Best Infectious Diseases Journals (2026)
Paste your title and abstract to get 5 realistic matches from verified biomedical journals — every publisher, no predatory journals, and your abstract is never stored.
Type your field and pick it to see the top-ranked journals — every journal listed is indexed in PubMed, DOAJ, or a curated core source list.
Top Infectious Diseases journals
| # | Journal | h-index | Citations/paper (2 yr) | Tier | Access | Indexed in |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | MMWR Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report Centers for Disease Control and Prevention | 254 | 18.88 | Flagship | Open access · APC — | PubMed · Core |
| 2 | EClinicalMedicine Elsevier BV | 149 | 11.57 | Leading field journal | Open access · APC $5,000 | PubMed · DOAJ · Core |
| 3 | The Lancet Infectious Diseases Elsevier BV | 374 | 11.44 | Leading field journal | Subscription | PubMed · Core |
| 4 | PLoS Medicine Public Library of Science | 353 | 8.06 | Leading field journal | Open access · APC $6,300 | PubMed · DOAJ · Core |
| 5 | Emerging Microbes & Infections Taylor & Francis | 132 | 7.16 | Leading field journal | Open access · APC $2,643 | PubMed · DOAJ · Core |
| 6 | Emerging infectious diseases Centers for Disease Control and Prevention | 329 | 6.02 | Leading field journal | Open access · APC — | PubMed · DOAJ · Core |
| 7 | The Lancet HIV Elsevier BV | 119 | 5.38 | Leading field journal | Subscription | PubMed · Core |
| 8 | Virulence Taylor & Francis | 128 | 5.01 | Leading field journal | Open access · APC $2,557 | PubMed · DOAJ · Core |
| 9 | Reviews in Medical Virology Wiley | 131 | 4.89 | Leading field journal | Subscription | PubMed · Core |
| 10 | Current HIV/AIDS Reports Springer Science+Business Media | 98 | 4.74 | Leading field journal | Subscription | PubMed · Core |
| 11 | Antimicrobial Resistance and Infection Control BioMed Central | 107 | 4.65 | Leading field journal | Open access · APC $2,990 | PubMed · DOAJ · Core |
| 12 | mSphere American Society for Microbiology | 104 | 4.55 | Leading field journal | Open access · APC $3,500 | PubMed · DOAJ · Core |
| 13 | Frontiers in Cellular and Infection Microbiology Frontiers Media | 184 | 4.47 | Solid specialist | Open access · APC $3,295 | PubMed · DOAJ · Core |
| 14 | Clinical Microbiology and Infection Elsevier BV | 251 | 4.39 | Leading field journal | Subscription | PubMed · Core |
| 15 | Journal of Clinical Microbiology American Society for Microbiology | 367 | 4.25 | Leading field journal | Open access · APC — | PubMed · DOAJ · Core |
| 16 | Viruses Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute | 188 | 4.2 | Solid specialist | Open access · APC $2,895 | PubMed · DOAJ · Core |
| 17 | Vaccines Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute | 135 | 4.13 | Solid specialist | Open access · APC $2,450 | PubMed · DOAJ · Core |
| 18 | Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy American Society for Microbiology | 357 | 4.03 | Leading field journal | Subscription | PubMed · Core |
| 19 | Expert Review of Anti-infective Therapy Taylor & Francis | 125 | 3.94 | Solid specialist | Subscription | PubMed · Core |
| 20 | Journal of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy Oxford University Press | 267 | 3.93 | Leading field journal | Subscription | PubMed · Core |
| 21 | Pathogens Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute | 121 | 3.91 | Solid specialist | Open access · APC $2,450 | PubMed · DOAJ · Core |
| 22 | Veterinary Research BioMed Central | 148 | 3.84 | Solid specialist | Open access · APC $2,190 | PubMed · DOAJ · Core |
| 23 | Infection and Immunity American Society for Microbiology | 335 | 3.74 | Leading field journal | Open access · APC — | PubMed · DOAJ · Core |
| 24 | Microbial Pathogenesis Elsevier BV | 139 | 3.64 | Solid specialist | Subscription | PubMed · Core |
