AMERICAN JOURNAL OF BIOETHICS

AMERICAN JOURNAL OF BIOETHICS is published by Taylor and Francis Ltd. and is in Zone 1 of Philosophy in the CAS Journal Ranking (2025 upgraded edition, Top journal). By OpenAlex counts of its recent articles, its largest topics are Ethics in medical practice, Ethics in Clinical Research and Ethics and Legal Issues in Pediatric Healthcare, together about 42.5% of its articles. Its main subfields are Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health. (generated from OpenAlex topic counts and CAS ranking data)

The American Journal of Bioethics (AJOB) is an international journal of bioethics that publishes leading research on current ethical challenges in the health sciences. AJOB has followed through on the innovative vision that built bioethics: serious discussion of the social implications of biomedicine. The journal provides an authoritative, annotated conversation that has been used by judges, senators, journalists, scholars, schoolteachers, and many others. Areas of interest include: social implications of clinical research access to health services medical records and data AJOB accepts the following types of article: target articles, open peer commentaries, book reviews, response to open peer commentaries. The journal operates a double-anonymized peer review policy. Information on the journals peer review times and acceptance rate can be found in the "Metrics" tab, and further detail is available on the journals website. You can discover more about bioethics and the AJOB family through bioethics.net, which publishes InFocus articles, current news, and other features on emerging issues in bioethics. Authors can choose to publish gold open access in this journal. Read the Instructions for Authors . AJOB is the companion journal of AJOB Neuroscience and AJOB Empirical Bioethics.

From the journal's Aims & Scope

Research area (LetPub): History & Philosophy Of Science

Editor-in-chief David MagnusPublisher website

Editorial board by country: none in mainland China; most named United States 10 (10 members with a country) Editorial board ↗Publisher website · 2026-10-01

CAS Journal Ranking

JCR / CiteScore quartiles on the journal's website

• JCR Q1 · best quartile · 2025
• CiteScore Q1 · 2025

Publisher-reported: JCR figures are Clarivate's and CiteScore figures Scopus's to confirm; both are a different system from the CAS zones.Publisher website

Database indexing

SCIESSCIScopusLetPub

International journal early-warning lists: not listed in any editionLetPub

Indexing the journal's website claims

MEDLINECINAHLCurrent ContentsPublisher website

Other: Index Medicus, OCLC, Bibliography of Bioethics, Biological Abstracts, Elsevier EMBIOLOGY, Elsevier EMCARE, LEXIS/NEXIS, OCLC ArticleFirst, OCLC Electronic Collections Online, PAIS International, The Philosopher’s Index

As the journal's website lists them, not checked against each database; for Web of Science editions the records above apply.

Editions, and major and minor categories, are shown separately and never merged into one zone; check which edition your institution uses before you submit or report.

Impact

Impact factor

17.47LetPub · 2026-09-13

Impact factor (publisher) 2025

17.6Publisher website · 2026-10-01

5-year impact factor (publisher) 2025

13.8Publisher website · 2026-10-01

CiteScore 2026-06

18.5LetPub · 2026-09-13

CiteScore (publisher) 2025

18.5Publisher website · 2026-10-01

SJR 2026-06

1.65LetPub · 2026-09-13

SJR (publisher) 2025

1.65Publisher website · 2026-10-01

SNIP 2026-06

2.99LetPub · 2026-09-13

SNIP (publisher) 2025

2.99Publisher website · 2026-10-01

h-index

54LetPub · 2026-09-13

h-index

96OpenAlex · 2026-10-01

i10-index

1,549OpenAlex · 2026-10-01

2-year mean citedness

2.15OpenAlex · 2026-10-01

Self-citation rate

33%LetPub · 2026-09-13

Share of gold OA articles

23%LetPub · 2026-09-13

Volume

Articles per year

29LetPub · 2026-09-13

Articles per year (publisher)

3Publisher website · 2026-10-01

Downloads per year (publisher)

742,000Publisher website · 2026-10-01

Sources count differently and were observed at different times, so each source's own value is kept; "publisher" marks figures from the journal's website.

Figures by source

Average review time (community reports)

6–12 weeksLetPub · 2026-09-13

Average acceptance (community reports)

Fairly hardLetPub · 2026-09-13

Acceptance rate (publisher)

36%Publisher website · 2026-10-01

Submission to first decision

11 daysPublisher website · 2026-10-01

First decision after review

57 daysPublisher website · 2026-10-01

Acceptance to publication

54 daysPublisher website · 2026-10-01

Peer review

Double anonymous peer reviewPublisher website

Community reports come from authors' own submissions (confidence 0.5) and are not a promise from the journal; for publisher figures, the journal's own definitions apply.

A hybrid journal charges the APC only when the author chooses open access; publishing under the subscription model is usually free.

The journal's website is authoritative for fees; sources were observed at different times and each keeps its own value, without averaging.

Excerpts are quoted from the journal's website; "model summary" lines are written by Workers AI and checked against the text. The journal's website is authoritative.

Publisher

Taylor and Francis Ltd.

Country or region

UNITED STATES

Language

English

Frequency

Monthly

Founded

2001

ISSN

1526-5161

Electronic ISSN

1536-0075

Latest issue on the website

Volume 26, Issue 10 (2026)

Official links

• Journal homepage ↗OpenAlex
• Submission system ↗Publisher website
• Special issues ↗Publisher website