Plos Medicine

PLOS Medicine is a fully open-access peer-reviewed general medical journal published by the non-profit Public Library of Science, launched on 19 October 2004 as the second title in the PLOS series and devoted to research bearing on human health worldwide, with a 2025 Journal Impact Factor of 9.9《公共科学图书馆·医学》（PLOS Medicine）是由非营利出版机构（Public Library of Science）出版的完全开放获取同行评审综合医学期刊，2004 年 10 月 19 日上线，为 PLOS 系列的第二本期刊，聚焦与全球人类健康相关的研究，2025 年影响因子为 9.9。

Scope

• The journal publishes articles of general interest on the biomedical, environmental, social and political determinants of health, giving priority to work that advances clinical practice, health policy or pathophysiological understanding across diverse settings该刊发表关于健康的生物医学、环境、社会与政治决定因素的普适性文章，优先刊发能在多样情境下推进临床实践、卫生政策或病理生理学理解的研究。
• Its founding aim was to offer an open-access alternative to established general medical journals such as The New England Journal of Medicine and The Lancet, concentrating on the diseases that impose the greatest burden on global health该刊创办的目标是向《新英格兰医学杂志》（The New England Journal of Medicine）与《柳叶刀》（The Lancet）等权威综合医学期刊提供开放获取的替代选择，聚焦对全球健康负担最重的疾病。
• In 2009 the journal reaffirmed this scope and stated that it would use an evidence-based approach to give highest priority to studies of the conditions and risk factors causing the greatest loss of healthy life years worldwide2009 年该刊重申这一定位，表示将采用循证方法，优先发表那些在全球造成健康寿命损失最大的疾病与危险因素的研究成果。
• Beyond original research the journal carries reviews, editorials written by its editors, Perspectives that discuss the clinical or public-health implications of a study, a Policy Forum for health policymakers and a Guidelines and Guidance section on conducting and reporting research除原创研究外，该刊还刊发综述、由编辑撰写的社论、探讨研究临床或公共卫生意义的观点文章、面向卫生政策制定者的政策论坛，以及关于研究与报告规范的指南与指导栏目。
• From the outset the journal declined pharmaceutical and medical-device advertising, and because its content is freely licensed it forgoes revenue from exclusive reprint sales自创刊起该刊就拒绝药品与医疗器械广告，又因其内容采用开放许可而不从独家转载中获利。
• All content is released under a Creative Commons attribution licence and most articles are funded by author publication fees, and the journal is indexed in PubMed, the Science Citation Index Expanded, Current Contents and BIOSIS全部内容以知识共享署名许可发布，多数文章由作者出版费资助，该刊被（PubMed）、（SCIE）、（Current Contents）与（BIOSIS）收录。

History

• PLOS Medicine began publication on 19 October 2004 as the second journal launched by the Public Library of Science, appearing shortly after PLOS Biology《PLOS Medicine》于 2004 年 10 月 19 日创刊，是公共科学图书馆继《PLOS Biology》之后推出的第二本期刊。
• The journal appeared in both print and online form until 2005 and thereafter continued as an online-only publication该刊在 2005 年前同时提供纸质与电子版，此后改为仅在线出版。
• Its first impact factor became the subject of a well-known episode, with the journal estimating a substantially higher value than the figure initially reported by the indexing service, which was subsequently revised upward该刊首个影响因子有一段广为流传的插曲：期刊自身估算值远高于索引服务最初公布的数字，该数字后被上调。
• In 2014, to mark its tenth anniversary, the journal commissioned a collection of research and commentary on the health and well-being of children around the world2014 年为庆祝创刊十周年，该刊组织了一系列关于全球儿童健康与福祉的研究与评论。
• The 2005 essay Why Most Published Research Findings Are False by John Ioannidis, published in the journal, remains among its most highly cited papers and a founding text of metaresearch该刊 2005 年刊发的 John Ioannidis 论文《为什么大多数已发表的研究结论是错误的》，至今仍是其引用最高的文章之一，也是元研究的奠基之作。

Editors

• The editor-in-chief is Till Baernighausen, an epidemiologist who holds an Alexander von Humboldt chair and directs the Heidelberg Institute of Global Health in Germany现任主编为流行病学家 Till Baernighausen，他任德国海德堡全球健康研究所主任并持有洪堡教席。
• Day-to-day editing is carried out by a team of full-time professional staff editors, one of whom co-authored the journal's 2025 editorial charting its priorities for evidence, impact and equity日常编辑工作由一支全职专业编辑团队承担，其中一位编辑共同撰写了该刊 2025 年阐述循证、影响力与公平优先方向的社论。
• An international editorial board of senior researchers advises the editors on journal scope and policy and serves as academic editors handling submitted manuscripts一支由资深研究者组成的国际编委会就期刊范围与政策为编辑提供建议，并作为学术编辑处理投稿。
• This model pairs professional editors with scientist academic editors so that clinical importance is weighed alongside methodological robustness during peer review这一模式让专业编辑与科学家学术编辑相配合，在同行评审中兼顾临床重要性与方法学的稳健性。
• Earlier chief editors included Larry Peiperl, who led the journal until 2018 and was succeeded as acting chief editor by Clare Stone历任主编包括 Larry Peiperl，他主持该刊至 2018 年，其后由 Clare Stone 代理主编。