Skip to content

When you choose to publish with PLOS, your research makes an impact. Make your work accessible to all, without restrictions, and accelerate scientific discovery with options like preprints and published peer review that make your work more Open.

PLOS BLOGS Speaking of Medicine and Health

PLOS Medicine Announces a Call for Research Papers, on the Prevention, Diagnosis, and Treatment of Sexually Transmitted Infections

Guest editors Nicola Low of the University of Bern, Switzerland and Nathalie Broutet of the World Health Organization, along with PLOS Medicine Senior Editor Richard Turner, discuss the rationale for a call for papers on sexually transmitted infections.

Globally, the World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that more than one million new sexually transmitted infections (STIs) occur each day, incurring a very substantial burden of morbidity, mortality and additional infections. The pathogens responsible range from viruses, including human papillomaviruses and HIV, to bacteria and parasites responsible for syphilis, chlamydia, trichomoniasis and other diseases. Deeply ingrained as they are in in human behavior and biology, STIs pose great challenges for disease prevention, surveillance and treatment.

Addressing the burden of STIs will be important in efforts to achieve the health ambitions of the Sustainable Development Goals, as embodied in the global health sector strategy on sexually transmitted infections 2016–2021 which was adopted by the 69th World Health Assembly in May 2016. PLOS Medicine will shortly begin to publish a WHO-sponsored Collection on global policy and systems aiming to achieve control of STIs and mitigation of their adverse effects on health.

To accompany this Collection, we are now inviting submission of reports of high-quality research studies with the potential to inform clinical practice or thinking relevant to STIs, focused on:

  • Epidemiological studies on the incidence, prevalence and disease burden of STIs, including emerging and re-emerging infections, mother-to-child transmission of STIs, and STIs in the context of new HIV prevention approaches.
  • Molecular and genomic studies relevant to clinical advances in STI research, including antimicrobial resistance and microbiome analysis.
  • Studies investigating treatment, partner notification, vaccination, behavioral, and combination interventions for STIs, with reports of randomised controlled trials particularly welcome.
  • Implementation research, especially focused on interventions for STI prevention and point-of-care approaches to disease diagnosis in low- and middle-income countries, including qualitative research on issues such as stigma.
  • Modelling and cost-effectiveness studies relevant to STIs, addressing prevention and treatment interventions.

Please submit your manuscript at: http://journals.plos.org/plosmedicine/s/submit-now. We (NL and NB) will be the guest editors for the Collection, and successful submissions will be published, following peer review, from December 2017 onwards. Papers to be published in December should be submitted by August 11, 2017 but submissions received after that date will still be considered, and can be included with the Collection. Presubmission inquiries are not required, but we ask that you indicate your interest in this call for papers in your covering letter.

Nicola Low receives a stipend as a Specialty Consulting Editor for PLOS Medicine, and serves on the journal’s editorial board. Richard Turner receives a salary and benefits from PLOS in his employment as Senior Editor, PLOS Medicine.

Featured Image: Flickr.com iamagenious and NIAID, Pixabay

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *


Add your ORCID here. (e.g. 0000-0002-7299-680X)

Back to top