Why Publish with PLOS Medicine?
As an author, you want your work to have the greatest impact and be accessible to the widest possible audience. Since 2004, PLOS Medicine offers:
Open Access for reading, educating, and applying
In PLOS Medicine your research is freely available to all, from the time of publication. Readers do not need a subscription or to pay a one-time fee or register before they can access our articles. Educators, students, clinicians, researchers, patients, and policy makers worldwide can access and use our content without barriers of cost or access control. Others can build on your data to advance research in the field and expand the benefits of your work.
Fast and professional peer review
PLOS Medicine is run by a team of experienced professional editors. We work closely with academic editors and peer reviewers to provide authors with an efficient, fair, and constructive review process.
Initial submissions for rapid feedback
PLOS Medicine uses the initial submission process, allowing authors to quickly submit to the journal and obtain rapid feedback from the editors. If the editors decide that the work is suitable for peer review, authors will be asked to provide a full submission with additional information.
Rapid publication
The time between acceptance and publication is around 6 weeks.
Publicity
We send out weekly press releases on papers published by PLOS Medicine to ensure that papers have the greatest chance of being covered accurately by the media. In addition, we promote articles on Twitter and other social media to encourage wide awareness and discussion..
Abstract translations
Provide translations of your abstract, and these will be published along with the article, freely accessible to readers and search engines to index your work more widely and expand your reach.
No pharmaceutical or device company ads
PLOS Medicine does not accept advertising from pharmaceutical or device manufacturers, ensuring that readers do not encounter advertising by companies with competing interests while reading your work and avoiding potential conflicts of interest in editorial decision making.
Commentary by authors without financial conflicts of interest
PLOS Medicine publishes commentary by experts without financial conflicts of interest, providing an authoritative voice independent of commercial marketing or promotion efforts.
Publication decisions not driven by impact factor
PLOS Medicine provides you with Article-Level Metrics to help assess your article's impact. Decisions to publish are based on the science and potential impact of the article for patients and policy, not influenced on whether an article is likely to affect the journal's impact factor.
No arbitrary constraints on article length or presentation
Your research publication should include the methods necessary to fully explain what was done and all the results, accessible from wherever the article is accessed. At PLOS Medicine article length is determined by the science, not by an arbitrary page limit.
Post-publication commenting
Post-publication commenting allows readers and authors to engage in dialogue that is directly accessible from the full-text article.
Linkage to the full PLOS suite of Open Access publications
Papers submitted to PLOS Medicine that are found on evaluation to be better suited to another PLOS journal can be transferred directly at your request.