''PLOS Pathogens'' is a

peer-reviewed Peer review is the evaluation of work by one or more people with similar competencies as the producers of the work (peers). It functions as a form of self-regulation by qualified members of a profession within the relevant field. Peer review ...

open-access Open access (OA) is a set of principles and a range of practices through which research outputs are distributed online, free of access charges or other barriers. With open access strictly defined (according to the 2001 definition), or libre op ...

medical journal A medical journal is a peer-reviewed scientific journal that communicates medical information to physicians, other health professionals. Journals that cover many medical specialties are sometimes called general medical journals. History The first ...

. All content in ''PLOS Pathogens'' is published under the

Creative Commons Creative Commons (CC) is an American non-profit organization and international network devoted to educational access and expanding the range of creative works available for others to build upon legally and to share. The organization has release ...

"by-attribution" license. ''PLOS Pathogens'' began operation in September 2005. It was the fifth journal of the

Public Library of Science PLOS (for Public Library of Science; PLoS until 2012 ) is a nonprofit publisher of open-access journals in science, technology, and medicine and other scientific literature, under an open-content license. It was founded in 2000 and launc ...

(PLOS), a non-profit

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 PLOS (for Public Library of Science; PLoS until 2012 ) is a nonprofit publisher of open-access journals in science, technology, and medicine and other scientific literature, under an open-content license. It was founded in 2000 and launc ...

supports DORA – the

San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment The San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment (DORA) intends to halt the practice of correlating the journal impact factor to the merits of a specific scientist's contributions. Also according to this statement, this practice creates bias ...

and uses

Article-Level Metrics Article-level metrics are citation metrics which measure the usage and impact of individual scholarly articles. Adoption Traditionally, bibliometrics have been used to evaluate the usage and impact of research, but have usually been focused on j ...

(ALMs) to measure the impact of articles based on their individual 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 is one that 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.

Open Access

''PLOS Pathogens'' publishes under the

Open Access Open access (OA) is a set of principles and a range of practices through which research outputs are distributed online, free of access charges or other barriers. With open access strictly defined (according to the 2001 definition), or libre op ...

license PLOS applies to all its published works, the Creative Commons Attribution license (CC BY).

''PLOS Pathogens'' Business Model

''P''LOS’ business model requires in most cases that authors pay publication fees. PLOS provides individual and institutional fee support programs through its Global Participation Initiatives, Publication Fee Assistance and Institutional Fee Support.

Measures of Impact

''PLOS Pathogens'' uses Article-Level Metrics (ALMs) to measure the influence of articles based on their individual merits rather than using the journal impact factor. A signpost in the upper right of every article provides summary metrics of citations, views, shares and bookmarks.

References

External links

* {{PLOS Creative Commons Attribution-licensed journals Open access journals Microbiology journals PLOS academic journals Monthly journals English-language journals Pathogen genomics Publications established in 2005