Journal profile · Oncology
BMC Cancer
ISSN 1471-2407 · BioMed Central · ENGLAND · Irregular · Founded 2001
BMC Cancer: CAS Zone 3 · Medicine (2025 upgraded edition); impact factor 4.1; fully open access; APC about USD 3,550; median 131 days to acceptance (190 articles, last 24 months); community-reported acceptance: about 38.12%; 2,104 articles in 2025; indexed in SCIE and Scopus.
Scope
Aims, scope and focus
BMC Cancer is published by BioMed Central and is in Zone 3 of Medicine in the CAS Journal Ranking (2025 upgraded edition). By OpenAlex counts of its recent articles, its largest topics are Cancer Immunotherapy and Biomarkers, Ferroptosis and cancer prognosis and Breast Cancer Treatment Studies, together about 18.8% of its articles. Its main subfields are Oncology. (generated from OpenAlex topic counts and CAS ranking data)
BMC Cancer is an open access, peer-reviewed journal that considers articles on all aspects of cancer research, including the pathophysiology, prevention, diagnosis and treatment of cancers. The journal welcomes submissions concerning molecular and cellular biology, genetics, epidemiology, and clinical trials. The journal welcomes manuscripts in the following broad areas of research: Cell and molecular biology including all aspects of tumor biology from a molecular and cellular point of view. Topics of interest include animal models, hypoxia, angiogenesis, metastasis, cellular signaling, cancer stem cells, DNA damage and repair, cell cycle and apoptosis. Biomarker studies we will publish studies of diagnostic and prognostic markers which may ultimately be applicable in a clinical setting. Please see further information below. Cancer epidemiology related cancer research including all aspects of cancer epidemiology including risk factors for disease initiation and development, social determinants, environmental, behavioural, and occupational correlates. Experimental therapeutics and drug development including all aspects of preclinical investigations on therapeutic agents. It welcomes submissions concerning anti-cancer drug discovery and development, and targeted therapies. Genetics, genomics and epigenetics including all aspects of genome-scale analysis, functional genomics, genetic association studies, pharmacogenomics and epigenetics in relation to cancer biology, diagnosis and therapy. Tumour immunology including on all aspects of infectious agents associated with cancer and tumor immunology. Topics of interest include, but are not limited to, tumor immunity, immunotherapy, cancer vaccines, viral carcinogenesis and virus-host interactions. Therapy studies with focus on clinical research that impacts on the treatment of cancer using systemic chemotherapy, immunotherappy, targeted therapy, and radiation. We further welcome submissions on research looking at therapy resistance mechanisms. Surgical oncology with focus on clinical research that impacts on the diagnosis and treatment of cancer using surgery, diagnostic imaging, interventional therapeutics, and surgical pathology. Systems biology, post-genomic analysis and emerging technologies including all all aspects of the function of biological systems at the molecular and cellular level, in particular those addressing network modeling, quantitative analyses and the integration of different levels of inform
From the journal's Aims & Scope
Research area (LetPub): Oncology
Main research topics OpenAlex counts of recent articles; shares are approximate
- Cancer Immunotherapy and BiomarkersMedicine6.5%
- Ferroptosis and cancer prognosisMedicine6.3%
- Breast Cancer Treatment StudiesBiochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology6%
- Cancer survivorship and careMedicine5.2%
- Global Cancer Incidence and ScreeningMedicine5.1%
- Cancer Cells and MetastasisMedicine4.9%
- Head and Neck Cancer StudiesMedicine4.9%
- Lung Cancer Treatments and MutationsMedicine4.5%
Rankings & indexing
CAS ranking and database indexing
CAS Journal Ranking
CAS Journal Ranking, upgraded edition (March 2025)Medicine Zone 3
| Level | Category | Zone |
|---|---|---|
| Major | Medicine | Zone 3 |
| Minor | Oncology | Zone 3 |
Top journal: noReview journal: no
CAS Xinrui Journal Ranking (March 2026)Medicine Zone 2
| Level | Category | Zone |
|---|---|---|
| Major | Medicine | Zone 2 |
| Minor | Oncology | Zone 3 |
Top journal: noReview journal: not marked
CAS Journal Ranking, previous upgraded edition (December 2023)Medicine Zone 2
| Level | Category | Zone |
|---|---|---|
| Major | Medicine | Zone 2 |
| Minor | Oncology | Zone 3 |
Top journal: yesReview journal: no
Database indexing
SCIEScopusDOAJLetPub
International journal early-warning lists: not listed in any editionLetPub
Indexing the journal's website claims
MEDLINEEmbaseCASCAB AbstractsPublisher website
Other: Google Scholar, ProQuest, Dimensions, CNKI, Baidu, Naver, OCLC, Portico, CLOCKSS
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.
