Journal profile · Psychiatry
BMC Psychiatry
ISSN 1471-244X · BioMed Central · ENGLAND · Irregular · Founded 2001
BMC Psychiatry: CAS Zone 2 · Medicine (2025 upgraded edition); impact factor 4.63; fully open access; APC about USD 3,390; median 148 days to acceptance (190 articles, last 24 months); 1,286 articles in 2025; indexed in SCIE and Scopus.
Scope
Aims, scope and focus
BMC Psychiatry 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 Schizophrenia research and treatment, Mental Health Treatment and Access and Suicide and Self-Harm Studies, together about 28.2% of its articles. Its main subfields are Clinical Psychology. (generated from OpenAlex topic counts and CAS ranking data)
BMC Psychiatry is an open access, peer-reviewed journal that encompasses a wide range of topics, including psychopharmacology, psychotherapy, and psychosocial approaches to psychiatric disorders, as well as genetics, pathophysiology, and epidemiology research. The journal welcomes both basic and applied science articles, and research exploring innovative treatments, service delivery methods, and social psychiatry. It promotes the participation of service users, patient representatives, and advisors to ensure that their perspectives are represented. The journal welcomes manuscripts in the following broad areas of psychiatry research: Causes, treatment and prevention of suicide Child, adolescent and developmental psychiatry Eating disorders Forensic psychiatry Geriatric psychiatry and cognitive disorders Mood disorders Personality disorders and disorders of adult behavior Psychiatric molecular genetics Psychotic disorders Sleep disorders Social psychiatry, therapy and provision of mental health care Stress and anxiety Substance-related disorders, addiction and impulse control Women and mental health As a BMC Series journal, BMC Psychiatry 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): Psychiatry
Main research topics OpenAlex counts of recent articles; shares are approximate
- Schizophrenia research and treatmentMedicine12.2%
- Mental Health Treatment and AccessPsychology10%
- Suicide and Self-Harm StudiesPsychology6%
- Digital Mental Health InterventionsPsychology5.7%
- Treatment of Major DepressionMedicine5%
- Tryptophan and brain disordersNeuroscience4.3%
- Child and Adolescent Psychosocial and Emotional DevelopmentPsychology3.9%
- Family Caregiving in Mental IllnessPsychology3.8%
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 | Psychiatry | Zone 2 |
Top journal: noReview journal: no
CAS Xinrui Journal Ranking (March 2026)Medicine Zone 2
| Level | Category | Zone |
|---|---|---|
| Major | Medicine | Zone 2 |
| Minor | Psychiatry | Zone 2 |
Top journal: yesReview journal: not marked
CAS Journal Ranking, previous upgraded edition (December 2023)Medicine Zone 2
| Level | Category | Zone |
|---|---|---|
| Major | Medicine | Zone 2 |
| Minor | Psychiatry | 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
MEDLINEEmbasePsycINFOCASPublisher 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
- 4.63LetPub ·
- Impact factor (publisher) 2025
- 4.6Publisher website ·
- 5-year impact factor (publisher) 2025
- 5.1Publisher website ·
- CiteScore 2026-06
- 6.3LetPub ·
- SJR 2026-06
- 1.42LetPub ·
- SNIP 2026-06
- 1.47LetPub ·
- h-index
- 79LetPub ·
- h-index
- 202OpenAlex ·
- i10-index
- 5,904OpenAlex ·
- 2-year mean citedness
- 4.6OpenAlex ·
- Self-citation rate
- 4.3%LetPub ·
- Share of gold OA articles
- 99.94%LetPub ·
Volume
- Articles per year
- 1,269LetPub ·
- Articles per year (publisher)
- 2,025Publisher website ·
- Downloads per year (publisher) 2025
- 13,100,000Publisher website ·
Articles by year OpenAlex count · 10,160 in total · the current year is incomplete
| Year | Articles | Open access | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 935 | 935 | 251 |
| 2025 | 1,286 | 1,286 | 5,133 |
| 2024 | 967 | 967 | 9,282 |
| 2023 | 959 | 959 | 15,931 |
| 2022 | 839 | 839 | 17,010 |
| 2021 | 636 | 636 | 18,810 |
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
148 daysMedian, submission to acceptance · P25–P75 94 days – 289 days
- Acceptance to online
- median 12 days (190 articles)
- Submission to online
- median 174 days
- Sample
- 190 articles with submission and acceptance dates (2,534 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)
- 3–6 weeksLetPub ·
- Submission to first decision
- 7 daysPublisher website ·
- Submission to publication (journal-reported)
- about 20 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 2,990 / USD 3,390 / GBP 2,590 | Yes | CC BY, CC BY-NC-ND | |
| OpenAlex | USD 3,290 / EUR 2,890 / GBP 2,490 | — | — | |
| LetPub | GBP 2,390 / USD 3,190 / EUR 2,790 | Yes | — | |
| Publisher website | GBP 2,590 / USD 3,390 / EUR 2,990 | — | — |
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 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 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 Psychiatry 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
- 1471-244X
- 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 Psychiatry
What CAS zone is BMC Psychiatry in?
In the 2025 upgraded edition of the CAS Journal Ranking, BMC Psychiatry is in Zone 2 of Medicine, and in Zone 2 of the minor category Psychiatry. 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 Psychiatry?
The latest impact factor listed by LetPub is 4.63; CiteScore 6.3, h-index 202.
How long does peer review take at BMC Psychiatry?
Based on the dates recorded on 190 articles published between October 2024 and October 2026 (the last 24 months), the median time from submission to acceptance is 148 days (interquartile range 94–289 days); authors report an average review time of 3–6 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 Psychiatry?
According to LetPub and DOAJ records, BMC Psychiatry is indexed in SCIE, Scopus and DOAJ. The journal's website also lists MEDLINE, Embase, PsycINFO and CAS; that list has not been checked against each database.
Is BMC Psychiatry open access, and what is the APC?
BMC Psychiatry 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 2026-08-25). Last updated: .