Journal profile · MEDICINE, GENERAL & INTERNAL
BMJ Open
ISSN 2044-6055 · BMJ Publishing Group · ENGLAND
BMJ Open: CAS Zone 4 · Medicine (2025 upgraded edition); impact factor 2.43; fully open access; APC charged, amount not published; review 2–3 weeks (community reports); acceptance rate 27% (journal website); 4,957 articles in 2025; indexed in SCIE and Scopus.
Scope
Aims, scope and focus
BMJ Open is published by BMJ Publishing Group and is in Zone 4 of Medicine in the CAS Journal Ranking (2025 upgraded edition). By OpenAlex counts of its recent articles, its largest topics are Global Maternal and Child Health, Health Policy Implementation Science and Chronic Disease Management Strategies, together about 18.4% of its articles. (generated from OpenAlex topic counts and CAS ranking data)
BMJ Open is a medical journal. We consider papers addressing research questions in clinical medicine, public health and epidemiology. We also welcome studies in health services research, health economics, surgery, qualitative research, research methods, medical education, medical publishing and any other field that directly addresses patient outcomes or the practice and delivery of healthcare. Our focus is on research that is relevant to patients and clinicians, including public health. We do not publish studies conducted in animals, laboratory studies not linked to patient outcomes, papers reporting solely physiological or biomechanical results from healthy participants, anatomy, cell biology or non-clinical psychology. All research study types are considered, from study protocols through phase I trials to meta-analyses. This includes specialist studies and studies reporting negative results. Case reports should be submitted to BMJ Case Reports.Our aim is to provide a home for all properly conducted medical research to be fully reported, after a rigorous and transparent peer review process. See our Resources for authors for more information on what we look for in a research study and how to maximise your chances of publication. Publishing procedures are built around fully open peer review and continuous publication, publishing research online as soon as the article is ready. BMJ Open aims to promote transparency in the publication process by publishing reviewer reports and previous versions of manuscripts as prepublication histories. Authors are asked to pay article-publishing charges on acceptance; the ability to pay does not influence editorial decisions.
From the journal's Aims & Scope
Research area (LetPub): MEDICINE, GENERAL & INTERNAL
Editor-in-chief Adrian AldcroftPublisher website
Main research topics OpenAlex counts of recent articles; shares are approximate
- Global Maternal and Child HealthMedicine7.5%
- Health Policy Implementation ScienceHealth Professions5.5%
- Chronic Disease Management StrategiesMedicine5.4%
- COVID-19 and Mental HealthPsychology4.6%
- Diabetes Management and EducationMedicine4.4%
- Cancer survivorship and careMedicine4.3%
- Diabetes, Cardiovascular Risks, and LipoproteinsMedicine4.2%
- Sepsis Diagnosis and TreatmentMedicine4.2%
Rankings & indexing
CAS ranking and database indexing
CAS Journal Ranking
CAS Journal Ranking, upgraded edition (March 2025)Medicine Zone 4
| Level | Category | Zone |
|---|---|---|
| Major | Medicine | Zone 4 |
| Minor | Medicine, General & Internal | Zone 4 |
Top journal: noReview journal: no
CAS Xinrui Journal Ranking (March 2026)Medicine Zone 3
| Level | Category | Zone |
|---|---|---|
| Major | Medicine | Zone 3 |
| Minor | Medicine, General & Internal | 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 | Medicine, General & Internal | 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
Web of ScienceMEDLINEPMCEmbasePublisher website
Other: Index Medicus, Google 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
- 2.43LetPub ·
- Impact factor (publisher)
- 2.5Publisher website ·
- 5-year impact factor (publisher)
- 2.8Publisher website ·
- CiteScore 2026-06
- 4.1LetPub ·
- CiteScore (publisher)
- 4.1Publisher website ·
- SJR 2026-06
- 0.93LetPub ·
- SJR (publisher)
- 1.11Publisher website ·
- SNIP 2026-06
- 1LetPub ·
- h-index
- 69LetPub ·
- h-index
- 246OpenAlex ·
- i10-index
- 21,724OpenAlex ·
- 2-year mean citedness
- 2.6OpenAlex ·
- Self-citation rate
- 4%LetPub ·
- Share of gold OA articles
- 99.99%LetPub ·
Volume
- Articles per year
- 4,910LetPub ·
Articles by year OpenAlex count · 45,734 in total · the current year is incomplete
| Year | Articles | Open access | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 3,231 | 3,231 | 743 |
| 2025 | 4,957 | 4,957 | 10,550 |
| 2024 | 3,960 | 3,960 | 20,281 |
| 2023 | 4,025 | 4,025 | 37,326 |
| 2022 | 5,154 | 5,154 | 67,616 |
| 2021 | 4,402 | 4,402 | 89,564 |
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
- Average review time (community reports)
- 2–3 weeksLetPub ·
- Acceptance rate (publisher) 2025
- 27%Publisher website ·
- Submission to first decision
- 6 daysPublisher website ·
- Acceptance to publication
- 23 daysPublisher website ·
- Submission to publication (journal-reported)
- about 32 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 | GBP 2,390 | Yes | CC BY, CC BY-NC, CC BY-NC-ND | |
| OpenAlex | GBP 1,500 | — | — | |
| LetPub | GBP 2,163 | Yes | — | |
| Publisher website | GBP 2,535 | — | — |
Other charges and waivers (author guidelines)
- Submission fee
- No submission fee
