Journal profile · Oncology
Cancer Science
ISSN 1347-9032 · eISSN 1349-7006 · Wiley-Blackwell · JAPAN · Monthly · Founded 2003
Cancer Science: CAS Zone 2 · Medicine (2025 upgraded edition); impact factor 4.88; fully open access; APC about USD 2,600; median 110 days to acceptance (95 articles, last 24 months); community-reported acceptance: about 62.5%; 345 articles in 2025; indexed in SCIE and Scopus.
Scope
Aims, scope and focus
Cancer Science is published by Wiley-Blackwell 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 RNA modifications and cancer, Epigenetics and DNA Methylation and Cancer Cells and Metastasis, together about 18.3% of its articles. Its main subfields are Molecular Biology and Oncology. (generated from OpenAlex topic counts and CAS ranking data)
Cancer Science (formerly Japanese Journal of Cancer Research) is a monthly publication of the Japanese Cancer Association. First published in 1907, the Journal continues to publish original articles, editorials, and letters to the editor, describing original research in the fields of basic, translational and clinical cancer research. The Journal also accepts reports and case reports.Cancer Science aims to present highly significant and timely findings that have a significant clinical impact on oncologists or that may alter the disease concept of a tumor. The Journal will not publish case reports that describe a rare tumor or condition without new findings to be added to previous reports; combination of different tumors without new suggestive findings for oncological research; remarkable effect of already known treatments without suggestive data to explain the exceptional result. Review articles may also be published.Effective from 1 January 2017, Cancer Science will not accept work that is funded in any part by tobacco industry sources. Average submission to first decision is 17 days!
From the journal's Aims & Scope
Research area (LetPub): Oncology
Editor-in-chief Seiichiro IshiharaPublisher website
Editorial board by country: 13 in mainland China (about 5%); most named Japan 221, Mainland China 13, South Korea 5, United States 2, Netherlands 2 (252 members with a country) Editorial board ↗Publisher website ·
Main research topics OpenAlex counts of recent articles; shares are approximate
- RNA modifications and cancerBiochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology6.3%
- Epigenetics and DNA MethylationBiochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology6%
- Cancer Cells and MetastasisMedicine6%
- Cancer Immunotherapy and BiomarkersMedicine5.5%
- Cancer-related molecular mechanisms researchBiochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology5.5%
- Cancer, Hypoxia, and MetabolismBiochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology5.3%
- Immunotherapy and Immune ResponsesImmunology and Microbiology4.9%
- Lung Cancer Treatments and MutationsMedicine4.6%
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 | Oncology | Zone 3 |
Top journal: noReview journal: no
CAS Xinrui Journal Ranking (March 2026)Medicine Zone 2
| Level | Category | Zone |
|---|---|---|
| Major | Medicine | Zone 2 |
| Minor | Oncology | 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 | Oncology | 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
MEDLINEPubMedEmbaseCASCurrent ContentsPublisher website
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
- 4.88LetPub ·
- Impact factor (publisher) 2025
- 4.9Publisher website ·
- CiteScore 2026-06
- 8.9LetPub ·
- CiteScore (publisher) 2025
- 8.9Publisher website ·
- SJR 2026-06
- 1.51LetPub ·
- SNIP 2026-06
- 1.12LetPub ·
- h-index
- 129LetPub ·
- h-index
- 188OpenAlex ·
- i10-index
- 5,720OpenAlex ·
- 2-year mean citedness
- 4.37OpenAlex ·
- Self-citation rate
- 2%LetPub ·
- Share of gold OA articles
- 100%LetPub ·
Volume
- Articles per year
- 282LetPub ·
- Articles per year (publisher) 2025
- 287Publisher website ·
- Downloads per year (publisher) 2025
- 2,273,893Publisher website ·
Articles by year OpenAlex count · 8,091 in total · the current year is incomplete
| Year | Articles | Open access | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 259 | 259 | 83 |
| 2025 | 345 | 345 | 952 |
| 2024 | 393 | 393 | 3,317 |
| 2023 | 360 | 360 | 4,971 |
| 2022 | 460 | 460 | 8,485 |
| 2021 | 473 | 473 | 13,287 |
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
110 daysMedian, submission to acceptance · P25–P75 83 days – 144 days
- Acceptance to online
- median 13 days (95 articles)
- Submission to online
- median 125 days
- Sample
- 95 articles with submission and acceptance dates (679 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 2 monthsLetPub ·
- Average acceptance (community reports)
- 62.5%LetPub ·
- Acceptance rate (publisher) 2025
- 11%Publisher website ·
- Submission to first decision 2025
- 8 daysPublisher website ·
- Submission to acceptance 2025
- 116 daysPublisher website ·
- Acceptance to publication 2025
- 14 daysPublisher website ·
- Peer review
- Anonymous peer reviewLetPub
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 accessOpenAlex
Every article is open access; authors usually pay an article processing charge (APC).
