Fastest-accepting infectious diseases journals 2026

73 infectious diseases journals ranked by the median number of days from submission to acceptance, measured from the dates publishers deposit in PubMed for articles published 2024–2025. The interval includes peer review and revisions.

Journals: 73
Typical median: 104 d
Under 60 days: 9
Over 180 days: 7

Read this before using the ranking

Accepted papers only. Rejected manuscripts never receive an acceptance date, so these figures say nothing about desk-rejection speed, rejection rates or your chance of acceptance.
Not the time to a first decision. The interval runs from the “received” date to the “accepted” date the publisher deposits in PubMed. It includes editorial handling, peer review, every round of revision and the time authors spent revising.
Journals record dates differently. Some reset the received date when a revised manuscript arrives, and manuscripts transferred from another journal may keep or lose their earlier dates. Short medians are therefore not always comparable with long ones.
Past timelines are not a promise. Each figure comes from up to 100 recent articles published 2024–2025. Article types, special issues, editors and workload all change, and your paper may take much longer or much less time.
Fast is not the same as good. Check the journal’s scope, indexing, peer-review policy and editorial board before submitting. An unusually quick acceptance can be a warning sign of light peer review.

Journal Metrics is independent and is not affiliated with any journal or publisher listed. The figures are for information only, may contain errors and change as PubMed records are updated. Confirm current timelines on the journal’s own website. See how to spot predatory journals.

Infectious Diseases journals by median days from submission to acceptance

Infectious Diseases journals ranked by median days from submission to acceptance in PubMed
Rank	Journal	Median days	Middle half	Articles	Quartile	2026 score
1	Pathogens	31	22–45	100	Q1	3.9
2	Viruses-Basel	34	25–43	100	Q1	4.2
3	Diseases	43	35–55	100	Q1	3.6
4	Pan African Medical Journal	50	13–225	100	Q3	0.9
5	IJID Regions	55	35–78	99	Q2	2.1
6	Public Health Action	56	32–77	69	Q3	1.1
7	LANCET INFECTIOUS DISEASES	57	7–80	92	Q1	11.3
7	INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF INFECTIOUS DISEASES	57	41–86	100	Q2	2.4
9	Precision Clinical Medicine	60	37–80	74	Q1	5.7
10	Journal of Epidemiology and Global Health	63	44–120	99	Q1	4.5
11	China CDC Weekly	65	37–93	100	Q1	2.5
11	GERMS	65	30–119	54	Q2	2.0
13	SOUTHERN AFRICAN JOURNAL OF HIV MEDICINE	67	49–80	67	Q2	1.8
13	Infection and Chemotherapy	67	35–84	100	Q2	2.4
13	Journal of Virus Eradication	67	41–91	59	Q4	0.6
16	Global Health & Medicine	76	39–108	100	Q2	1.8
16	Current Opinion in Virology	76	51–142	47	Q1	3.1
18	Infectious Medicine	80	56–118	88	Q1	3.6
19	INFECTION GENETICS AND EVOLUTION	82	57–116	100	Q1	2.5
20	Infectious Diseases and Clinical Microbiology	83	62–123	100	Q3	0.9
20	AIDS Research and Therapy	83	63–134	100	Q1	2.1
20	Lancet HIV	83	15–136	75	Q1	5.3
20	Archives of Iranian Medicine	83	48–140	100	Q2	1.5
24	Southern African Journal of Infectious Diseases	85	60–119	63	Q3	0.8
25	AIDS	90	58–135	97	Q2	1.8
25	REVIEWS IN MEDICAL VIROLOGY	90	49–154	100	Q1	4.9
27	Journal of Hospital Infection	93	65–136	99	Q1	2.5
27	Journal of the Association of Medical Microbiology and Infectious Disease Canada (JAMMI)	93	68–139	69	Q3	0.7
29	HIV MEDICINE	95	69–134	98	Q2	1.8
30	JOURNAL OF KOREAN MEDICAL SCIENCE	98	64–142	100	Q1	2.8
30	Med	98	12–160	100	Q1	8.4
32	Infectious Diseases Now	99	59–140	100	Q2	2.1
32	WIENER KLINISCHE WOCHENSCHRIFT	99	62–151	89	Q2	1.4
34	JOURNAL OF INFECTION	101	75–129	99	Q1	6.6
34	Lancet Regional Health-Europe	101	77–132	98	Q1	8.4
36	Lancet Global Health	103	18–192	100	Q1	10.6
37	npj Viruses	104	81–148	98	Q1	5.1
38	HIV AIDS-Research and Palliative Care	109	90–132	75	Q1	2.4
39	Biosafety and Health	114	89–144	99	Q2	3.3
39	CURRENT HIV RESEARCH	114	87–152	81	Q3	0.9
41	Advances in Laboratory Medicine-Avances en Medicina de Laboratorio	116	77–167	96	Q4	0.5
42	EClinicalMedicine	119	95–142	98	Q1	11.5
42	VirusDisease	119	72–215	92	Q3	1.5
44	Journal of Public Health in Africa	125	85–151	100	Q3	1.0
44	Journal of Family Medicine and Primary Care	125	87–159	100	Q2	1.3
46	Journal of Infection and Public Health	127	84–171	99	Q1	3.6
47	JOURNAL OF MEDICAL VIROLOGY	129	103–176	100	Q1	3.3
48	Biomedical Journal	133	86–206	100	Q1	4.5
49	VIROLOGICA SINICA	134	104–181	98	Q2	2.7
50	Journal of Infection in Developing Countries	139	99–199	100	Q3	1.6
50	Lancet Microbe	139	3–248	91	Q1	11.5
52	Lancet Regional Health-Americas	140	68–188	99	Q1	4.0
53	African Journal of Laboratory Medicine	141	108–183	64	Q3	1.1
54	JOURNAL OF THE FORMOSAN MEDICAL ASSOCIATION	145	96–236	100	Q3	1.2
55	APMIS	146	84–188	99	Q2	1.8
56	MEDICAL PRINCIPLES AND PRACTICE	150	121–194	99	Q1	2.8
57	Brazilian Journal of Infectious Diseases	153	124–172	100	Q4	0.2
58	Clinical Pathology	154	102–216	30	Q1	6.0
59	JAIDS-JOURNAL OF ACQUIRED IMMUNE DEFICIENCY SYNDROMES	155	113–203	76	Q1	2.3
60	Advances in Virology	161	123–257	32	Q2	1.8
61	Therapeutic Advances in Infectious Disease	162	125–218	100	Q2	2.4
62	Zoonoses and Public Health	163	112–231	100	Q1	2.6
63	Global Health Epidemiology and Genomics	167	119–257	27	Q2	1.6
64	EBioMedicine	171	126–199	100	Q1	9.6
65	Signal Transduction and Targeted Therapy	172	130–227	100	Q1	48.6
66	BMC Global and Public Health	175	139–241	99	Q1	4.0
67	BMC INFECTIOUS DISEASES	187	95–291	100	Q1	2.9
68	AIDS Research and Treatment	190	156–293	39	Q3	1.1
69	BMJ Medicine	197	121–291	82	Q1	6.4
70	Journal of the International AIDS Society	204	173–232	98	Q1	3.3
71	Health Science Reports	245	184–310	100	Q1	2.5
72	Communications Medicine	256	190–337	100	Q1	5.3
73	Immunity Inflammation and Disease	261	184–319	95	Q1	3.9

