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

#Journalh-indexCitations/paper (2 yr)TierAccessIndexed in
1MMWR Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
25418.88FlagshipOpen access · APC —PubMed · Core
2EClinicalMedicine
Elsevier BV
14911.57Leading field journalOpen access · APC $5,000PubMed · DOAJ · Core
3The Lancet Infectious Diseases
Elsevier BV
37411.44Leading field journalSubscriptionPubMed · Core
4PLoS Medicine
Public Library of Science
3538.06Leading field journalOpen access · APC $6,300PubMed · DOAJ · Core
5Emerging Microbes & Infections
Taylor & Francis
1327.16Leading field journalOpen access · APC $2,643PubMed · DOAJ · Core
6Emerging infectious diseases
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
3296.02Leading field journalOpen access · APC —PubMed · DOAJ · Core
7The Lancet HIV
Elsevier BV
1195.38Leading field journalSubscriptionPubMed · Core
8Virulence
Taylor & Francis
1285.01Leading field journalOpen access · APC $2,557PubMed · DOAJ · Core
9Reviews in Medical Virology
Wiley
1314.89Leading field journalSubscriptionPubMed · Core
10Current HIV/AIDS Reports
Springer Science+Business Media
984.74Leading field journalSubscriptionPubMed · Core
11Antimicrobial Resistance and Infection Control
BioMed Central
1074.65Leading field journalOpen access · APC $2,990PubMed · DOAJ · Core
12mSphere
American Society for Microbiology
1044.55Leading field journalOpen access · APC $3,500PubMed · DOAJ · Core
13Frontiers in Cellular and Infection Microbiology
Frontiers Media
1844.47Solid specialistOpen access · APC $3,295PubMed · DOAJ · Core
14Clinical Microbiology and Infection
Elsevier BV
2514.39Leading field journalSubscriptionPubMed · Core
15Journal of Clinical Microbiology
American Society for Microbiology
3674.25Leading field journalOpen access · APC —PubMed · DOAJ · Core
16Viruses
Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute
1884.2Solid specialistOpen access · APC $2,895PubMed · DOAJ · Core
17Vaccines
Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute
1354.13Solid specialistOpen access · APC $2,450PubMed · DOAJ · Core
18Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy
American Society for Microbiology
3574.03Leading field journalSubscriptionPubMed · Core
19Expert Review of Anti-infective Therapy
Taylor & Francis
1253.94Solid specialistSubscriptionPubMed · Core
20Journal of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy
Oxford University Press
2673.93Leading field journalSubscriptionPubMed · Core
21Pathogens
Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute
1213.91Solid specialistOpen access · APC $2,450PubMed · DOAJ · Core
22Veterinary Research
BioMed Central
1483.84Solid specialistOpen access · APC $2,190PubMed · DOAJ · Core
23Infection and Immunity
American Society for Microbiology
3353.74Leading field journalOpen access · APC —PubMed · DOAJ · Core
24Microbial Pathogenesis
Elsevier BV
1393.64Solid specialistSubscriptionPubMed · Core
25Microbiology Spectrum
American Society for Microbiology
1373.6Solid specialistOpen access · APC $2,500PubMed · DOAJ · Core
26Journal of Infection and Public Health
Elsevier BV
1013.6Solid specialistOpen access · APC $2,000PubMed · DOAJ · Core
27Anaerobe
Elsevier BV
1213.49Solid specialistSubscriptionPubMed · Core
28Journal of the International AIDS Society
International AIDS Society
1183.32Solid specialistOpen access · APC $2,600PubMed · DOAJ · Core
29Current Opinion in HIV and AIDS
Lippincott Williams & Wilkins
1003.3Solid specialistSubscriptionPubMed · Core
30Journal of Medical Microbiology
Microbiology Society
1693.14Solid specialistSubscriptionPubMed · 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 Search

Data: 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.