Journal Information
Mission
PLOS Digital Health drives transformation in the delivery of equitable and unbiased healthcare through ethically conducted, impactful, immediately accessible research from our diverse community of engineers, clinicians and researchers, as well as social scientists and industry leaders, from around the world.
Scope
PLOS Digital Health is an interdisciplinary Open Access journal publishing boundary-breaking original academic and clinical research that uses open science practices, digital tools, technologies, and data science to significantly advance human health and health care.
This community-driven journal reflects the full breadth of the digital health research environment, including social and ethical issues, with a strong focus on public health and big data management; including but not limited to, e-health, medical imaging and diagnostics, fairness and health disparities as outcomes from digital health research, patient accessibility and behavior, and precision medicine.
We publish primary research articles, commissioned opinions and reviews that explore digital health tools, methods, data and curation that advance health care technologies and decision-making or broaden accessible, effective care options for diverse communities around the world. Submissions describing methods, software, databases, or other tools that meet the journal’s criteria for advance, utility, validation, and availability are also welcomed.
Contents
PLOS Digital Health features engaging primary Research Articles, and Reviews, Opinions, and Editorials.
Criteria for Publication
To be considered for publication in PLOS Digital Health, any given manuscript must satisfy the following criteria:
- Originality
- High importance and broad interest to community of researchers, engineers and clinicians working in the field of digital health
- High methodological rigor and ethical standards
- Substantial evidence for its conclusions
- Clearly outlined utility and accessibility for the broader community
- Follow appropriate standards and practice of open science
Scientists commonly refer to research as “scooped” when independent groups working on the same topic reach similar conclusions and one group publishes the results first. Although originality is one criterion for studies published in PLOS Digital Health, “scooped” manuscripts that confirm, replicate, extend, or are complementary to a recently published, significant advance are still eligible for consideration in PLOS Digital Health. The complementary manuscript must present equally or more rigorous findings than the published study and any submission must also meet the criteria for publication listed above. Authors of the complementary work have six months after the first article’s publication date to submit their manuscript to PLOS Digital Health. Studies must be performed comprehensively, and preliminary placeholder studies will not be considered.
Editorial Oversight
PLOS Digital Health is run by an international Editorial Board, headed by the Editor-in-Chief and supported by the Managing Editor.
Editor-in-Chief
Editorial Board
View the PLOS Digital Health Editorial Board.
Submit Your Manuscript
For more information about submitting to PLOS Digital Health, read our guidelines for preparing a submission.
Publication Fees
PLOS employs several business models to support equitable Open Access. A full list of our publication fees, funding initiatives and fee assistance information is available here.
Open Access
PLOS applies the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license to works we publish. Under this license, authors agree to make articles legally available for reuse, without permission or fees, for virtually any purpose. Anyone may copy, distribute, or reuse these articles, as long as the author and original source are properly cited. Learn more.
Journal Impact and Article Metrics
PLOS does not consider Impact Factor to be a reliable or useful metric to assess the performance of individual articles. PLOS supports DORA – the San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment – and does not promote our journal Impact Factors. We will provide the metric to individuals when specifically requested.
PLOS promotes the use of Article-Level Metrics (ALMs), which enable scientists and the general public to engage more dynamically with published research. ALMs reflect the changing impact of research over time, incorporate academic as well as social impacts of research, and assess the impact of research before the accrual of academic citations. Read more about ALMs.
Indexing and Archiving
To ensure research is widely accessible and discoverable, PLOS submits all of our titles to major indexing services for evaluation as soon as possible according to the schedule of the specific service. PLOS Digital Health began publishing its first articles in January 2022 and is currently indexed by the services listed below:
CABI Global Health, CAPES, CNKI, Dimensions, DOAJ, EconBiz, Google Scholar, J-Global, PubMed, PubMed Central and Scopus.
We are continuing to work with services such as Web of Science and MEDLINE, and will update the list above as soon as the journal is indexed.
- See publishing details for all PLOS journal titles, including ISSN and indexing and archiving information.
PLOS
PLOS is a nonprofit, Open Access publisher empowering researchers to accelerate progress in science and medicine by leading a transformation in research communication.
Contact
Visit the Contact page for details about whom to contact with different queries.