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Announcing PLoS Pathogens “Pearls”

The PLoS Pathogens editors and staff are thrilled to announce the debut of “Pearls,” a new series in the journal that will begin publishing monthly, starting with this June’s issue.

Each Pearl will be a concise primer on a topic of importance, meant to fill the gap between research articles and textbooks. Pearls will be tailored for graduate students and post-docs, while providing a format accessible to a general readership.

In contrast to the dynamic nature of research articles and textbooks, we hope that Pearls will provide a growing compendium of the “lessons that last,” for everyone from the scientist researching an area outside his or her field, to lay readers looking to learn more about a disease that affects them personally.

The benefit of such widely-accessible (not to mention open access!) introductory articles is clear, as evidenced by the level of enthusiasm we found when soliciting potential authors to write the first batch of Pearls. Under the editorial guidance of Dr. Hiten Madhani (University of California, San Francisco) we have seen Pearls grow from a kernel of an idea into what will soon bring focused educational content to readers of the journal.

More than anything, we’re excited to see all the ways in which Pearls may be used once they’re in the public domain: as lab references, class handouts, lecture slides, and undoubtedly in other ways that haven’t even occurred to us yet. We hope you will keep us informed as you find new ways to use them.

Watch for the first Pearl, by Dr. Michael S. Diamond (Washington University School of Medicine), published Friday, June 26 concurrent with an introductory editorial by Dr. Hiten Madhani.

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