Call for Submissions: A PLOS Water Article Series on ‘In-line Chlorination of Drinking Water’

PLOS Water is pleased to announce a new Article Series collection on the topic of In-line Chlorination of Drinking Water. This collection is motivated by an urgent need to accelerate delivery of safely managed drinking water (SDG 6.1) worldwide, especially in areas where centralized water treatment approaches are not feasible. Fecal contamination is the leading barrier to providing access to safely managed drinking water globally. In-line chlorination (ILC) devices automatically dose chlorine to achieve water system scale disinfection, with most technologies able to operate without electricity and with minimal maintenance. ILC has the potential to overcome barriers associated with scaling household disinfection approaches, such as the need for sustained behavior change. However, the diversity of water infrastructure in rural, peri-urban, and informal settlements necessitates different ILC technologies and context-specific implementation models.

The Guest Editors for this collection are Prof. Amy Pickering (UC Berkeley) and Dr. Sara Marks (Eawag). We welcome submissions from researchers, practitioners, and policymakers who are making advancements in the field of ILC. Topics of interest include (but aren’t limited to):

1. Implementation models: Research that investigates strategies for ensuring sustained operation of in-line chlorination devices across different contexts, including how to assess if in-line chlorination is the right water treatment strategy for a given context, how to incentivize consistent dosing, and cost effectiveness.
2. Health and well-being impacts: Effect of in-line chlorination programs on waterborne disease, satisfaction with water service, and time burden of water management, including if effects are different by gender.
3. User acceptance: Evaluations of user adoption of in-line chlorinated water, including how taste preferences, social norms, sensitization activities, messaging, and dosing levels affect adoption.
4. Innovations in monitoring: Strategies for leveraging advances in sensing and machine learning for cost-effective monitoring of in-line chlorine device performance and water quality.

We invite researchers to submit their manuscripts by 31 August 2026. Submissions will undergo a rigorous peer-review process in accordance with PLOS Water’s guidelines . Accepted papers will be published as part of this Article Series collection on a rolling basis to ensure timely dissemination of findings.

For questions about the collection or to express an interest in submitting an article, please contact either the Guest Editors; Prof. Amy Pickering or Dr. Sara Marks, or alternatively the PLOS Water Executive Editor, Guillaume Wright. 

Ready to submit your research to this collection in PLOS Water? Follow our step-by-step guide to the submission process, and ensure you enter ‘In-line Chlorination of Drinking Water’ in the free-text field for collections during the submission process of your article. We look forward to your valuable contributions!