The PLOS Search Fields are mostly self explanatory, though some names have special suffixes:
- Fields ending with _date require a beginning date/time and an end date/time
- publication_date:[2009-12-07T00:00:00Z TO 2013-02-20T23:59:59Z] searches the range Dec 7, 2009 to Feb 20, 2013 and, because of the requested timestamps (between the T andZ), includes content published during either of those days
| PLOS Search Field Name | Description | Note |
| id | DOI (Digital Object Identifier) | Extended for partial documents |
| everything | All text in the article | Includes Meta information |
| title | Article Title | |
| title_display | Article Title | For display purposes only |
| alternate_title | Alternative Title | |
| author | Author | Can have multiple values |
| author_display | Author | For display purposes only |
| author_without_collab_display | Author | For display purposes only. All the authors except for collaborative authors |
| author_collab_only_display | Author | For display purposes only. Collaborative authors only |
| abstract | Abstract section | |
| abstract_primary_display | Abstract section | For display purposes only. Primary abstract only |
| introduction | Introduction section | |
| materials_and_methods | Materials and Methods section | |
| results_and_discussion | Results and discussion section | |
| conclusions | Conclusions section | |
| supporting_information | Supporting Information section | |
| reference | Reference section | Can have multiple values |
| body | Most sections of the article | Without Abstract or References |
| publication_date | Publication Date | Requires start and end date |
| received_date | Received Date | Requires start and end date |
| accepted_date | Accepted Date | Requires start and end date |
| journal | Full Journal Name | |
| volume | Volume | |
| issue | Issue | |
| article_type | Article Type | |
| subject | Subject Category | Can have multiple values. The most recent subject categories are listed at the PLOS ONE taxonomy. |
| subject_level_1 | Subject Category | Can have multiple values. Contains only the top level subjects. The most recent subject categories are listed at the PLOS ONE taxonomy. |
| eissn | electronic ISSN | |
| pissn | print ISSN | |
| elocation_id | Electronic Location | Used by Pub Med Central |
| journal_id_pmc | Journal ID at PMC | Used by Pub Med Central |
| journal_id_nlm_ta | Journal ID at NLM | Used by the National Library of Medicine |
| journal_id_publisher | Publisher of this Journal | Short identifier |
| publisher | Publisher of this Article | Full name |
| pagecount | Total number of pages | Not all articles have page count |
| editor | Editor | Can have multiple values |
| editor_display | Editor | For display purposes only. |
| affiliate | Affiliate | Can have multiple values |
| author_notes | Author Notes | |
| competing_interest | Competing Interest Statement | |
| financial_disclosure | Financial Disclosure Statement | |
| counter_total_all | Total views, all time | |
| counter_total_month | Total views, last 30 days | |
| timestamp | Time of last index | |
| copyright | copyright-statement | copyright information |
| figure_table_caption | Figure and table captions | |
| PLOS-specific indexes for articles that appear in multiple journals | ||
| cross_published_journal_name | Cross Published Journal Name | |
| cross_published_journal_key | Cross Published Journal Key | |
| cross_published_journal_eissn | Cross Published Journal EISSN | |