platform which has provided the pixel.
For the rest of this policy, “cookies” refer to both cookies and other tracking technologies.
Types of Cookies
PLOS uses strictly necessary cookies and optional cookies, as follows:- Strictly necessary.Use of these cookies are required as they are essential to operating the PLOS website and necessary for us to operate certain features and maintain the security of the PLOS website.
- Optional cookies.
- For functionality. Use of these cookies help operate the PLOS website by, for example, remembering your preferences so that you can navigate the PLOS website efficiently.
- For performance and analytics. Use of these cookies analyze how the PLOS website is accessed, used, or performing to improve your user experience and to maintain, operate and continually improve the website.
- For marketing. Use of these cookies deliver contextual advertisements on the PLOS website and other websites and help us and third parties serve you targeted advertisements based on your browsing history on our website and other websites which may be tracked across different devices.
List of Cookies, Purpose, and Storage Periods
Below is a list of cookies on the PLOS website, information about the cookie provider, type of cookie, its purpose, and its storage period.
First Party
| Cookie | Provider Information | Type | Storage Period | Purpose |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| JSESSIONID | PLOS, USA | Strictly necessary | Session | Manages a user’s authentication and session |
| plos-device-detected | PLOS, USA | Strictly necessary | 2 Hours | Manages display of desktop and mobile interfaces |
| CASTGC | Google LLC, 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway Mountain View, CA 94043 USA Privacy Policy | Strictly necessary | Session | Ticket-granting cookie to support authentication and single sign-on. |
| CSRF-TOKEN | PLOS, USA | Strictly necessary | Session | Cross Site Request Forgery Token for site security. |
| flanders_session | PLOS, USA | Strictly necessary | Session | Reduces database calls by remembering data about the user as they click between pages on the PLOS website. |
| plosDataLinkSurveyHush | PLOS, USA | Strictly Necessary | 24 Hours | Manages the number of times users are asked to opt-in to a survey. |
Third-Party
| Cookie | Provider Information | Type | Storage Period | Purpose |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| IDE | Google Ads (Google LLC), 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway Mountain View, CA 94043 USA Privacy Policy | Marketing | 2 Years | Used by Google DoubleClick to register and report the website user’s actions after viewing or clicking one of the advertiser’s ads and present targeted ads. |
| NID | Google Ads (Google LLC), 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway Mountain View, CA 94043 USA Privacy Policy | Marketing | 6 Months | Registers a unique ID that identifies a returning user’s device. Used for targeted ads. |
| 1P_JAR | Google Ads (Google LLC), 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway Mountain View, CA 94043 USA Privacy Policy | Marketing | 30 Days | Remembers preferences. |
| gid | Google Ads (Google LLC), 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway Mountain View, CA 94043 USA Privacy Policy | Performance and Analytics | 2 Years | Collects information about how visitors use our website. Used to compile reports and improve the website. |
| ga | Google Ads (Google LLC), 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway Mountain View, CA 94043 USA Privacy Policy | Performance and Analytics | 2 Years | Collects information about how visitors use our website. Used to compile reports and improve the website. |
| gads | Google Ads (Google LLC), 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway Mountain View, CA 94043 USA Privacy Policy | Marketing | 1 Year | Collects information about how visitors use our website. Used to compile reports and improve the website. |
| GCLB | Google Cloud (Google LLC), 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway Mountain View, CA 94043 USA Privacy Policy | Strictly Necessary | Session | Maintains continuity of session when IP addresses may change. |
| dc_gtm | Google Analytics (Google LLC), 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway Mountain View, CA 94043 USA Privacy Policy | Performance and Analytics | 1 Minute | Collects information about how visitors use our website. Used to compile reports and improve the website. |
