Listen to PLOS Papers
Turn any PLOS article into audio. Open the paper on journals.plos.org in Chrome, click CastReader, and listen through the abstract and body — paragraph highlighted as the voice reads. Every PLOS paper is open access, so no paywall issues.
Why Listen to PLOS with CastReader?
PLOS journals are the open-access gold standard. CastReader makes them audio-gold.
Whole Family
Every PLOS Journal
PLOS One, PLOS Biology, PLOS Medicine, PLOS Genetics, PLOS Computational Biology, PLOS Pathogens, PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases, PLOS Climate, and the newer PLOS titles. They all render consistently, and CastReader handles them all.
No Paywall
Everything PLOS Publishes Is Open
PLOS was built on the open-access model — every article is free to read in full, no institutional login required. Open any paper, hit play, and listen to the whole thing. This is the cleanest possible audio workflow for biomedical research.
Follow Along
Paragraph Highlighting + Citation Stripping
Each paragraph highlights as the voice reads. Inline [1][2] citation markers are stripped so the audio flows. Figure and table captions are read inline; images are skipped. Clean, referenceable audio out of a clean, referenceable journal.
100% Free
Listen to Ioannidis in the Shower
No signup, no subscription, no quota. The most-cited PLOS papers ('Why Most Published Research Findings Are False', 'Estimating the reproducibility of psychological science', etc.) are all fair game for audio-first reading.
Frequently Asked Questions
Everything about listening to PLOS papers with CastReader
How do I listen to a PLOS paper?
Open the article on journals.plos.org in Chrome (URL looks like journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.XXXXXXX). Click the CastReader icon. It reads from the title through the abstract and body.
Does CastReader read figure captions?
Yes. Figure and table captions are read inline because they're prose. The figure images and table data are skipped — audio can't represent those. If you need to look at Figure 2, the paragraph highlighting tells you where the voice currently is.
Which PLOS journals are supported?
Every journal on journals.plos.org — PLOS One, PLOS Biology, PLOS Medicine, PLOS Genetics, PLOS Computational Biology, PLOS Pathogens, PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases, PLOS Climate, PLOS Digital Health, PLOS Water, PLOS Sustainability and Transformation, PLOS Mental Health. They share one rendering template.
Are PLOS papers really fully free?
Yes. PLOS is 100% open access — every paper it publishes is free to read without institutional access or subscription. That makes it the cleanest source for listening, since you always get full text.
Are citation markers read out?
No. Inline citation markers like [1, 2] and superscript numbers are stripped so the audio flows cleanly. The References section is not read — use the visual version if you want to follow citations.
Can I adjust reading speed?
Yes. 0.5x through 3x. PLOS papers are generally well-written; most users comfortably do 1.5x for intro and discussion.
Is it free? Any limits?
Completely free with no page or character limits. No account needed. CastReader is a free browser extension for Chrome and Edge.
Does the extension work on PLOS preprint server (PLOS PREreview)?
The main PLOS landing (journals.plos.org) is where this page targets. For preprints, use /listen-to-biorxiv — PLOS preprints link out to bioRxiv and medRxiv for life sciences submissions.
Start Listening to PLOS
Completely free. No signup. No limits. Install CastReader and open any PLOS paper.