Median days: half of the journal’s accepted articles took less time from submission to acceptance and half took more. Middle half: the 25th to 75th percentile. Articles: how many recent PubMed articles had both dates. Journals with the same rounded median share a rank.

Median under 30 days. Very short intervals usually reflect how a journal records its dates (for example a new received date after revision) or invited and fast-track article types such as reviews and editorials, not unusually quick peer review. Check the journal’s peer-review policy before reading anything into them.

Questions about infectious diseases journal acceptance times

Which infectious diseases journals accept papers fastest?

Among the 73 infectious diseases journals with enough PubMed dates, the shortest median times from submission to acceptance (leaving out medians under 30 days, which usually reflect how dates are recorded) are Pathogens (31 days), Viruses-Basel (34 days), Diseases (43 days), Pan African Medical Journal (50 days), IJID Regions (55 days). These medians include peer review and revisions, and cover accepted papers only.

How long does a infectious diseases journal take to accept a paper?

The typical infectious diseases journal on this page has a median of 104 days from submission to acceptance. 9 of 73 journals have a median under 60 days and 7 take more than 180 days.

Is this the peer review time?

No. PubMed records when a manuscript was received and when it was accepted, not the individual review stages. The interval includes editorial handling, peer review, revisions and the time authors spent revising, so it is longer than the time to a first decision. For first-decision times, check the journal’s own website.

Does a fast journal mean my paper is more likely to be accepted?

No. Only accepted papers have an acceptance date, so this ranking says nothing about acceptance rates or how quickly a journal rejects papers. A very fast acceptance can also be a sign of light peer review. Check the journal’s scope, indexing and peer-review policy before submitting.

About this data

Source: the received and accepted dates publishers deposit in PubMed, read through the public NCBI E-utilities for articles published 2024-01-01 to 2025-12-31, up to 100 recent articles per journal. Data checked 2026-11-03.
A journal is ranked only when at least 20 articles have both dates and at least half of the articles checked have them. Journals that do not deposit dates in PubMed, including most journals outside the life sciences, cannot be ranked here.
The ranking uses each journal’s median: half of its accepted articles took less time and half took more. The middle-half range shows the 25th to 75th percentile.
Fields come from the OpenAlex classification of each journal’s research topics. A journal joins a field when at least two of its four main topics are in it, so a journal can appear in more than one field and some classifications are imperfect.
Quartile and score are the journal’s best OpenAlex subfield quartile and its Journal Metrics Score, shown for context; they play no part in the order.

The full journal-level dataset is in the journal acceptance times study (with a CSV download). Spot an error or a journal whose dates look wrong? Tell us.

Other fields