Journal profile · PEDIATRICS
BMC Pediatrics
ISSN 1471-2431 · BioMed Central · ENGLAND · Irregular · Founded 2001
BMC Pediatrics: CAS Zone 3 · Medicine (2025 upgraded edition); impact factor 2.33; fully open access; APC about USD 3,190; median 137 days to acceptance (197 articles, last 24 months); 1,092 articles in 2025; indexed in SCIE and Scopus.
Scope
Aims, scope and focus
BMC Pediatrics 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 Infant Development and Preterm Care, Neonatal Respiratory Health Research and Obesity, Physical Activity, Diet, together about 28.3% of its articles. Its main subfields are Pediatrics, Perinatology and Child Health. (generated from OpenAlex topic counts and CAS ranking data)
BMC Pediatrics is an open access journal publishing peer-reviewed research articles in all aspects of health care in neonates, children and adolescents, as well as related molecular genetics, pathophysiology, and epidemiology. BMC Pediatrics publishes research that explores topics of health and healthcare from birth to 21 years of age. We welcome manuscripts in the following broad areas of research: Behavior and development including studies examining behavioral and developmental disorders in neonates, children, and adolescents. We welcome research focusing on motor development, neurodevelopment, cerebral palsy, puberty, and autism. General pediatric medicine and surgery including studies of general medicine and surgical intervention, such as cardiology, respiratory disorders, gastroenterology, dentistry, emergency medicine and critical care medicine. Genetics and congenital disorders including studies examining pediatric genetic and congenital disorders such as Kawasaki disease, sickle cell disease, and congenital heart disease. Global and public health including studies of healthcare policy, healthcare provision, and pediatric morbidity and mortality. We welcome research exploring social determinants of health, digital health, mental health, chronic disease epidemiology, health behaviors, nutritional health and epidemiology, and vaccinations. Infection including studies regarding the epidemiology, pathology, prevention, and control of infectious diseases such as diarrheal disease, gastroenteritis and bacterial infectious diseases Neonatology including studies regarding all aspects of neonatal health, disease, care, and outcomes. Nutrition, diet, physical health and endocrinology including studies regarding physical activity, nutrition, diet, and endocrinology, such as obesity, sedentary behavior, associations between physical activity and health, Metabolic syndrome, and Diabetes. BMC Pediatrics does not make editorial decisions on the basis of the interest of a study or its likely impact. Studies must be scientifically valid; for research articles this includes a scientifically sound research question, the use of suitable methods and analysis, and following community-agreed standards relevant to the research field.
From the journal's Aims & Scope
Research area (LetPub): PEDIATRICS
Main research topics OpenAlex counts of recent articles; shares are approximate
- Infant Development and Preterm CareMedicine10.5%
- Neonatal Respiratory Health ResearchMedicine9.9%
- Obesity, Physical Activity, DietMedicine8%
- Child Nutrition and Water AccessNursing7%
- Infant Nutrition and HealthNursing5%
- Global Maternal and Child HealthMedicine4.9%
- Neonatal and fetal brain pathologyMedicine4.7%
- Breastfeeding Practices and InfluencesMedicine4.2%
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 | Pediatrics | Zone 3 |
Top journal: noReview journal: no
CAS Xinrui Journal Ranking (March 2026)Medicine Zone 3
| Level | Category | Zone |
|---|---|---|
| Major | Medicine | Zone 3 |
| Minor | Pediatrics | Zone 3 |
Top journal: noReview journal: not marked
CAS Journal Ranking, previous upgraded edition (December 2023)Medicine Zone 3
| Level | Category | Zone |
|---|---|---|
| Major | Medicine | Zone 3 |
| Minor | Pediatrics | Zone 3 |
Top journal: noReview 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, 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
- 2.33LetPub ·
- Impact factor (publisher) 2025
- 2.3Publisher website ·
- 5-year impact factor (publisher) 2025
- 2.6Publisher website ·
- CiteScore 2026-06
- 3.5LetPub ·
- SJR 2026-06
- 0.73LetPub ·
- SNIP 2026-06
- 1.11LetPub ·
- h-index
- 64LetPub ·
- h-index
- 138OpenAlex ·
- i10-index
- 3,921OpenAlex ·
- 2-year mean citedness
- 2.37OpenAlex ·
- Self-citation rate
- 4.3%LetPub ·
- Share of gold OA articles
- 100%LetPub ·
Volume
- Articles per year
- 1,068LetPub ·
- Downloads per year (publisher) 2025
- 7,400,000Publisher website ·
