Journal profile · MEDICAL ETHICS
BMC Medical Ethics
ISSN 1472-6939 · BioMed Central · ENGLAND · Irregular · Founded 2000
BMC Medical Ethics: CAS Zone 1 · Philosophy (2025 upgraded edition, Top journal); impact factor 3.8; fully open access; APC about USD 2,390; median 147 days to acceptance (122 articles, last 24 months); community-reported acceptance: fairly easy; 197 articles in 2025; indexed in SCIE, SSCI and Scopus.
Scope
Aims, scope and focus
BMC Medical Ethics is published by BioMed Central 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 Clinical Research, Ethics in medical practice and Palliative Care and End-of-Life Issues, together about 41.9% of its articles. Its main subfields are Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health. (generated from OpenAlex topic counts and CAS ranking data)
BMC Medical Ethics is an open access, peer-reviewed journal that considers articles on all aspects of ethics in medicine. The journal welcomes research on ethical issues in biomedical research, clinical practice, public health, and health policy, including topics such as clinician conduct, emerging technologies, patient care, legislation, and judicial decisions. The journal welcomes normative and empirical work on bioethics. All submissions to the journal must engage substantively with ethical considerations. Topics covered in the journal include: Biomedical research ethics Clinical ethics Public health ethics Global health ethics Digital health ethics Health policy and law Medical ethics education Methodology in bioethics As a BMC Series journal, BMC Medical Ethics does not make editorial decisions based on the perceived interest or potential impact of a study. Manuscripts are considered for publication if they are scientifically valid. For research articles, this includes having a clearly defined and sound research question, appropriate methodology and analysis, and adherence to community-agreed standards relevant to the field.
From the journal's Aims & Scope
Research area (LetPub): MEDICAL ETHICS
Main research topics OpenAlex counts of recent articles; shares are approximate
- Ethics in Clinical ResearchMedicine19.7%
- Ethics in medical practiceHealth Professions13.5%
- Palliative Care and End-of-Life IssuesMedicine8.7%
- Patient-Provider Communication in HealthcareHealth Professions5.6%
- Healthcare Decision-Making and RestraintsPsychology5.3%
- Ethics and Legal Issues in Pediatric HealthcareMedicine4.5%
- Organ Donation and TransplantationMedicine3.8%
- Patient Dignity and PrivacyMedicine3.5%
Rankings & indexing
CAS ranking and database indexing
CAS Journal Ranking
CAS Journal Ranking, upgraded edition (March 2025)Philosophy Zone 1
| Level | Category | Zone |
|---|---|---|
| Major | Philosophy | Zone 1 |
| Minor | Medical Ethics | Zone 1 |
| Minor | Ethics | Zone 2 |
| Minor | Social Sciences, Biomedical | Zone 2 |
Top journal: yesReview journal: no
CAS Xinrui Journal Ranking (March 2026)Philosophy Zone 1
| Level | Category | Zone |
|---|---|---|
| Major | Philosophy | Zone 1 |
| Minor | Ethics | Zone 2 |
| Minor | Medical Ethics | Zone 2 |
| Minor | Social Sciences, Biomedical | Zone 2 |
Top journal: yesReview journal: not marked
CAS Journal Ranking, previous upgraded edition (December 2023)Philosophy Zone 1
| Level | Category | Zone |
|---|---|---|
| Major | Philosophy | Zone 1 |
| Minor | Ethics | Zone 2 |
| Minor | Medical Ethics | Zone 2 |
| Minor | Social Sciences, Biomedical | Zone 2 |
Top journal: yesReview journal: no
Database indexing
SCIESSCIScopusDOAJLetPub
International journal early-warning lists: not listed in any editionLetPub
Indexing the journal's website claims
MEDLINEPsycINFOCASPublisher 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
- 3.8LetPub ·
- Impact factor (publisher) 2025
- 3.8Publisher website ·
- 5-year impact factor (publisher) 2025