| gat_master | Google Analytics (Google LLC), 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway Mountain View, CA 94043 USA Privacy Policy | Performance and Analytics | 1 Minute | Collects information about how visitors use our website. |
| personalization_id | Twitter (Twitter, Inc.), 1355 Market St #900, San Francisco, CA 94103 Privacy Policy | Functional | 2 Years | Enables Twitter integration and social media sharing. |
| wordpress_test_cookie | WordPress (Automattic, Inc.), 60 29th Street #343, San Francisco, CA 94110 USA Privacy Policy | Strictly Necessary | Session | Tests whether WordPress can place cookies. Does not identify the user. |
| gat_journalsMaster | Google Analytics (Google LLC), 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway Mountain View, CA 94043 USA Privacy Policy | Performance and Analytics | 1 Minute | Collects information about how visitors use our website. |
| _ceir, is_returning | Crazy Egg, 16220 Ridgeview Ln La Mirada, CA 90638, USA Privacy Policy | Performance and Analytics | 1 Year | Tracks whether a visitor has visited the site before. |
| _CEFT | Crazy Egg, 16220 Ridgeview Ln La Mirada, CA 90638, USA Privacy Policy | Performance and Analytics | 1 Year | Stores page variants assigned to visitors for A/B performance testing. |
| _cer.s | Crazy Egg, 16220 Ridgeview Ln La Mirada, CA 90638, USA Privacy Policy | Performance and Analytics | Session | Tracks a recording visitor session unique ID, host, and start time. |
| _cer.v | Crazy Egg, 16220 Ridgeview Ln La Mirada, CA 90638, USA Privacy Policy | Performance and Analytics | Up to 31 Days | Tracks whether a visitor has visited the site before. |
| _ce.s | Crazy Egg, 16220 Ridgeview Ln La Mirada, CA 90638, USA Privacy Policy | Performance and Analytics | 1 Year | Tracks a recording visitor session unique ID, host, and start time. |
| _ce.cch | Crazy Egg, 16220 Ridgeview Ln La Mirada, CA 90638, USA Privacy Policy | Performance and Analytics | 1 Second | Used to check if cookies can be added. |
| _ce.gtld | Crazy Egg, 16220 Ridgeview Ln La Mirada, CA 90638, USA Privacy Policy | Performance and Analytics | 1 Second | Used to identify the top-level domain. |
| ce_need_secure_cookie | Crazy Egg, 16220 Ridgeview Ln La Mirada, CA 90638, USA Privacy Policy | Performance and Analytics | 1 Second | Used to determine cookie security parameters. |
| ce_successful_csp_check | Crazy Egg, 16220 Ridgeview Ln La Mirada, CA 90638, USA Privacy Policy | Performance and Analytics | 24 Hours | Determines if the page has a Content Security Policy rule that would prevent tracking. |
| __hs_opt_out | HubSpot, Inc. Two Canal Park, Cambridge, MA 02141 USA privacy@hubspot.com | Necessary | 6 month | This cookie is used by the opt-in privacy policy to remember not to ask the visitor to accept cookies again. |
| __hs_do_not_track | HubSpot, Inc. Two Canal Park, Cambridge, MA 02141 USA privacy@hubspot.com | Necessary | 6 month | This cookie can be set to prevent the tracking code from sending any information to HubSpot. |
| __hs_initial_opt_in | HubSpot, Inc. Two Canal Park, Cambridge, MA 02141 USA privacy@hubspot.com | Necessary | 7 days | This cookie is used to prevent the banner from always displaying when visitors are browsing in strict mode. |
| __hs_cookie_cat_pref | HubSpot, Inc. Two Canal Park, Cambridge, MA 02141 USA privacy@hubspot.com | Necessary | 6 months | This cookie is used to record the categories a visitor consented to. |
| __hs_gpc_banner_dismiss | HubSpot, Inc. Two Canal Park, Cambridge, MA 02141 USA privacy@hubspot.com | Necessary | 180 days | This cookie is used when the Global Privacy Control banner is dismissed. |
| __hs_notify_banner_dismiss | HubSpot, Inc. Two Canal Park, Cambridge, MA 02141 USA privacy@hubspot.com | Necessary | 180 days | This cookie is used when the website uses a Notify consent banner type. |
| hs_ab_test | HubSpot, Inc. Two Canal Park, Cambridge, MA 02141 USA privacy@hubspot.com | Necessary | End of the session | This cookie is used to consistently serve visitors the same version of an A/B test page they’ve seen before. |
| _key | HubSpot, Inc. Two Canal Park, Cambridge, MA 02141 USA privacy@hubspot.com | Necessary | 14 days | When visiting a password-protected page, this cookie is set so future visits to the page from the same browser do not require login again. |
