BiomedicalPublications

PLoS Pathogens

Public Library of Science·United States·ISSN 1553-7366

Open accessIn DOAJFee waivers availableMedicine

Cost to publish

$3,043

Open-access article processing charge, list price.

Time to publication

24 wks

Slower than average; plan your timeline accordingly.

h-index

318

OpenAlex citation statistic. Not a Journal Impact Factor.

2-year mean citedness

5.2

Average citations to articles from the previous two years.

What it costs to publish here

Publishing an open-access article in PLoS Pathogens is listed at $3,043. The journal reports that fee waivers are available — worth pursuing if you are funding this yourself or working from a lower-income country.

The journal's own fee page →

What this journal has charged over time

List price for an open-access article in PLoS Pathogens, as recorded by OpenAlex for each year. The fee has risen 29% since 2019, from $2,350 to $3,043.

$0$1.5k$3k2019: $2,35020192020: $2,50020202021: $2,57520212022: $2,65520222023: $2,65520232024: $2,92620242025: $3,0432025

Publishers change list prices without notice and often apply discounts, institutional agreements or waivers. Treat this as the trend, and confirm the current figure with the journal.

Peer review and licensing

Review modelAnonymous peer review (policy)
LicenceCC BY
Author keeps copyrightYes
Plagiarism screeningYes
Editorial boardPublished →
LanguagesEN

Verification checks

8 of 8 confirmed

These are facts we could verify in public records, not a verdict. A journal missing a check is not necessarily disreputable — many long-established subscription journals sit outside the open-access registries entirely. Use them as questions to ask, and confirm anything that matters directly with the journal before you submit.

  • Listed in the Directory of Open Access JournalsDOAJ applies a documented set of inclusion criteria.
  • Included in OpenAlex's curated core setOpenAlex flags well-established venues that appear across major indexes.
  • Peer review model publicly declaredAnonymous peer review
  • Publication charges stated up frontA journal that will not tell you the fee before submission is worth a second look.
  • Screens submissions for plagiarismReported to DOAJ by the journal.
  • Participates in a digital preservation schemeArchiving means the record survives if the publisher does not.
  • Assigns persistent identifiers (DOIs)Standard practice; its absence is unusual.
  • Still actively publishingMost recent indexed article: 2026.

Scope

The subjects PLoS Pathogens publishes most, derived from the topics assigned to its indexed articles.

HIV Research and TreatmentImmune Cell Function and InteractionMosquito-borne diseases and controlCytomegalovirus and herpesvirus researchinterferon and immune responsesViral Infections and VectorsHerpesvirus Infections and TreatmentsViral gastroenteritis research and epidemiologyPlant Virus Research StudiesImmune Response and Inflammation

Publication record

Indexed articles12,808
Total citations887,725
i10-index10,143
Most recent indexed article2026
Open access since2005
All ISSNs1553-7366, 1553-7374

Counts reflect what OpenAlex has indexed and will differ from the publisher's own figures. We do not show a founding year: OpenAlex's first-publication dates are distorted by mis-dated records — it puts PLoS ONE in 1806 — and we would rather omit a number than print one we cannot stand behind.