Journal profile · Medicine-Health Informatics
PLOS Digital Health
ISSN 2767-3170 · Public Library of Science (PLoS) · United States
PLOS Digital Health: CAS Zone 3 · Medicine (2026 Xinrui edition); fully open access; APC about USD 3,165; median 217 days to acceptance (113 articles, last 24 months); 329 articles in 2025; indexed in ESCI and Scopus.
Scope
Aims, scope and focus
PLOS Digital Health is published by Public Library of Science (PLoS) and is classed under Medicine in the CAS Journal Ranking. By OpenAlex counts of its recent articles, its largest topics are Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare and Education, Mobile Health and mHealth Applications and Digital Mental Health Interventions, together about 37% of its articles. (generated from OpenAlex topic counts and CAS ranking data)
PLOS Digital Health is an interdisciplinary Open Access journal publishing boundary-breaking original academic and clinical research that uses open science practices, digital tools, technologies, and data science to significantly advance human health and health care. This community-driven journal reflects the full breadth of the digital health research environment, including social and ethical issues, with a strong focus on public health and big data management; including but not limited to, e-health, medical imaging and diagnostics, fairness and health disparities as outcomes from digital health research, patient accessibility and behavior, and precision medicine. We publish primary research articles, commissioned opinions and reviews that explore digital health tools, methods, data and curation that advance health care technologies and decision-making or broaden accessible, effective care options for diverse communities around the world. Submissions describing methods, software, databases, or other tools that meet the journal’s criteria for advance, utility, validation, and availability are also welcomed.
From the journal's Aims & Scope
Research area (LetPub): Medicine-Health Informatics
Main research topics OpenAlex counts of recent articles; shares are approximate
- Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare and EducationMedicine14.1%
- Mobile Health and mHealth ApplicationsHealth Professions13.6%
- Digital Mental Health InterventionsPsychology9.3%
- Machine Learning in HealthcareComputer Science8.4%
- Telemedicine and Telehealth ImplementationMedicine5.1%
- Electronic Health Records SystemsHealth Professions4.6%
- COVID-19 diagnosis using AIMedicine3.6%
- Ethics in Clinical ResearchMedicine3.4%
Rankings & indexing
CAS ranking and database indexing
CAS Journal Ranking
CAS Journal Ranking, upgraded edition (March 2025)Not covered
Not covered by this edition.
CAS Xinrui Journal Ranking (March 2026)Medicine Zone 3
| Level | Category | Zone |
|---|---|---|
| Major | Medicine | Zone 3 |
| Minor | Health Care Sciences & Services | Zone 3 |
| Minor | Medical Informatics | Zone 3 |
Top journal: noReview journal: not marked
CAS Journal Ranking, previous upgraded edition (December 2023)Not covered
Not covered by this edition.
Database indexing
ESCIScopusDOAJLetPub
International journal early-warning lists: not listed in any editionLetPub
Indexing the journal's website claims
Web of ScienceMEDLINEPMCPublisher website
Other: Google Scholar, Dimensions, CNKI
As the journal's website lists them, not checked against each database; for Web of Science editions the records above apply.
Editions, and major and minor categories, are shown separately and never merged into one zone; check which edition your institution uses before you submit or report.
Metrics
Impact metrics and publication volume
Impact
- CiteScore 2026-06
- 11LetPub ·
- SJR 2026-06
- 1.79LetPub ·
- SNIP 2026-06
- 2.21LetPub ·
- h-index
- 54OpenAlex ·
- i10-index
- 310OpenAlex ·
- 2-year mean citedness
- 6.36OpenAlex ·
- Self-citation rate
- 2.6%LetPub ·
- Share of gold OA articles
- 99.72%LetPub ·
Volume
- Articles per year
- 292LetPub ·
Articles by year OpenAlex count · 1,268 in total · the current year is incomplete
| Year | Articles | Open access | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 377 | 377 | 245 |
| 2025 | 329 | 329 | 2,120 |
| 2024 | 239 | 239 | 3,643 |
| 2023 | 201 | 201 | 8,751 |
| 2022 | 122 | 122 | 4,347 |
Sources count differently and were observed at different times, so each source's own value is kept; "publisher" marks figures from the journal's website.
Review & acceptance
Review time and acceptance
Review time from article dates manuscript dates registered with PubMed · to
217 daysMedian, submission to acceptance · P25–P75 160 days – 278 days
- Acceptance to online
- median 33 days (113 articles)
- Submission to online
- median 254 days
- Sample
- 113 articles with submission and acceptance dates (781 in the window); the latest was accepted on
Only articles that were accepted and published are counted, not the time spent on rejected manuscripts, so this usually runs longer than a publisher's "time to first decision".
Other sources
- Average review time (community reports)
- about 16 weeksLetPub ·
- Submission to publication (journal-reported)
- about 30 weeksDOAJ ·
- Peer review
- Single anonymous peer reviewDOAJ
Community reports come from authors' own submissions (confidence 0.5) and are not a promise from the journal; for publisher figures, the journal's own definitions apply.
