PLOS Pathogens Year in Review
2020 was a year of growth for PLOS Pathogens. We expanded our editorial board and published important research that made an impact in the global Covid-19 conversation. Discover journal updates, a message from the Editors-in-Chief, research highlights, and more.
4,453
Published authors
119
Countries represented by submitting authors
583
Published articles
3,642,685
Article Views
This year, we continued to receive and publish the latest research on pathogenic organisms. Read some of our most-cited publications from 2020.
- Sex-specific clinical characteristics and prognosis of coronavirus disease-19 infection in Wuhan, China: A retrospective study of 168 severe patients
- The hallmarks of COVID-19 disease
- Structure of mouse coronavirus spike protein complexed with receptor reveals mechanism for viral entry
- Biological sex impacts COVID-19 outcomes
- Harnessing the natural anti-glycan immune response to limit the transmission of enveloped viruses such as SARS-CoV-2
Want more top research from the journal? Visit PLOS Pathogens Top 10% collection for highly cited articles from recent years.
We added new and noteworthy research to the Antifungal Immunity Collection launched in 2019.
In 2020, PLOS Pathogens articles were referenced 4,880 times by media outlets around the world. Explore articles that made the news.
Ready to share your study with a wider audience? Help more people read, see, and cite your published research with our Author Media Toolkit
“Looking back on 2020 we want to extend a heartfelt thank you to the PLOS Pathogens community of authors, reviewers and editors, that have volunteered their time and energy to not only maintain excellence, but to grow the journal in what has proven to be a tumultuous year. Together with our wonderful journal staff, we have worked to meet the challenge of quickly disseminating fast-changing research during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic with a dedicated team of editors who together have handled over 250 COVID-19 submissions. Our newly refreshed team of Reviews Editors have brought an exciting array of Reviews at the forefront of pathogens research. We decreased our time to first decision and time to publish, and we continue to support open initiatives through partnerships such as Review Commons. As we move into 2021 we are excited to continue to move PLOS Pathogens forward with the community by promoting publication in areas that include clinical research as well as the microbiome, refreshing the PLOS Pathogens brand, expanding our Editorial Board globally, and focusing on diversity and inclusion for all contributors.”

Kasturi Haldar, Editor in Chief orcid.org/0000-0001-5065-158X

Michael Malim, Editor in Chief orcid.org/0000-0002-7699-2064
This year, we introduced our new Editorial Advisory Group to help make sure we are hearing the needs of the communities that make up the journal.
We also officially welcomed Mike Malim as co-Editor-in-Chief in January! You can read the official announcement here.

In response to the coronavirus pandemic, we created a team of dedicated SARS-CoV-2/COVID19 editors to handle related submissions and make initial decisions quickly.
Explore PLOS Pathogens research
in the COVID-19 pandemic (2019-20) collection
Noteworthy Review Article:
The hallmarks of COVID-19 disease,
by Daolin Tang, Paul Comish, and Rui Kang
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