Journal profile · HEALTH CARE SCIENCES & SERVICES
BMC Palliative Care
ISSN 1472-684X · BioMed Central · ENGLAND · Founded 2002
BMC Palliative Care: CAS Zone 2 · Medicine (2025 upgraded edition); impact factor 3.67; fully open access; APC about USD 3,090; median 138 days to acceptance (126 articles, last 24 months); 347 articles in 2025; indexed in SCIE, SSCI and Scopus.
Scope
Aims, scope and focus
BMC Palliative Care is published by BioMed Central and is in Zone 2 of Medicine in the CAS Journal Ranking (2025 upgraded edition). By OpenAlex counts of its recent articles, its largest topics are Palliative Care and End-of-Life Issues, Cancer survivorship and care and Grief, Bereavement, and Mental Health, together about 50.1% of its articles. (generated from OpenAlex topic counts and CAS ranking data)
BMC Palliative Care is an open access journal publishing original peer-reviewed research articles in clinical, scientific, ethical and policy issues, local and international, regarding all aspects of hospice and palliative care for the dying and for those with profound suffering related to chronic illness. The journal welcomes manuscripts in the following broad sub-topics of palliative care: • Palliative Cancer Care • Ethics, organisation and policy • Knowledge, Education and Training • Palliative care in other conditions • Psychosocial palliative care As a BMC Series journal, BMC Palliative Care upholds the principle that editorial decisions are based on scientific validity rather than the perceived interest or impact of a study. Manuscripts must have a scientifically sound research question, employ suitable methods and analysis, and adhere to community-agreed standards within the research field. We encourage submissions from all researchers, recognising the importance of diverse perspectives and inclusive representation in the scientific community.
From the journal's Aims & Scope
Research area (LetPub): HEALTH CARE SCIENCES & SERVICES
Main research topics OpenAlex counts of recent articles; shares are approximate
- Palliative Care and End-of-Life IssuesMedicine34.6%
- Cancer survivorship and careMedicine8.8%
- Grief, Bereavement, and Mental HealthPsychology6.7%
- Pain Management and Opioid UseMedicine5.5%
- Family and Patient Care in Intensive Care UnitsHealth Professions5.2%
- Childhood Cancer Survivors' Quality of LifeMedicine5%
- Geriatric Care and Nursing HomesHealth Professions3.8%
- Patient-Provider Communication in HealthcareHealth Professions3.8%
Rankings & indexing
CAS ranking and database indexing
CAS Journal Ranking
CAS Journal Ranking, upgraded edition (March 2025)Medicine Zone 2
| Level | Category | Zone |
|---|---|---|
| Major | Medicine | Zone 2 |
| Minor | Health Policy & Services | Zone 1 |
| Minor | Health Care Sciences & Services | Zone 2 |
Top journal: noReview journal: no
CAS Xinrui Journal Ranking (March 2026)Medicine Zone 2
| Level | Category | Zone |
|---|---|---|
| Major | Medicine | Zone 2 |
| Minor | Health Care Sciences & Services | Zone 2 |
| Minor | Health Policy & Services | Zone 2 |
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 | Health Policy & Services | Zone 1 |
| Minor | Health Care Sciences & Services | Zone 2 |
Top journal: noReview journal: no
Database indexing
SCIESSCIScopusDOAJLetPub
International journal early-warning lists: not listed in any editionLetPub
Indexing the journal's website claims
MEDLINEEmbaseCASPublisher website
Other: Google Scholar, ProQuest, Dimensions, CNKI, Baidu, Naver, OCLC, Portico, CLOCKSS, Semantic Scholar
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
- 3.67LetPub ·
- Impact factor (publisher) 2025
- 3.7Publisher website ·
- 5-year impact factor (publisher) 2025
- 4.2Publisher website ·
- CiteScore 2026-06
- 4.9LetPub ·
- SJR 2026-06
- 1.13LetPub ·
- SNIP 2026-06
- 1.56LetPub ·
- h-index
- 32LetPub ·
- h-index
- 90OpenAlex ·
- i10-index
- 1,353OpenAlex ·
- 2-year mean citedness
- 3.72OpenAlex ·
- Self-citation rate
- 10.8%LetPub ·
- Share of gold OA articles
- 99.75%LetPub ·
Volume
- Articles per year
- 330LetPub ·
- Articles per year (publisher)
- 2,025Publisher website ·
- Downloads per year (publisher) 2025
- 2,800,000Publisher website ·
Articles by year OpenAlex count · 2,586 in total · the current year is incomplete
| Year | Articles | Open access | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 361 | 361 | 63 |
| 2025 | 347 | 347 | 1,268 |
| 2024 | 304 | 304 | 2,429 |
| 2023 | 205 | 205 | 2,535 |
| 2022 | 229 | 229 | 4,069 |
| 2021 | 193 | 193 | 4,448 |
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
138 daysMedian, submission to acceptance · P25–P75 92 days – 230 days
- Acceptance to online
- median 11 days (126 articles)
- Submission to online
- median 166 days
- Sample
- 126 articles with submission and acceptance dates (766 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 21 weeksLetPub ·
- Submission to first decision
- 4 daysPublisher website ·
- Submission to publication (journal-reported)
- about 21 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 2,690 / USD 3,090 / GBP 2,290 | Yes | CC BY, CC BY-NC-ND | |
| OpenAlex | USD 2,990 / EUR 2,590 / GBP 2,190 | — | — | |
| LetPub | GBP 2,090 / USD 2,890 / EUR 2,490 | Yes | — | |
| Publisher website | GBP 2,290 / USD 3,090 / EUR 2,690 | — | — |
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 websiteArticle types accepted8
- case reportResearch article Case report Study protocol Review Matters Arising Comment Database article Software articleLength not stated
- commentResearch article Case report Study protocol Review Matters Arising Comment Database article Software articleLength not stated
- database articleResearch article Case report Study protocol Review Matters Arising Comment Database article Software articleLength not stated
- matters arisingResearch article Case report Study protocol Review Matters Arising Comment Database article Software articleLength not stated
- research articleResearch article Case report Study protocol Review Matters Arising Comment Database article Software articleLength not stated
- reviewResearch article Case report Study protocol Review Matters Arising Comment Database article Software articleLength not stated
- software articleResearch article Case report Study protocol Review Matters Arising Comment Database article Software articleLength not stated
- study protocolResearch article Case report Study protocol Review Matters Arising Comment 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
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
Open access under CC BY-NC-ND or CC BY licence; authors retain copyright. Model summary
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 Palliative Care 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
- Founded
- 2002
- ISSN
- 1472-684X
- 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 Palliative Care
What CAS zone is BMC Palliative Care in?
In the 2025 upgraded edition of the CAS Journal Ranking, BMC Palliative Care is in Zone 2 of Medicine, and in Zone 1 of the minor category Health Policy & Services / Health Care Sciences & Services. 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 Palliative Care?
The latest impact factor listed by LetPub is 3.67; CiteScore 4.9, h-index 90.
How long does peer review take at BMC Palliative Care?
Based on the dates recorded on 126 articles published between October 2024 and October 2026 (the last 24 months), the median time from submission to acceptance is 138 days (interquartile range 92–230 days); authors report an average review time of about 21 weeks. 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 Palliative Care?
According to LetPub and DOAJ records, BMC Palliative Care is indexed in SCIE, SSCI, Scopus and DOAJ. The journal's website also lists MEDLINE, Embase and CAS; that list has not been checked against each database.
Is BMC Palliative Care open access, and what is the APC?
BMC Palliative Care is a fully open-access journal. APC about USD 3,090.
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: .