Articles by year OpenAlex count · 8,630 in total · the current year is incomplete
| Year | Articles | Open access | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 1,289 | 1,289 | 180 |
| 2025 | 1,092 | 1,092 | 2,593 |
| 2024 | 862 | 862 | 4,914 |
| 2023 | 644 | 644 | 5,489 |
| 2022 | 745 | 745 | 8,861 |
| 2021 | 588 | 588 | 10,459 |
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
137 daysMedian, submission to acceptance · P25–P75 80 days – 246 days
- Acceptance to online
- median 14 days (197 articles)
- Submission to online
- median 159 days
- Sample
- 197 articles with submission and acceptance dates (2,571 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)
- 3–8 weeksLetPub ·
- Submission to first decision
- 24 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 3,190 / GBP 2,390 | Yes | CC BY, CC BY-NC-ND | |
| OpenAlex | USD 3,090 / EUR 2,590 / GBP 2,290 | — | — | |
| LetPub | GBP 2,090 / USD 2,890 / EUR 2,390 | Yes | — | |
| Publisher website | GBP 2,390 / USD 3,190 / 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 websiteWhat to prepare1 items from the author guidelines
- Suggested reviewers
- Optional
Article types accepted9
- case reportResearch article Database article Software article Case report Study protocol Review Matters Arising Comment Systematic ReviewLength not stated
- commentResearch article Database article Software article Case report Study protocol Review Matters Arising Comment Systematic ReviewLength not stated
- database articleResearch article Database article Software article Case report Study protocol Review Matters Arising Comment Systematic ReviewLength not stated
- matters arisingResearch article Database article Software article Case report Study protocol Review Matters Arising Comment Systematic ReviewLength not stated
- research articleResearch article Database article Software article Case report Study protocol Review Matters Arising Comment Systematic ReviewLength not stated
- reviewResearch article Database article Software article Case report Study protocol Review Matters Arising Comment Systematic ReviewLength not stated
- software articleResearch article Database article Software article Case report Study protocol Review Matters Arising Comment Systematic ReviewLength not stated
- study protocolResearch article Database article Software article Case report Study protocol Review Matters Arising Comment Systematic ReviewLength not stated
- systematic reviewResearch article Database article Software article Case report Study protocol Review Matters Arising Comment Systematic ReviewLength not stated
Policy excerpts from the journal's websiteAuthorship, Data availability, License & copyright, Open access, Peer review
- Authorship
Manuscript must be submitted by an author, not a third party. Model summary
Please note that a manuscript can only be submitted by an author of the manuscript and may not be submitted by a third party.
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Data availability Formatting the 'Availability of data and materials' section of your manuscript
Data sharing strongly encouraged or required; deposit in public repositories where appropriate. 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
Published under CC BY-NC-ND or CC BY licence. 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 Pediatrics articles are published open access under a CC BY-NC-ND (Creative Commons Attribution Non-Comm…
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
- 2001
- ISSN
- 1471-2431
- 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 Pediatrics
What CAS zone is BMC Pediatrics in?
In the 2025 upgraded edition of the CAS Journal Ranking, BMC Pediatrics is in Zone 3 of Medicine, and in Zone 3 of the minor category Pediatrics. In the 2026 Xinrui edition it is in Zone 3 of Medicine. Zones from different editions, and from major and minor categories, are not interchangeable.
What is the impact factor of BMC Pediatrics?
The latest impact factor listed by LetPub is 2.33; CiteScore 3.5, h-index 138.
How long does peer review take at BMC Pediatrics?
Based on the dates recorded on 197 articles published between October 2024 and October 2026 (the last 24 months), the median time from submission to acceptance is 137 days (interquartile range 80–246 days); authors report an average review time of 3–8 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 Pediatrics?
According to LetPub and DOAJ records, BMC Pediatrics 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 Pediatrics open access, and what is the APC?
BMC Pediatrics is a fully open-access journal. APC about USD 3,190.
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: .