Journal profile · Multiple
BMC Primary Care
ISSN 2731-4553 · BMC · United Kingdom
BMC Primary Care: CAS Zone 3 · Medicine (2025 upgraded edition); impact factor 2.86; fully open access; APC about USD 2,990; median 141 days to acceptance (120 articles, last 24 months); 454 articles in 2025; indexed in SCIE and Scopus.
Scope
Aims, scope and focus
BMC Primary Care is published by BMC 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 Primary Care and Health Outcomes, Diabetes Management and Education and Chronic Disease Management Strategies, together about 31.1% of its articles. Its main subfields are General Health Professions. (generated from OpenAlex topic counts and CAS ranking data)
BMC Primary Care is an open access, peer-reviewed journal that considers articles on all aspects of primary health care research. The journal particularly welcomes submissions covering the following broad areas of research: Continuing professional education and development. This section considers all aspects of research related to continuing medical education and development of graduates and primary care practitioners, including the assessment of their knowledge and attitudes, and skill development. eHealth, mHealth and informatics. This section considers all aspects of research relating to the design, development, trialling, adoption, and application of information technology, artificial intelligence, machine learning, and mobile health-based innovations in primary care services delivery, management, and planning. Health services research in primary care. This section broadly considers all aspects of health services research within primary care, including the primary care needs of a population, including access to services and inequalities in the provision of primary care; how healthcare is organized and delivered, within the context of primary care; the provision of integrated care and the interfaces between primary and secondary care services; primary health care policy and governance; and quality and safety of care. Primary care clinical practice and interventions. This section considers all aspects of research related to primary care practitioner clinical practice, including clinical best practice and decision-making, and clinical interventions that are delivered in primary care settings. This section covers, though is not limited to, diagnostic and prescribing practices, decision-making aids and support systems, the practice of person-centred care, patient-professional relationships and communication, trials of clinical interventions, and assessment of their efficacy and cost-effectiveness. Screening, prevention and health promotion. This section considers all aspects of research into proactive approaches to promote the health and wellbeing of populations, in primary and community care settings. As a BMC Series journal, BMC Primary Care 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 t
From the journal's Aims & Scope
Research area (LetPub): Multiple
Main research topics OpenAlex counts of recent articles; shares are approximate
- Primary Care and Health OutcomesHealth Professions14.5%
- Diabetes Management and EducationMedicine8.9%
- Chronic Disease Management StrategiesMedicine7.8%
- Patient-Provider Communication in HealthcareHealth Professions5.9%
- Mental Health Treatment and AccessPsychology5%
- Health Policy Implementation ScienceHealth Professions4.9%
- Interprofessional Education and CollaborationHealth Professions4.3%
- Health Promotion and Cardiovascular PreventionMedicine4.2%
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 | Medicine, General & Internal | Zone 2 |
| Minor | Primary Health Care | Zone 2 |
Top journal: noReview journal: no
CAS Xinrui Journal Ranking (March 2026)Medicine Zone 3
| Level | Category | Zone |
|---|---|---|
| Major | Medicine | Zone 3 |
| Minor | Primary Health Care | Zone 2 |
| Minor | Medicine, General & Internal | Zone 2 |
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 | Medicine, General & Internal | Zone 2 |
| Minor | Primary Health Care | Zone 2 |
Top journal: noReview journal: no
Database indexing
SCIEScopusDOAJLetPub
International journal early-warning lists: not listed in any editionLetPub
Indexing the journal's website claims
MEDLINECASCAB 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
- 2.86LetPub ·
- Impact factor (publisher) 2025
- 2.9Publisher website ·
- 5-year impact factor (publisher) 2025
- 3.1Publisher website ·
- CiteScore 2026-06
- 4.4LetPub ·
- SJR 2026-06
- 1.07LetPub ·
- SNIP 2026-06
- 1.26LetPub ·
- h-index
- 130OpenAlex ·
- i10-index
- 2,610OpenAlex ·
- 2-year mean citedness
- 3.52OpenAlex ·
- Self-citation rate
- 6.9%LetPub ·
- Share of gold OA articles
- 100%LetPub ·
Volume
- Articles per year
- 444LetPub ·
- Articles per year (publisher)
- 2,024Publisher website ·
- Downloads per year (publisher) 2025
- 4,300,000Publisher website ·
Articles by year OpenAlex count · 4,548 in total · the current year is incomplete
| Year | Articles | Open access | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 411 | 411 | 83 |
| 2025 | 454 | 454 | 1,182 |
| 2024 | 453 | 453 | 3,377 |
| 2023 | 281 | 281 | 3,202 |
| 2022 | 341 | 341 | 5,268 |
| 2021 | 262 | 262 | 6,085 |
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
141 daysMedian, submission to acceptance · P25–P75 95 days – 275 days
- Acceptance to online
- median 16 days (120 articles)
- Submission to online
- median 172 days
- Sample
- 120 articles with submission and acceptance dates (955 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 29 weeksLetPub ·
- Submission to first decision
- 6 daysPublisher website ·
- Submission to publication (journal-reported)
- about 29 weeksDOAJ ·
- Peer review
- Double anonymous peer review, Single anonymous 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 2,590 / USD 2,990 / GBP 2,390 | Yes | CC BY, CC BY-NC-ND | |
| OpenAlex | USD 2,790 / EUR 2,390 / GBP 2,190 | — | — | |
| LetPub | EUR 2,290 / USD 2,690 / GBP 2,090 | Yes | — | |
| Publisher website | GBP 2,390 / USD 2,990 / EUR 2,590 | — | — |
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
- Templates
- LaTeX and Word
- Suggested reviewers
- Optional
Article types accepted5
- commentResearch article Study protocol Review Matters Arising CommentLength not stated
- matters arisingResearch article Study protocol Review Matters Arising CommentLength not stated
- research articleResearch article Study protocol Review Matters Arising CommentLength not stated
- reviewResearch article Study protocol Review Matters Arising CommentLength not stated
- study protocolResearch article Study protocol Review Matters Arising CommentLength 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
Creative Commons licences: CC BY-NC-ND or CC BY 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 Primary Care articles are published open access under a CC BY-NC-ND (Creative Commons Attribution Non-Co…
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Open access Benefits of open access
Authors retain copyright Model summary
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
- BMC
- Country or region
- United Kingdom
- Language
- English
- ISSN
- 2731-4553
- Official links
- Journal homepage ↗DOAJ
- 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 Primary Care
What CAS zone is BMC Primary Care in?
In the 2025 upgraded edition of the CAS Journal Ranking, BMC Primary Care is in Zone 3 of Medicine, and in Zone 2 of the minor category Medicine, General & Internal / Primary Health Care. 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 Primary Care?
The latest impact factor listed by LetPub is 2.86; CiteScore 4.4, h-index 130.
How long does peer review take at BMC Primary Care?
Based on the dates recorded on 120 articles published between October 2024 and October 2026 (the last 24 months), the median time from submission to acceptance is 141 days (interquartile range 95–275 days); authors report an average review time of about 29 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.
What are the manuscript requirements of BMC Primary Care?
According to the journal's author guidelines: 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 Primary Care?
According to LetPub and DOAJ records, BMC Primary Care is indexed in SCIE, Scopus and DOAJ. The journal's website also lists MEDLINE, CAS and CAB Abstracts; that list has not been checked against each database.
Is BMC Primary Care open access, and what is the APC?
BMC Primary Care is a fully open-access journal. APC about USD 2,990.
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 2026-08-24). Last updated: .