Journal profile · Medicine-Critical Care and Intensive Care Medicine
PLOS Global Public Health
ISSN 2767-3375 · Public Library of Science (PLoS) · United States
PLOS Global Public Health: CAS Zone 3 · Medicine (2026 Xinrui edition); fully open access; APC about USD 2,596; median 194 days to acceptance (145 articles, last 24 months); 1,137 articles in 2025; indexed in ESCI and Scopus.
Scope
Aims, scope and focus
PLOS Global Public 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 Global Maternal and Child Health, HIV/AIDS Research and Interventions and Child Nutrition and Water Access, together about 31.6% of its articles. Its main subfields are Infectious Diseases. (generated from OpenAlex topic counts and CAS ranking data)
PLOS Global Public Health is an open access forum for research that reaches across disciplines and regional boundaries to address the biggest health challenges and inequities facing our society today. We publish ethically and methodologically rigorous research that impacts public health, and encourage submissions reporting research into health inequities and efforts to increase diversity and inclusion in public health in all regions of the world. We consider submissions in areas including but not limited to global health delivery; infectious diseases; non-communicable diseases; race and health; mental health, laboratory medicine; maternal, newborn, and child health; nutrition; sexual and reproductive health and rights; Indigenous health; environmental and planetary health; evidence use and policy; global health governance; social and behavioral health; humanitarian aid and conflict/displacement; injuries, trauma and global surgery; global health financing and trade; and global health security. PLOS Global Public Health welcomes quantitative and qualitative primary research that contributes to the base of academic knowledge, including interdisciplinary research articles, clinical trials, replication studies, and negative or null results; Systematic reviews whose methods ensure the comprehensive and unbiased sampling of existing literature; submissions describing methods, software, databases, or other tools that meet the journal’s criteria for utility, validation and availability that adheres to appropriate study design and reporting guidelines.
From the journal's Aims & Scope
Research area (LetPub): Medicine-Critical Care and Intensive Care Medicine
Main research topics OpenAlex counts of recent articles; shares are approximate
- Global Maternal and Child HealthMedicine16.6%
- HIV/AIDS Research and InterventionsMedicine8%
- Child Nutrition and Water AccessNursing7%
- Vaccine Coverage and HesitancySocial Sciences6.2%
- Adolescent Sexual and Reproductive HealthHealth Professions5.9%
- COVID-19 epidemiological studiesMathematics5.5%
- Tuberculosis Research and EpidemiologyMedicine4.8%
- Healthcare Systems and ReformsEconomics, Econometrics and Finance4.1%
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 | Public, Environmental & Occupational Health | 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 ScienceMEDLINEPMCCAB AbstractsPublisher website
Other: Google Scholar, Dimensions, Crossref
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
- 4.1LetPub ·
- SJR 2026-06
- 0.99LetPub ·
- SNIP 2026-06
- 1.13LetPub ·
- h-index
- 53OpenAlex ·
- i10-index
- 1,104OpenAlex ·
- 2-year mean citedness
- 3.25OpenAlex ·
- Self-citation rate
- 3.6%LetPub ·
- Share of gold OA articles
- 99.28%LetPub ·
Volume
- Articles per year
- 1,047LetPub ·
Articles by year OpenAlex count · 4,959 in total · the current year is incomplete
| Year | Articles | Open access | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 868 | 868 | 325 |
| 2025 | 1,137 | 1,137 | 2,847 |
| 2024 | 1,087 | 1,087 | 6,882 |
| 2023 | 1,055 | 1,055 | 11,874 |
| 2022 | 759 | 759 | 11,725 |
| 2021 | 53 | 53 | 1,217 |
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
194 daysMedian, submission to acceptance · P25–P75 133 days – 273 days
- Acceptance to online
- median 28 days (145 articles)
- Submission to online
- median 222 days
- Sample
- 145 articles with submission and acceptance dates (2,262 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 17 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 2,596 | Yes | CC BY | |
| OpenAlex | USD 2,496 | — | — | |
| LetPub | USD 2,400 | Yes | — |
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)
What to prepare3 items from the author guidelines
- Reference style
- Vancouver
- Suggested reviewers
- Required
- Cover letter
- Required
Article types accepted2
- meta-analysisManuscripts reporting a meta-analysis of genetic association studies must report results of value to the field and should be reported according to the guideline…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 websiteAuthorship, Conflicts of interest, Data availability, Open access, Preprints
- 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
Reference style: Vancouver (ICMJE) Model summary
This information should describe sources of funding that have supported the work. It is important to gather these details prior to submission because your financial disclosure statement cannot be changed after initial submission without journal approval. If your manuscript is published, your statement will appear in the Funding section of the article. Enter this statement in the Financial Disclosu…
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Data availability
Data availability policy: deposit data in appropriate public repository 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
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
- 2767-3375
- 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 Global Public Health
What CAS zone is PLOS Global Public 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 Global Public Health?
Based on the dates recorded on 145 articles published between October 2024 and October 2026 (the last 24 months), the median time from submission to acceptance is 194 days (interquartile range 133–273 days); authors report an average review time of about 17 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.
What are the manuscript requirements of PLOS Global Public Health?
According to the journal's author guidelines: Reference style: Vancouver; Suggested reviewers: Required; Cover letter: Required. A model extracted these from the author guidelines and each was checked against the text; check the latest version on the journal's website before submitting.
Which databases index PLOS Global Public Health?
According to LetPub and DOAJ records, PLOS Global Public Health is indexed in ESCI, Scopus and DOAJ. The journal's website also lists Web of Science, MEDLINE, PMC and CAB Abstracts; that list has not been checked against each database.
Is PLOS Global Public Health open access, and what is the APC?
PLOS Global Public Health is a fully open-access journal. APC about USD 2,596.
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 2026-08-25). Last updated: .