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)
What to prepare1 items from the author guidelines
- Not considered
- tobacco industry funded research; completed data collection protocols
Article types accepted8
- cohort profileOriginal research Protocol Cohort profile Communication SupplementLength not stated
- cohort profilesBMJ Open accepts submissions on a range of article types, including original research, cohort profiles and protocols.Length not stated
- communicationOriginal research Protocol Cohort profile Communication SupplementLength not stated
- editorialBMJ Open is an open access journal dedicated exclusively to publishing medical research. The journal aims to provide rapid publication of research across a rang…Length not stated
- original researchOriginal research Protocol Cohort profile Communication SupplementLength not stated
- protocolProtocol manuscripts should report planned or ongoing research studies. If data collection is complete, we will not consider the manuscript. We encourage the su…Length not stated
- protocolsBMJ Open accepts submissions on a range of article types, including original research, cohort profiles and protocols.Length not stated
- supplementOriginal research Protocol Cohort profile Communication SupplementLength not stated
Policy excerpts from the journal's websiteData availability, License & copyright, Open access, Peer review, Preprints, Trial registration / reporting guidelines
- Data availability Data Sharing
Tier 2 data policy; data sharing encouraged, required for clinical trials Model summary
BMJ Open adheres to BMJ's Tier 2 data policy. We strongly encourage that data generated by your research that supports your article be made available as soon as possible, wherever legally and ethically possible. We also require data from clinical trials to be made available upon reasonable request.To adhere to ICMJE guidelines, we require that a data sharing plan must be included with trial regist…
Source ↗Publisher website ·- License & copyright Copyright and authors’ rights
As an open access journal, BMJ Open adheres to the Budapest Open Access Initiative definition of open access. Articles are published under an exclusive licence or non-exclusive licence for UK Crown employees or where BMJ has agreed CC BY applies. For US Federal Government officers or employees acting as part of their official duties, the terms are as stated in accordance with our licence terms. Au…
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Open access
Article-publishing charges on acceptance; ability to pay does not influence editorial decisions Model summary
Authors are asked to pay article-publishing charges on acceptance; the ability to pay does not influence editorial decisions.
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Peer review Peer review process
Open peer review; reviewer comments published Model summary
All articles published in BMJ Open will have been sent for external, open peer review. Reviewers will not be asked to judge importance or breadth of appeal. Readers will be able to make these judgements for themselves. We recommend you use our instructions for reviewers as a checklist to ensure that your article is complete. Upon publication, all previous versions of the manuscript will also be ma…
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Preprints Preprints
Preprint archiving supported; not considered prior publication Model summary
Preprints foster openness, accessibility and collaboration by allowing authors to make their findings immediately available to the research community and receive feedback on an article before it is submitted to a journal for formal publication. BMJ fully supports and encourages the archiving of preprints in any recognised, not-for-profit server such as medRxiv. BMJ does not consider the posting of…
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Trial registration / reporting guidelines CONSORT Statement
Tobacco industry funded research not considered Model summary
For reporting of randomised controlled trials: please use the appropriate extension to the CONSORT statement, including the extension for writing abstracts
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
- BMJ Publishing Group
- Country or region
- ENGLAND
- Language
- English
- ISSN
- 2044-6055
- 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 BMJ Open
What CAS zone is BMJ Open in?
In the 2025 upgraded edition of the CAS Journal Ranking, BMJ Open is in Zone 4 of Medicine, and in Zone 4 of the minor category Medicine, General & Internal. 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 BMJ Open?
The latest impact factor listed by LetPub is 2.43; CiteScore 4.1, h-index 246.
How long does peer review take at BMJ Open?
Authors report an average review time of 2–3 weeks; the journal's website gives an acceptance rate of 27% (2025). 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 BMJ Open?
According to LetPub and DOAJ records, BMJ Open is indexed in SCIE, Scopus and DOAJ. The journal's website also lists Web of Science, MEDLINE, PMC and Embase; that list has not been checked against each database.
Is BMJ Open open access, and what is the APC?
BMJ Open is a fully open-access journal. APC charged, amount not published.
Sources and updates
The facts on this page come from LetPub, Publisher website, OpenAlex, DOAJ; 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: .