Fees & open access
APC and open-access policy
Fully open accessDOAJ
Every article is open access; authors usually pay an article processing charge (APC).
| Source | APC | Fee waiver | License | Observed |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| DOAJ | USD 3,165 | Yes | CC BY | |
| OpenAlex | USD 3,043 | — | — | |
| LetPub | USD 2,926 | Yes | — | |
| Publisher website | Yes, amount not published | — | — |
The journal's website is authoritative for fees; sources were observed at different times and each keeps its own value, without averaging.
Submission
Article types and submission policies (journal website)
Article types accepted2
- research articleIf you are submitting content other than a research article, learn more about what we publish.Length not stated
- systematic reviewA systematic review paper, as defined by The Cochrane Collaboration, is a review of a clearly formulated question that uses explicit, systematic methods to iden…Length not stated
Policy excerpts from the journal's websiteAI use, Authorship, Conflicts of interest, Data availability, Open access, Preprints
- AI use Large language model-generated clinical summaries in emergency departments: A blinded comparison study
In this blinded study of 99 ED encounters, emergency physicians evaluated paired LLM- and physician-authored summaries on accuracy, completeness, and clinical utility, indicating their overall preference with free-text explanation. LLM-generated one-liner summaries were produced using k-nearest-neighbor few-shot prompting.
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Authorship Consortia and group authorship
If a manuscript is submitted on behalf of a consortium or group, include its name in the manuscript byline. Do not add it to the author list in the submission system. You may include the full list of members in the Acknowledgments or in a supporting information file. PubMed only indexes individual consortium or group author members listed in the article byline. If included, these individuals must …
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Conflicts of interest Financial Disclosure Statement
This information should describe sources of funding that have supported the work. If your manuscript is published, your statement will appear in the Funding section of the article. Include your statement in the Financial Disclosure section of the initial submission form. The statement should include: Specific grant numbers Initials of authors who received each award URLs to sponsors’ websites Also…
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Data availability
Data availability policy requiring deposition in public repositories Model summary
All data and related metadata underlying the findings reported in a submitted manuscript should be deposited in an appropriate public repository, unless already provided as part of the submitted article.
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Open access Open Access
PLOS applies the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license to works we publish. Under this license, authors agree to make articles legally available for reuse, without permission or fees, for virtually any purpose. Anyone may copy, distribute, or reuse these articles, as long as the author and original source are properly cited. Learn more.
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Preprints Preprints
Preprint policy allowing preprint posting without affecting consideration Model summary
PLOS encourages authors to post preprints to accelerate the dissemination of research. Posting a manuscript on a preprint server does not impact consideration of the manuscript at any PLOS journal. Authors posting on medRxiv can choose to concurrently submit their manuscripts to relevant PLOS journals through the direct transfer service. Authors submitting manuscripts in the health sciences to PLO…
Source ↗Publisher website ·
Excerpts are quoted from the journal's website; "model summary" lines are written by Workers AI and checked against the text. The journal's website is authoritative.
Profile
Publication details and official links
- Publisher
- Public Library of Science (PLoS)
- Country or region
- United States
- Language
- English
- ISSN
- 2767-3170
- Official links
- Journal homepage ↗LetPub
- Submission system ↗Publisher website
- Author guidelines ↗LetPub
- Aims & Scope ↗LetPub
- APC information ↗DOAJ
- Fee waivers ↗DOAJ
- Open access statement ↗DOAJ
- License & copyright ↗DOAJ
- Peer review process ↗LetPub
- Editorial board ↗LetPub
- Plagiarism policy ↗DOAJ
FAQ
Frequently asked questions about PLOS Digital Health
What CAS zone is PLOS Digital Health in?
In the 2026 Xinrui edition it is in Zone 3 of Medicine. Zones from different editions, and from major and minor categories, are not interchangeable.
How long does peer review take at PLOS Digital Health?
Based on the dates recorded on 113 articles published between October 2024 and October 2026 (the last 24 months), the median time from submission to acceptance is 217 days (interquartile range 160–278 days); authors report an average review time of about 16 weeks. Article statistics cover accepted papers only, publisher figures follow the journal's own definitions, and community reports come from authors' own submissions; none is a promise from the journal.
Which databases index PLOS Digital Health?
According to LetPub and DOAJ records, PLOS Digital Health is indexed in ESCI, Scopus and DOAJ. The journal's website also lists Web of Science, MEDLINE and PMC; that list has not been checked against each database.
Is PLOS Digital Health open access, and what is the APC?
PLOS Digital Health is a fully open-access journal. APC about USD 3,165.
Sources and updates
The facts on this page come from LetPub, OpenAlex, DOAJ, Publisher website; every figure is tagged with its source and the date it was observed, and conflicting values are kept per source. LetPub source page: view ↗ (archived 2026-08-26). Last updated: .