About PLoS Medicine

PLoS Medicine is the leading open-access medical journal, providing an innovative and influential venue for research and comment on the major challenges to human health worldwide. We specifically seek to publish papers which have relevance across a range of settings and that address the major environmental, social, and political determinants of health, as well as the biological.

Open Access

The Public Library of Science (PLoS) applies the Creative Commons Attribution License (CCAL) to all works we publish. Under the CCAL, authors retain ownership of the copyright for their article, but authors allow anyone to download, reuse, reprint, modify, distribute, and/or copy articles in PLoS journals, so long as the original authors and source are cited. No permission is required from the authors or the publishers.

Publication Charges

To provide open access, PLoS journals use a business model in which our expenses—including those of peer review, journal production, and online hosting and archiving—are recovered in part by charging a publication fee to the authors or research sponsors for each article they publish. For PLoS Medicine the publication fee is US$2900. Authors who are affiliated with one of our Institutional Members are eligible for a discount on this fee.

We offer a complete or partial fee waiver for authors who do not have funds to cover publication fees. Editors and reviewers have no access to payment information, and hence inability to pay will not influence the decision to publish a paper.

For further information, see our Publication Fee FAQ.

About the Public Library of Science

The Public Library of Science (PLoS) is a non-profit organization of scientists and physicians committed to making the world's scientific and medical literature a freely available public resource. For more information about PLoS, visit www.plos.org.

PLoS Medicine (eISSN 1549-1676 ISSN-1549-1277) is published weekly online by PLoS. The inaugural issue was published on 19 October 2004.

Further Reading

• The PLoS Medicine Editors (2009) A Medical Journal for the World's Health Priorities. PLoS Med 6(4): e1000072. doi:10.1371/journal.pmed.1000072
• The PLoS Medicine Editors (2004) Prescription for a Healthy Journal. PLoS Med 1(1): e22.
• Eisen MB, Brown PO, Varmus HE (2004) PLoS Medicine—A Medical Journal for the Internet Age. PLoS Med 1(1): e31.
• Frequently Asked Questions about PLoS Medicine
• Why publish in PLoS Medicine

Scope

PLoS Medicine gives the highest priority to papers on the conditions and risk factors that cause the greatest losses in years of healthy life worldwide. For a guide to the conditions and risk factors that we prioritize, see Tables 1.1 and 1.2 of Global Burden of Disease and Risk Factors.

Within these priority areas we make decisions based on whether papers are likely to directly and substantially affect clinical practice or public health policy, or have implications of broad general interest for the direction of future, directly clinically relevant research. In addition, we seek to publish papers that address important topics in the ethics and reporting of medical research.

References

• Lopez AD, Mathers CD, Ezzati M, Jamison DT, Murray CJL (2006) Global Burden of Disease and Risk Factors. New York: The World Bank and Oxford University Press.
• World Health Organization (2004) The global burden of disease. Deaths and DALYs 2004: Annex tables. Available: http://www.who.int/healthinfo/global_burden_disease/GBD_report_2004update_AnnexA.pdf. Accessed 27 March 2009.
• Mathers CD, Loncar D (2006) Projections of global mortality and burden of disease from 2002 to 2030. PLoS Med 3(11): e442. doi:10.1371/journal.pmed.0030442.
• Lopez AD, Mathers CD, Ezzati M, Jamison DT, Murray CJ (2006) Global and regional burden of disease and risk factors, 2001: Systematic analysis of population health data. Lancet 367: 1747–1757.

Measures of Impact

At PLoS, we believe that articles in all journals should be assessed on their own merits rather than on the basis of the journal in which they were published.  PLoS journals have therefore initiated a program to provide a growing set of measures and indicators of impact at the article level that will include citation metrics, usage statistics, blogosphere coverage, social bookmarks, community rating and expert assessment. The long-term vision is to bring the views and activities of entire communities to bear, using the wealth of opportunities offered online, to provide new, meaningful and efficient mechanisms for research assessment. For more information on article-level metrics see the PLoS blog.

Contents

• Outstanding primary Research Articles in all areas of medicine; from clinically directed basic science to epidemiology and clinical trials.
• All research articles are accompanied by an Editors' Summary—a comprehensible summary for physicians in all specialties, as well as patients and their advocates.
• The Editorial is written by the PLoS Medicine editors on a topic of general medical interest.
• The PLoS Medicine Debate discusses important but controversial issues in clinical practice, public health policy, or health in general. Debates will be commissioned from two or more authors with differing points of view.
• Neglected Diseases articles bring a neglected disease, injury, or risk factor to the attention of a general audience.
• The Health in Action section provides a place where groups or individuals who are not represented regularly in a medical journal have a forum to describe the important issues from their perspective. Authors might include patient advocacy groups, healthcare workers, or non-governmental organizations.
• Policy Forum provides a platform for health policy makers 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.
• Essays are opinion pieces on a topic of broad interest to a general medical audience.
• Perspectives are commissioned from an expert and discuss the clinical practice or public health implications of a published study. The original publication must be freely available online.
• Research in Translation articles discuss a particular drug, treatment, or public health intervention in the context of translation from early research to clinical research, or clinical evidence to practice.
• Learning Forum articles are commissioned by our educational advisors. The section provides a forum for learning about an important clinical problem that is relevant to a general medical audience.
• Student Forum essays give a medical student perspective on any topic related to medicine, health, or medical education.

It is essential that authors submit a presubmission inquiry before submitting a full paper. To submit an inquiry, please log on or register at our online submission site and then click the link "Submit Presubmission Inquiry."

Notes, Comments and Ratings

PLoS Medicine provides a number of 'Web 2.0' tools to facilitate community evaluation and discourse around published articles. See our guidelines explaining how you can add Notes, Comments and Ratings to any PLoS Medicine article.