Journal profile · Public, Environmental & Occupational Health
BMC Public Health
ISSN 1471-2458 · BioMed Central · ENGLAND · Irregular · Founded 2001
BMC Public Health: CAS Zone 2 · Medicine (2025 upgraded edition); impact factor 4.39; fully open access; APC about USD 3,450; median 152 days to acceptance (194 articles, last 24 months); community-reported acceptance: about 50%; 4,857 articles in 2025; indexed in SCIE and Scopus.
Scope
Aims, scope and focus
BMC Public Health 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 Obesity, Physical Activity, Diet, Health disparities and outcomes and Physical Activity and Health, together about 23.5% of its articles. (generated from OpenAlex topic counts and CAS ranking data)
BMC Public Health is an open access, peer-reviewed journal that considers articles on the epidemiology of disease and the understanding of all aspects of public health. The journal has a special focus on the social determinants of health, the environmental, behavioral, and occupational correlates of health and disease, and the impact of health policies, practices and interventions on the community. BMC Public Health welcomes manuscripts in the following broad areas of research: Biostatistics and methods Chronic disease epidemiology Dental public health Digital health Disaster and emergency preparedness and response Education and training in public health Environmental health Global health and human rights Health behavior and health promotion Health communication Health economics and outcomes research Health policies, systems and management Infectious disease epidemiology Injury and violence prevention Maternal and child health Mental health Nutritional health and epidemiology Occupational health Physical activity and health Public health informatics Social determinants of health As a BMC Series journal, BMC Public Health 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, recognizing the importance of diverse perspectives and inclusive representation in the scientific community.
From the journal's Aims & Scope
Research area (LetPub): Public, Environmental & Occupational Health
Main research topics OpenAlex counts of recent articles; shares are approximate
- Obesity, Physical Activity, DietMedicine10.3%
- Health disparities and outcomesSocial Sciences6.6%
- Physical Activity and HealthMedicine6.6%
- HIV/AIDS Research and InterventionsMedicine6.4%
- Global Maternal and Child HealthMedicine6.2%
- Child Nutrition and Water AccessNursing5.2%
- Adolescent Sexual and Reproductive HealthHealth Professions5.1%
- Smoking Behavior and CessationMedicine4.7%
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 | Public, Environmental & Occupational Health | Zone 2 |
Top journal: noReview journal: no
CAS Xinrui Journal Ranking (March 2026)Medicine Zone 2
| Level | Category | Zone |
|---|---|---|
| Major | Medicine | Zone 2 |
| Minor | Public, Environmental & Occupational Health | 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 | Public, Environmental & Occupational Health | 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
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
- 4.39LetPub ·
- Impact factor (publisher) 2025
- 4.4Publisher website ·
- 5-year impact factor (publisher) 2025
- 4.8Publisher website ·
- CiteScore 2026-06
- 5.9LetPub ·
- SJR 2026-06
- 1.36LetPub ·
- SNIP 2026-06
- 1.57LetPub ·
- h-index
- 117LetPub ·
- h-index
- 292OpenAlex ·
- i10-index
- 21,198OpenAlex ·
- 2-year mean citedness
- 4.75OpenAlex ·
- Self-citation rate
- 4.5%LetPub ·
- Share of gold OA articles
- 99.95%LetPub ·
Volume
- Articles per year
- 4,794LetPub ·
- Articles per year (publisher)
- 2,025Publisher website ·
- Downloads per year (publisher) 2025
- 39,700,000Publisher website ·
Articles by year OpenAlex count · 35,730 in total · the current year is incomplete
| Year | Articles | Open access | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 3,514 | 3,514 | 888 |
| 2025 | 4,857 | 4,857 | 19,093 |
| 2024 | 3,625 | 3,625 | 37,046 |
| 2023 | 2,564 | 2,564 | 39,016 |
| 2022 | 2,463 | 2,463 | 55,315 |
| 2021 | 2,345 | 2,345 | 71,695 |
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
152 daysMedian, submission to acceptance · P25–P75 98 days – 279 days
- Acceptance to online
- median 11 days (195 articles)
- Submission to online
- median 168 days
- Sample
- 194 articles with submission and acceptance dates (9,304 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 1 monthLetPub ·
- Average acceptance (community reports)
- 50%LetPub ·
- Submission to first decision
- 5 daysPublisher website ·
- Submission to publication (journal-reported)
- about 18 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 3,150 / USD 3,450 / GBP 2,690 | Yes | CC BY, CC BY-NC-ND | |
| OpenAlex | USD 3,290 / EUR 2,990 / GBP 2,590 | — | — | |
| LetPub | GBP 2,490 / USD 3,190 / EUR 2,890 | Yes | — | |
| Publisher website | GBP 2,690 / USD 3,450 / EUR 3,150 | — | — |
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 accepted8
- commentResearch article Database article Software article Study protocol Review Matters Arising Comment Systematic ReviewLength not stated
- database articleResearch article Database article Software article Study protocol Review Matters Arising Comment Systematic ReviewLength not stated
- matters arisingResearch article Database article Software article Study protocol Review Matters Arising Comment Systematic ReviewLength not stated
- research articleResearch article Database article Software article Study protocol Review Matters Arising Comment Systematic ReviewLength not stated
- reviewResearch article Database article Software article Study protocol Review Matters Arising Comment Systematic ReviewLength not stated
- software articleResearch article Database article Software article Study protocol Review Matters Arising Comment Systematic ReviewLength not stated
- study protocolResearch article Database article Software article Study protocol Review Matters Arising Comment Systematic ReviewLength not stated
- systematic reviewResearch article Database article Software article 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
Only an author may submit the manuscript; third-party submission not allowed. 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
Mandatory repository deposit where community expectations exist. 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
Open access licensing under CC BY-NC-ND or CC BY; 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 Public Health articles are published open access under a CC BY-NC-ND (Creative Commons Attribution Non-C…
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Open access Benefits of open access
APC waivers/discounts available for authors from the lowest income countries. 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
Editorial policies are hosted on the BioMed Central website. Model summary
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
- 1471-2458
- 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 Public Health
What CAS zone is BMC Public Health in?
In the 2025 upgraded edition of the CAS Journal Ranking, BMC Public Health is in Zone 2 of Medicine, and in Zone 2 of the minor category Public, Environmental & Occupational Health. 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 Public Health?
The latest impact factor listed by LetPub is 4.39; CiteScore 5.9, h-index 292.
How long does peer review take at BMC Public Health?
Based on the dates recorded on 194 articles published between October 2024 and October 2026 (the last 24 months), the median time from submission to acceptance is 152 days (interquartile range 98–279 days); authors report an average review time of about 1 month; the community-reported acceptance is “about 50%”. 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 Public Health?
According to LetPub and DOAJ records, BMC Public Health 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 Public Health open access, and what is the APC?
BMC Public Health is a fully open-access journal. APC about USD 3,450.
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: .