Women in Infectious Agents and Disease: 2025

Please note that to be considered for this collection, the first author or at least one corresponding author should be a researcher who identifies as a woman.

Following the success of the previous editions, Frontiers in Microbiology is thrilled to once again host a Research Topic dedicated to celebrating the contributions and achievements of women in the field of Infectious Agents and Disease, as we collectively strive to embrace equity within the microbiology community.

There is continued gender disparity within core STEM subjects. According to UNESCO Institute for Statistics, just 33% of the world's active researchers are women. While the number of women attending university is growing, they still represent the minority of doctoral students and researchers. Women remain under-represented in the highest level of academia, holding just 26% of full professorships. This is even more skewed in industry with just 3% of STEM industry CEOs being women. As highlighted by UNESCO, science and gender equality are essential to ensure sustainable development.

This Research Topic will act as a platform to promote the work of female researchers across the entire breadth of Infectious Agents and Disease, including:

• Emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases, and zoonotic infectious diseases;

• Causal agents of human disease including infections acquired in healthcare settings;

• Experimental pathogenicity studies that better represent the diversity of pathogenic species;

• Applied research studies that may lead to development of rapid and accurate identification tests and adapted prevention/treatment measures.

This Research Topic is open for submissions including Original Research, Reviews, Mini Reviews, Methods, Opinion and Perspective articles.


Any articles focused on research metrics and gender perspectives or bias in scientific publications would be best suited in Frontiers in Research Metrics and Analytics journal.

Article types and fees

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Brief Research Report
• Classification
• Clinical Trial
• Community Case Study
• Conceptual Analysis
• Curriculum, Instruction, and Pedagogy
• Data Report
• Editorial
• FAIR² Data
• ... View all formats

Articles that are accepted for publication by our external editors following rigorous peer review incur a publishing fee charged to Authors, institutions, or funders.

Article types

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Brief Research Report
• Classification
• Clinical Trial
• Community Case Study
• Conceptual Analysis
• Curriculum, Instruction, and Pedagogy
• Data Report
• Editorial
• FAIR² Data
• FAIR² DATA Direct Submission
• General Commentary
• Hypothesis and Theory
• Methods
• Mini Review
• Opinion
• Original Research
• Perspective
• Policy and Practice Reviews
• Policy Brief
• Review
• Study Protocol
• Systematic Review
• Technology and Code

Keywords: Microbiology, WomenInSTEM, InternationalWomensDay, gender equality, Women in Science, CollectionSeries, equity

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.