| __hsmem | HubSpot, Inc. Two Canal Park, Cambridge, MA 02141 USAprivacy@hubspot.com | Necessary | 7 days | This cookie is set when visitors log in to a HubSpot-hosted site. It contains encrypted data that identifies the membership user when they are currently logged in. |
| hs-membership-csrf | HubSpot, Inc. Two Canal Park, Cambridge, MA 02141 USA privacy@hubspot.com | Necessary | End of the session | This cookie is used to ensure that content membership logins cannot be forged. |
| __cfruid | HubSpot, Inc. Two Canal Park, Cambridge, MA 02141 USA privacy@hubspot.com Cloudflare, Inc. 101 Townsend St. San Francisco, CA 94107 dpo@cloudflare.com | Necessay | End of the session | This cookie is set by HubSpot’s CDN provider because of their rate limiting policies. Learn more about Cloudflare cookies. |
| __cfuvid | HubSpot, Inc. Two Canal Park, Cambridge, MA 02141 USA privacy@hubspot.com Cloudflare, Inc. 101 Townsend St. San Francisco, CA 94107 dpo@cloudflare.com | Necessay | End of the session | This cookie is set by HubSpot’s CDN provider because of their rate limiting policies. Learn more about Cloudflare cookies. |
| __cf_bm | HubSpot, Inc. Two Canal Park, Cambridge, MA 02141 USA privacy@hubspot.com Cloudflare, Inc. 101 Townsend St. San Francisco, CA 94107 dpo@cloudflare.com | Necessary | 30 minutes | This cookie is set by HubSpot’s CDN provider and is a necessary cookie for bot protection. Learn more about Cloudflare cookies. |
| __hstc | HubSpot, Inc. Two Canal Park, Cambridge, MA 02141 USA privacy@hubspot.com | Performance and analytics | 6 months | The main cookie for tracking visitors. |
| hubspotutk | HubSpot, Inc. Two Canal Park, Cambridge, MA 02141 USA privacy@hubspot.com | Performance and analytics | 6 months | This cookie keeps track of a visitor’s identity. It is passed to HubSpot on form submission and used when deduplicating contacts. |
| __hssc | HubSpot, Inc. Two Canal Park, Cambridge, MA 02141 USA privacy@hubspot.com | Performance and analytics | 6 months | This cookie keeps track of sessions. |
| __hssrc | HubSpot, Inc. Two Canal Park, Cambridge, MA 02141 USA privacy@hubspot.com | Performance and analytics | End of the session | Whenever HubSpot changes the session cookie, this cookie is also set to determine if the visitor has restarted their browser |
Legal Basis for Use of Cookies
PLOS uses cookies under the following legal basis:- PLOS’s legitimate interests (for users in the EU: Art. 6 (1) (f) GDPR). We use strictly necessary cookies based on PLOS’ legitimate interests. This includes:
- to enable PLOS to provide our products and services to you, including website features
- the legitimate interests of others, for example, to ensure the security of our website
- to prevent fraud and other illegal activity.
- Consent (for users in the EU: Art. 6 (1) (a) GDPR). We place optional cookies on the basis of your consent, which you may withdraw at any time after giving it, as described in this Cookie Policy.
How to Manage Cookies
Withdrawing Consent
If you do not wish to accept optional cookies in connection with your use of the PLOS website or wish to withdraw your consent, you can opt out by clicking on Cookie Preferences.
Browser Settings
To opt-out of our use of necessary cookies, you can change your browser settings to stop accepting cookies or to prompt you before accepting cookies from websites you visit. You can delete cookies in your browser settings at any time. Please note that by not accepting cookies, some pages may not fully function, and you may not be able to access certain information on the PLOS website.
“Do-Not-Track”
PLOS does not track users over time and across third party websites to provide targeted advertising and therefore does not respond to Do Not Track (DNT) signals. Third parties that have content embedded on the PLOS website such as social sharing features may set cookies on a user’s browser and/or obtain information about the fact that a web browser visited a specific PLOS website from a certain IP address.
Google Analytics
For information on how Google Analytics collects and processes data, visit www.google.com/policies/privacy/partners/. To opt-out of Google Analytics, visit Google’s “How you can control the information collected by Google on these sites and apps” article available here.
Crazy Egg
For information on how Crazy Egg collects and processes data, visit https://www.crazyegg.com/privacy#use_of_cookies. To opt-out of Crazy Egg, visit “I don’t want to be tracked by Crazy Egg” article available here.
Changes to this policy
Any changes we may make to this Cookie Policy in the future will be posted on this page.