PLOS Pathogens

PLOS Pathogens began operation in September 2005. It was the fifth journal of the Public Library of Science (PLOS), a non-profit open-access publisher.

Journal

Scope

The journal scope of PLOS Pathogens is to feature PLOS Pathogens publishes original research and commentary that significantly advance the understanding of pathogens and how they interact with their host organisms.

Topics include (but are not limited to) adaptive and innate immune defenses as well as pathogen countermeasures, emerging pathogens, evolution, genomics and gene regulation, model host organisms, pathogen-cell biology, pathogenesis, prions, proteomics and signal transduction, rational vaccine design, structural biology, and virulence factors.

Content

PLOS Pathogens publishes primary research articles, Pearls, Research Matters, Reviews, Opinions and occasional Editorials.

Metrics

PLOS supports DORA – the San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment and uses Article-Level Metrics (ALMs) to measure the impact of articles based on their merits rather than using the journal impact factor. Traditionally, the impact of research articles has been measured by the publication journal, but this particular view examines the overall performance and reach of the articles themselves. ALMs are noted on each article to mark how often they are viewed, cited, saved, discussed/shared or recommended in order to assess work at the article level.

ALMs are available, upon publication, for every article published by PLOS.

Abstracting and Indexing

PLOS Pathogens is indexed in PubMed, MEDLINE, Chemical Abstracts Service (CAS), EMBASE, EMBASE, SCOPUS, Zoological Record, and Web of Science.