Metrics
Impact metrics and publication volume
Impact
- Impact factor
- 4.1LetPub ·
- Impact factor (publisher) 2025
- 4.1Publisher website ·
- 5-year impact factor (publisher) 2025
- 4.1Publisher website ·
- CiteScore 2026-06
- 5.7LetPub ·
- SJR 2026-06
- 1.17LetPub ·
- SNIP 2026-06
- 1.08LetPub ·
- h-index
- 111LetPub ·
- h-index
- 206OpenAlex ·
- i10-index
- 13,673OpenAlex ·
- 2-year mean citedness
- 3.92OpenAlex ·
- Self-citation rate
- 2.4%LetPub ·
- Share of gold OA articles
- 99.96%LetPub ·
Volume
- Articles per year
- 2,065LetPub ·
- Downloads per year (publisher) 2025
- 16,700,000Publisher website ·
Articles by year OpenAlex count · 21,168 in total · the current year is incomplete
| Year | Articles | Open access | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 1,505 | 1,505 | 354 |
| 2025 | 2,104 | 2,104 | 7,351 |
| 2024 | 1,605 | 1,605 | 12,713 |
| 2023 | 1,262 | 1,262 | 15,695 |
| 2022 | 1,373 | 1,373 | 23,118 |
| 2021 | 1,357 | 1,357 | 29,974 |
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.
Review & acceptance
Review time and acceptance
Review time from article dates manuscript dates registered with Crossref · to
131 daysMedian, submission to acceptance · P25–P75 86 days – 201 days
- Acceptance to online
- median 12 days (190 articles)
- Submission to online
- median 155 days
- Sample
- 190 articles with submission and acceptance dates (3,993 in the window); the latest was accepted on
Only articles that were accepted and published are counted, not the time spent on rejected manuscripts, so this usually runs longer than a publisher's "time to first decision".
Other sources
- Average review time (community reports)
- about 6.8 monthsLetPub ·
- Average acceptance (community reports)
- 38.12%LetPub ·
- Submission to first decision
- 6 daysPublisher website ·
- Submission to publication (journal-reported)
- about 19 weeksDOAJ ·
- Peer review
- Open peer reviewDOAJ
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.
Fees & open access
APC and open-access policy
Fully open accessDOAJ
Every article is open access; authors usually pay an article processing charge (APC).
| Source | APC | Fee waiver | License | Observed |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| DOAJ | EUR 3,150 / USD 3,550 / GBP 2,690 | Yes | CC BY, CC BY-NC-ND | |
| OpenAlex | USD 3,390 / EUR 2,990 / GBP 2,590 | — | — | |
| LetPub | GBP 2,690 / USD 3,550 / EUR 3,150 | Yes | — | |
| Publisher website | GBP 2,690 / USD 3,550 / EUR 3,150 | — | — |
The journal's website is authoritative for fees; sources were observed at different times and each keeps its own value, without averaging.