| 25 | Microbiology Spectrum American Society for Microbiology | 137 | 3.6 | Solid specialist | Open access · APC $2,500 | PubMed · DOAJ · Core |
| 26 | Journal of Infection and Public Health Elsevier BV | 101 | 3.6 | Solid specialist | Open access · APC $2,000 | PubMed · DOAJ · Core |
| 27 | Anaerobe Elsevier BV | 121 | 3.49 | Solid specialist | Subscription | PubMed · Core |
| 28 | Journal of the International AIDS Society International AIDS Society | 118 | 3.32 | Solid specialist | Open access · APC $2,600 | PubMed · DOAJ · Core |
| 29 | Current Opinion in HIV and AIDS Lippincott Williams & Wilkins | 100 | 3.3 | Solid specialist | Subscription | PubMed · Core |
| 30 | Journal of Medical Microbiology Microbiology Society | 169 | 3.14 | Solid specialist | Subscription | PubMed · Core |
Frequently asked questions
How does the journal finder work?+
You paste your title and abstract; an AI model classifies the paper into biomedical subfields and honestly assesses its scope, then ranks a shortlist of verified journals from our dataset of 2,600+ biomedical journals. Every metric shown comes from the dataset — the AI can never invent a journal or a number.
Is it free?+
Yes — free, no signup, no hidden trial. There's a fair-use limit of 15 matches per day. Browsing ranked journals by field is unlimited.
How is this different from JANE or the Elsevier Journal Finder?+
Publisher tools like Elsevier's, Springer's, or Wiley's finders only recommend their own journals. JANE is cross-publisher but hasn't changed since 2007 and can surface journals of unverified quality from PubMed. This finder is cross-publisher, only shows journals verified in trusted indexes, and calibrates recommendations to your paper's realistic tier.
How do you keep predatory journals out?+
By construction: every journal in our dataset must be indexed in DOAJ, PubMed, or a curated core source list, with a real citation record. Journals with no verified quality signals simply never appear — we don't maintain accusatory blacklists.
Is my abstract stored or used to train AI?+
No. Your abstract is processed to generate recommendations and is not stored, logged, or used for model training. We know unpublished work is sensitive.
Which fields are covered?+
All of biomedicine and the life sciences: 38 subfields from molecular biology, immunology, and oncology to public health, pharmacology, neuroscience, plant science, and veterinary medicine.
Why don't you show impact factors?+
The Journal Impact Factor is proprietary to Clarivate and requires a paid license. We show open, verifiable alternatives instead: h-index and 2-year citations per paper from OpenAlex, plus each journal's percentile within its own field — which is more informative for comparing journals in the same specialty.
Where does the data come from?+
From open, verifiable sources: OpenAlex (CC0) for citation metrics, the U.S. National Library of Medicine's PubMed journal list, and the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ). Publishing in the wrong venue has real consequences — in 2019 a U.S. federal court ordered the publisher OMICS Group to pay $50.1 million for deceptive peer-review claims. When in doubt about any journal, use the Think. Check. Submit. checklist at thinkchecksubmit.org.
How do I find top-quartile journals in my field?+
Use the browse section: pick your subfield and the table ranks journals by 2-year citations per paper. Tier 1–2 journals roughly correspond to the top quartile of a field. Each row shows open-access status, publication fees (APC), and which trusted indexes list the journal.
See the actual papers these journals publish
Waffoo Search runs AI-powered literature discovery across 30+ biomedical databases — free.
Try Waffoo SearchData: OpenAlex (CC0) · U.S. National Library of Medicine · DOAJ. Quality signals are informational, refreshed periodically, and are not an endorsement or judgment about any journal; no endorsement by NLM/NIH is implied. Spotted an error? Contact us and we'll review it.

