Journal profile · OBSTETRICS & GYNECOLOGY
BMC Pregnancy and Childbirth
ISSN 1471-2393 · BioMed Central · ENGLAND · Founded 2001
BMC Pregnancy and Childbirth: CAS Zone 2 · Medicine (2025 upgraded edition); impact factor 3.12; fully open access; APC about USD 3,390; median 234 days to acceptance (193 articles, last 24 months); 1,480 articles in 2025; indexed in SCIE and Scopus.
Scope
Aims, scope and focus
BMC Pregnancy and Childbirth 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 Maternal and Perinatal Health Interventions, Global Maternal and Child Health and Maternal Mental Health During Pregnancy and Postpartum, together about 37% of its articles. Its main subfields are Obstetrics and Gynecology. (generated from OpenAlex topic counts and CAS ranking data)
BMC Pregnancy and Childbirth is an open access, peer-reviewed journal that considers articles on all aspects of pregnancy and childbirth. The journal welcomes submissions on the biomedical aspects of pregnancy, breastfeeding, labor, maternal health, maternity care, trends and sociological aspects of pregnancy and childbirth. Breastfeeding Fetal medicine Labor, birth, and postpartum health Maternal health and pregnancy Maternity care and sociological aspects of pregnancy and childbirth Pregnancy and childbirth in low and middle income countries Trends in pregnancy and childbirth As a BMC Series journal, BMC Pregnancy and Childbirth 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): OBSTETRICS & GYNECOLOGY
Main research topics OpenAlex counts of recent articles; shares are approximate
- Maternal and Perinatal Health InterventionsMedicine13.5%
- Global Maternal and Child HealthMedicine12.2%
- Maternal Mental Health During Pregnancy and PostpartumMedicine11.3%
- Pregnancy and preeclampsia studiesMedicine9.3%
- Gestational Diabetes Research and ManagementMedicine8.8%
- Maternal and fetal healthcareMedicine6.6%
- Preterm Birth and ChorioamnionitisMedicine4.8%
- Breastfeeding Practices and InfluencesMedicine3.2%
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 | Obstetrics & Gynecology | Zone 2 |
Top journal: noReview journal: no
CAS Xinrui Journal Ranking (March 2026)Medicine Zone 2
| Level | Category | Zone |
|---|---|---|
| Major | Medicine | Zone 2 |
| Minor | Obstetrics & Gynecology | 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 | Obstetrics & Gynecology | Zone 2 |
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, 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
- 3.12LetPub ·
- Impact factor (publisher) 2025
- 3.1Publisher website ·
- 5-year impact factor (publisher) 2025
- 3.6Publisher website ·
- CiteScore 2026-06
- 4.8LetPub ·
- SJR 2026-06
- 1.07LetPub ·
- SNIP 2026-06
- 1.44LetPub ·
- h-index
- 66LetPub ·
- h-index
- 175OpenAlex ·
- i10-index
- 5,818OpenAlex ·
- 2-year mean citedness
- 2.91OpenAlex ·
- Self-citation rate
- 6.5%LetPub ·
- Share of gold OA articles
- 99.91%LetPub ·
Volume
- Articles per year
- 1,453LetPub ·
- Articles per year (publisher)
- 2,025Publisher website ·
- Downloads per year (publisher) 2025
- 11,400,000Publisher website ·
Articles by year OpenAlex count · 10,844 in total · the current year is incomplete
| Year | Articles | Open access | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 1,380 | 1,380 | 197 |
| 2025 | 1,480 | 1,480 | 4,188 |
| 2024 | 889 | 889 | 6,538 |
| 2023 | 872 | 872 | 10,284 |
| 2022 | 983 | 983 | 16,902 |
| 2021 | 852 | 852 | 20,942 |
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
234 daysMedian, submission to acceptance · P25–P75 126 days – 454 days
- Acceptance to online
- median 12 days (193 articles)
- Submission to online
- median 250 days
- Sample
- 193 articles with submission and acceptance dates (3,116 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
- 19 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
Every article is open access; authors usually pay an article processing charge (APC).
| Source | APC | Fee waiver | License | Observed |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| DOAJ | EUR 2,890 / USD 3,390 / GBP 2,590 | Yes | CC BY, CC BY-NC-ND | |
| OpenAlex | USD 3,290 / EUR 2,790 / GBP 2,490 | — | — | |
| LetPub | GBP 2,290 / USD 3,090 / EUR 2,590 | Yes | — | |
| Publisher website | GBP 2,590 / USD 3,390 / EUR 2,890 | — | — |
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 prepare2 items from the author guidelines
- Suggested reviewers
- Optional
- Not considered
- Do not include any individual participant details.
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
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 Pregnancy and Childbirth articles are published open access under a CC BY-NC-ND (Creative Commons Attrib…
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
- 2001
- ISSN
- 1471-2393
- 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 Pregnancy and Childbirth
What CAS zone is BMC Pregnancy and Childbirth in?
In the 2025 upgraded edition of the CAS Journal Ranking, BMC Pregnancy and Childbirth is in Zone 2 of Medicine, and in Zone 2 of the minor category Obstetrics & Gynecology. 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 Pregnancy and Childbirth?
The latest impact factor listed by LetPub is 3.12; CiteScore 4.8, h-index 175.
How long does peer review take at BMC Pregnancy and Childbirth?
Based on the dates recorded on 193 articles published between October 2024 and October 2026 (the last 24 months), the median time from submission to acceptance is 234 days (interquartile range 126–454 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 Pregnancy and Childbirth?
According to LetPub and DOAJ records, BMC Pregnancy and Childbirth 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 Pregnancy and Childbirth open access, and what is the APC?
BMC Pregnancy and Childbirth is a fully open-access journal. APC about USD 3,390.
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: .