PLoS ONE is quite a reputable journal, one which some people prefer for philosophical reasons (open access). Without knowing the submission history of this pap

PLoS ONE is quite a reputable journal, one which some people prefer for philosophical reasons (open access). Without knowing the submission history of this paper or talking with referees in the big name journals, it's hard to know whether or not they submitted this to one of the other journals and simply didn't get accepted.