Submission
Article types and submission policies (journal website)
Open calls for papers3, by deadline
Publisher websiteWhat to prepare3 items from the author guidelines
- Reference style
- Numbered, in order of citation
- Templates
- LaTeX and Word
- Suggested reviewers
- Optional
Article types accepted8
- commentResearch article Study protocol Review Matters Arising Comment Systematic Review Database article Software articleLength not stated
- database articleResearch article Study protocol Review Matters Arising Comment Systematic Review Database article Software articleLength not stated
- matters arisingResearch article Study protocol Review Matters Arising Comment Systematic Review Database article Software articleLength not stated
- research articleResearch article Study protocol Review Matters Arising Comment Systematic Review Database article Software articleLength not stated
- reviewResearch article Study protocol Review Matters Arising Comment Systematic Review Database article Software articleLength not stated
- software articleResearch article Study protocol Review Matters Arising Comment Systematic Review Database article Software articleLength not stated
- study protocolResearch article Study protocol Review Matters Arising Comment Systematic Review Database article Software articleLength not stated
- systematic reviewResearch article Study protocol Review Matters Arising Comment Systematic Review Database article Software articleLength not stated
Policy excerpts from the journal's websiteData availability, License & copyright, Open access, Peer review
- Data availability Formatting the 'Availability of data and materials' section of your manuscript
Manuscripts consisting solely of bioinformatics, computational analysis, or predictions of public databases which are not accompanied by validation will not be considered. Model summary
The following format for the 'Availability of data and materials section of your manuscript should be used:
Source ↗Publisher website ·- License & copyright Licensing and copyright
Creative Commons licences Open access articles in Springer Nature journals are published under Creative Commons licences. These provide an industry-standard framework to support easy re-use of open access material. Under Creative Commons licences, authors retain copyright of their articles. BMC Cancer articles are published open access under a CC BY-NC-ND (Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commerci…
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Open access Benefits of open access
Publishing open access (OA) offers a number of benefits, including greater reach and readership for your work: Cited more 1.6x more citations of OA articles than non-OA articles across all subjects Downloaded more 4x more downloads of OA articles than non-OA articles Greater impact 2.5x more Altmetric attention. OA articles attracted 1.9x more news mentions and 1.2x more policy mentions Open acces…
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Peer review Peer review policy
Editorial decisions are based on scientific validity, not perceived interest or impact. Model summary
Peer review is the process used to evaluate the quality of a manuscript before publication. Independent researchers in the relevant field assess submitted manuscripts to check their validity and robustness. Their feedback guides editors in making publication decisions. Typically, two or more experts evaluate each manuscript based on three main criteria: scientific robustness: is the research metho…
Source ↗Publisher website ·
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.
Profile
Publication details and official links
- Publisher
- BioMed Central
- Country or region
- ENGLAND
- Language
- English
- Frequency
- Irregular
- Founded
- 2001
- ISSN
- 1471-2407
- Official links
- Journal homepage ↗DOAJ
- Submission system ↗LetPub
- Author guidelines ↗DOAJ
- Aims & Scope ↗DOAJ
- Special issues ↗Publisher website
- APC information ↗DOAJ
- Fee waivers ↗DOAJ
- Open access statement ↗DOAJ
- License & copyright ↗DOAJ
- Peer review process ↗DOAJ
- Editorial board ↗DOAJ
- Plagiarism policy ↗DOAJ
FAQ
Frequently asked questions about BMC Cancer
What CAS zone is BMC Cancer in?
In the 2025 upgraded edition of the CAS Journal Ranking, BMC Cancer is in Zone 3 of Medicine, and in Zone 3 of the minor category Oncology. In the 2026 Xinrui edition it is in Zone 2 of Medicine. Zones from different editions, and from major and minor categories, are not interchangeable.
What is the impact factor of BMC Cancer?
The latest impact factor listed by LetPub is 4.1; CiteScore 5.7, h-index 206.
How long does peer review take at BMC Cancer?
Based on the dates recorded on 190 articles published between October 2024 and October 2026 (the last 24 months), the median time from submission to acceptance is 131 days (interquartile range 86–201 days); authors report an average review time of about 6.8 months; the community-reported acceptance is “about 38.12%”. Article statistics cover accepted papers only, publisher figures follow the journal's own definitions, and community reports come from authors' own submissions; none is a promise from the journal.
What are the manuscript requirements of BMC Cancer?
According to the journal's author guidelines: Reference style: Numbered, in order of citation; Templates: LaTeX and Word; Suggested reviewers: Optional. A model extracted these from the author guidelines and each was checked against the text; check the latest version on the journal's website before submitting.
Which databases index BMC Cancer?
According to LetPub and DOAJ records, BMC Cancer is indexed in SCIE, Scopus and DOAJ. The journal's website also lists MEDLINE, Embase, CAS and CAB Abstracts; that list has not been checked against each database.
Is BMC Cancer open access, and what is the APC?
BMC Cancer is a fully open-access journal. APC about USD 3,550.
Sources and updates
The facts on this page come from LetPub, OpenAlex, DOAJ, Publisher website; every figure is tagged with its source and the date it was observed, and conflicting values are kept per source. LetPub source page: view ↗ (archived 2026-08-25). Last updated: .