| Source | APC | Fee waiver | License | Observed |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| OpenAlex | USD 2,600 / EUR 2,350 / GBP 1,650 | — | — | |
| LetPub | USD 2,600 / GBP 1,650 / EUR 2,350 | Yes | — | |
| Publisher website | Yes, amount not published | — | — |
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 prepare5 items from the author guidelines
- Abstract
- ≤ 250 words
- Keywords
- 5
- Reference style
- Vancouver
- First submission
- Free format: the journal's layout is not required
- Suggested reviewers
- Optional
Article types accepted6, with length limits
- case reporthighly significant and timely findings. Case report: up to 2000 words (including up to 25 references), and up to 3 tables or figumain text ≤ 2,000 words
- editorialPeer review and Acceptance The acceptance criteria for all papers are the quality and originality of the research and its significance to our readership. This j…Length not stated
- letter to the editorthis is not possible, the next of kin. Letter to the Editor: up to 1000 words (including 10 references), and up to 3 figures or tables inmain text ≤ 1,000 words
- original articlelegends are included in the word count. Original article: up to 5000 words (excluding references), including an abstract of no more thmain text ≤ 5,000 words
- reportReport: up to 2000 words (including up to 25 references), and up to 4 tables or figures in total, including an abstract of no more than 250 words.Length not stated
- review articlean original article is available here. Review article: 4000-5000 words (including up to 80 references), including an abstract of nmain text ≤ 5,000 words
Policy excerpts from the journal's websiteAuthorship, Conflicts of interest, Data availability, Publication ethics, Open access, Preprints
- Authorship AUTHOR CONTRIBUTIONS
At submission of a manuscript, the corresponding author is required to indicate the contribution role and degree of contribution for each author using the CRediT Contributor Role Taxonomy. This information will be included in the publication as the author contribution statement. An example of an Authors’ Contribution statement using CRediT with degree of contribution as well as definitions of the …
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Conflicts of interest CONFLICT OF INTEREST
All authors should declare all relevant and potential conflict of interest as “Conflict of Interest” between Funding information and Ethics statement sections. If any of the authors of a manuscript is a current Editor or Editorial Board Member of Cancer Science, please also declare this in your statement. All authors will be required to complete a conflict of interest disclosure form as part of th…
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Data availability DATA SHARING AND DATA ACCESSIBILITY
The Journal encourages authors to share the data and other artefacts supporting the results in the paper by archiving it in an appropriate public repository. Authors may provide a data availability statement, including a link to the repository they have used, in order that this statement can be published in their paper. Shared data should be cited. Please also review Wiley’s policy here.
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Publication ethics ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS
No tobacco industry funding Model summary
Authors must state that the protocol for the research project has been approved by a suitably constituted Ethics Committee of the institution within which the work was undertaken and that it conforms to the provisions of the Declaration of Helsinki. All investigations on human subjects must include a statement that the subject gave informed consent. Patient anonymity should be preserved. Photograp…
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Open access OPEN ACCESS AGREEMENT (OAA)
If your paper is accepted, the author identified as the formal corresponding author for the paper will receive an email prompting them to login into Author Services; where via the Wiley Author Licensing Service (WALS) they will be able to complete the license agreement on behalf of all authors on the paper. The following license agreements are available:Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial …
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Preprints PREPRINT POLICY
Preprint policy: preprints allowed Model summary
Cancer Science will consider for review articles previously available as preprints. Authors are requested to update any pre-publication versions with a link to the final published article. Authors may also post the final published version of the article immediately after publication. Allowing submission does not, of course, guarantee that an article will be sent out for review. Please read Wiley's…
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
- Wiley-Blackwell
- Country or region
- JAPAN
- Language
- English
- Frequency
- Monthly
- Founded
- 2003
- ISSN
- 1347-9032
- Electronic ISSN
- 1349-7006
- Society / sponsor
- Japanese Cancer Association
- Official links
- Journal homepage ↗LetPub
- Submission system ↗LetPub
- Author guidelines ↗LetPub
- Aims & Scope ↗LetPub
- Peer review process ↗LetPub
- Editorial board ↗LetPub
FAQ
Frequently asked questions about Cancer Science
What CAS zone is Cancer Science in?
In the 2025 upgraded edition of the CAS Journal Ranking, Cancer Science is in Zone 2 of Medicine, and in Zone 3 of the minor category Oncology. 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 Cancer Science?
The latest impact factor listed by LetPub is 4.88; CiteScore 8.9, h-index 188.
How long does peer review take at Cancer Science?
Based on the dates recorded on 95 articles published between October 2024 and October 2026 (the last 24 months), the median time from submission to acceptance is 110 days (interquartile range 83–144 days); authors report an average review time of about 2 months; the community-reported acceptance is “about 62.5%”; the journal's website gives an acceptance rate of 11% (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.
What are the manuscript requirements of Cancer Science?
According to the journal's author guidelines: Abstract: ≤ 250 words; Keywords: 5; Reference style: Vancouver; First submission: Free format: the journal's layout is not required; 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.
Where are the editorial board members of Cancer Science based?
Of the 252 board members whose country the journal's board page names, 13 (about 5%) are in mainland China; the countries named most often are Japan (221), Mainland China (13) and South Korea (5). Counted from the institutions listed on the board page; for reference only.
Which databases index Cancer Science?
According to LetPub and DOAJ records, Cancer Science is indexed in SCIE, Scopus and DOAJ. The journal's website also lists MEDLINE, PubMed, Embase, CAS and Current Contents; that list has not been checked against each database.
Is Cancer Science open access, and what is the APC?
Cancer Science is a fully open-access journal. APC about USD 2,600.
Sources and updates
The facts on this page come from LetPub, Publisher website, OpenAlex; 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: .