Journal Information

An influential venue for research and commentary on the major challenges to human health worldwide, PLOS Medicine publishes articles of general interest on biomedical, environmental, social and political determinants of health. The journal emphasizes work that advances clinical practice, health policy or pathophysiological understanding to benefit health in a variety of settings.

PLOS Medicine is committed to upholding the highest ethical standards in medical publishing, including the management and disclosure of conflicts of interest in reporting, review, and publication; transparency in the review and publication process; data sharing and reuse of work; authors' retention of copyright; Open Access publication with no restrictions on availability and dissemination; and avoiding the conflicts of interest presented by advertising for drugs and medical devices and exclusive sale of reprints.

Scope

PLOS Medicine publishes articles relevant to clinicians, policymakers, and researchers across a range of settings that address the major biological, environmental, social, and political determinants of health. The editors make decisions on submissions based upon their potential to directly and substantially inform clinical practice or health policy, and their relevance to our international audience.

Articles given highest priority for publication are those that address conditions or risk factors that cause the greatest losses in years of healthy life and quality of life worldwide.

PLOS Medicine also seeks to publish articles in the area of translational medicine that provide substantial, novel mechanistic insights into disease processes, with potential implications for clinical care. Additionally PLOS Medicine considers articles on topics relating to the integrity and ethics of the research enterprise; the practice of medicine; and the application of research to practice to fall within its scope.

Contents

• Outstanding research articles in all areas of medicine and health, involving methodologies that may include clinical trials, systematic reviews/meta-analyses, epidemiology, diagnostic testing, predictive and explanatory modeling, cost-effectiveness research, qualitative studies, and clinically-focused translational research.

• Editorials are written by the PLOS Medicine editors on topics of general medical interest or journal policy.
• Perspectives discuss the clinical practice or public health implications of a PLOS Medicine study, or timely clinical and health topics or research studies published elsewhere.
• The Policy Forum section provides a platform for health policymakers from around the world to discuss the challenges and opportunities in improving health care to their constituencies.
• The Guidelines and Guidance section contains advice on conducting and reporting medical research.

Criteria for Publication

PLOS Medicine is highly selective; approximately 10% of initial submissions ultimately progress to published articles. As of early 2017, PLOS Medicine invited full submissions from about 20% of initial submissions and published approximately 50% of full submissions as research articles. For manuscripts taken forward for in-depth consideration, PLOS Medicine applies rigorous editorial and peer review overseen by a team of professional editors and, in the case of research articles, an independent academic editor expert in the field.

In addition to being ethically conducted and scientifically valid, research published in PLOS Medicine should fulfill each of the following criteria:

1. The research question is an important one to the community of researchers in this general area.
2. The results provide a substantial advance over existing knowledge, with clear implications for patient care, public policy, or clinical research agendas.
3. Published together with an Author Summary written for general readers, the article is of interest to clinicians and policymakers who are not specialists in this topic.

Editorial Oversight

Competing Interests

The PLOS Medicine editors are paid a fixed salary (in particular, their salary is not linked to the number of articles published in the journal). Editors are required to declare all relevant competing interests and do not participate in the review of any submission for which they have a competing interest. Read the editors’ competing interests declarations.

Submit Your Manuscript

For more information about submitting to PLOS Medicine, read our checklist for getting started and our guidelines for preparing a submission.

Indexing and Archiving

All PLOS journals are widely indexed by major services such as Crossref, Dimensions, DOAJ, Google Scholar, PubMed, PubMed Central, Scopus, and Web of Science.

PLOS Medicine is also indexed by the following services to ensure research content is accessible and discoverable as widely as possible: AGRICOLA, Biological Abstracts, BIOSYS Previews, CABI CAB Abstracts, CABI Global Health, CAPES, CAS, CNKI, Embase, Journal Guide, and MEDLINE.

• See publishing details for all PLOS journal titles, including ISSN and indexing and archiving information.

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.

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.