- 4.3Publisher website ·
- CiteScore 2026-06
- 5.7LetPub ·
- SJR 2026-06
- 1.02LetPub ·
- SNIP 2026-06
- 1.68LetPub ·
- h-index
- 35LetPub ·
- h-index
- 96OpenAlex ·
- i10-index
- 1,094OpenAlex ·
- 2-year mean citedness
- 4.25OpenAlex ·
- Self-citation rate
- 5.3%LetPub ·
- Share of gold OA articles
- 100%LetPub ·
Volume
- Articles per year
- 193LetPub ·
- Downloads per year (publisher) 2025
- 2,500,000Publisher website ·
Articles by year OpenAlex count · 1,941 in total · the current year is incomplete
| Year | Articles | Open access | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 258 | 258 | 97 |
| 2025 | 197 | 197 | 917 |
| 2024 | 155 | 155 | 1,578 |
| 2023 | 111 | 111 | 1,422 |
| 2022 | 140 | 140 | 2,963 |
| 2021 | 171 | 171 | 5,163 |
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
147 daysMedian, submission to acceptance · P25–P75 98 days – 233 days
- Acceptance to online
- median 19 days (122 articles)
- Submission to online
- median 167 days
- Sample
- 122 articles with submission and acceptance dates (500 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)
- over 12 weeksLetPub ·
- Average acceptance (community reports)
- Fairly easyLetPub ·
- Submission to first decision
- 9 daysPublisher website ·
- Submission to publication (journal-reported)
- about 25 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 2,090 / USD 2,390 / GBP 1,690 | Yes | CC BY, CC BY-NC-ND | |
| OpenAlex | USD 2,290 / EUR 1,990 / GBP 1,590 | — | — | |
| LetPub | GBP 1,390 / USD 2,090 / EUR 1,790 | Yes | — | |
| Publisher website | GBP 1,690 / USD 2,390 / EUR 2,090 | — | — |
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 websitePolicy 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
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 Medical Ethics articles are published open access under a CC BY-NC-ND (Creative Commons Attribution Non-…
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
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
- 2000
- ISSN
- 1472-6939
- Official links
- Journal homepage ↗DOAJ
- Submission system ↗LetPub
- Author guidelines ↗LetPub
- Aims & Scope ↗LetPub
- Special issues ↗Publisher website
- APC information ↗DOAJ
- Fee waivers ↗DOAJ
- Open access statement ↗DOAJ
- License & copyright ↗DOAJ
- Peer review process ↗LetPub
- Editorial board ↗LetPub
- Plagiarism policy ↗DOAJ
FAQ
Frequently asked questions about BMC Medical Ethics
What CAS zone is BMC Medical Ethics in?
In the 2025 upgraded edition of the CAS Journal Ranking, BMC Medical Ethics is in Zone 1 of Philosophy, and in Zone 1 of the minor category Medical Ethics / Ethics / Social Sciences, Biomedical; it is a Top journal. In the 2026 Xinrui edition it is in Zone 1 of Philosophy. Zones from different editions, and from major and minor categories, are not interchangeable.
What is the impact factor of BMC Medical Ethics?
The latest impact factor listed by LetPub is 3.8; CiteScore 5.7, h-index 96.
How long does peer review take at BMC Medical Ethics?
Based on the dates recorded on 122 articles published between October 2024 and October 2026 (the last 24 months), the median time from submission to acceptance is 147 days (interquartile range 98–233 days); authors report an average review time of over 12 weeks; the community-reported acceptance is “Fairly easy”. 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.
Which databases index BMC Medical Ethics?
According to LetPub and DOAJ records, BMC Medical Ethics is indexed in SCIE, SSCI, Scopus and DOAJ. The journal's website also lists MEDLINE, PsycINFO and CAS; that list has not been checked against each database.
Is BMC Medical Ethics open access, and what is the APC?
BMC Medical Ethics is a fully open-access journal. APC about USD 2,390.
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 2026-08-26). Last updated: .