Journal profile · Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Chemical Biology & Drug Design
ISSN 1747-0277 · eISSN 1747-0285 · Blackwell · ENGLAND · Monthly · Founded 2006
Chemical Biology & Drug Design: CAS Zone 4 · Medicine (2025 upgraded edition); impact factor 3.27; hybrid open access; APC about USD 3,920; median 117 days to acceptance (97 articles, last 24 months); community-reported acceptance: about 75%; 216 articles in 2025; indexed in SCIE and Scopus.
Scope
Aims, scope and focus
Chemical Biology & Drug Design is published by Blackwell 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 Computational Drug Discovery Methods, Synthesis and biological activity and Chemical Synthesis and Analysis, together about 32% of its articles. Its main subfields are Organic Chemistry and Molecular Biology. (generated from OpenAlex topic counts and CAS ranking data)
Chemical Biology & Drug Design is a peer-reviewed scientific journal that is dedicated to the advancement of innovative science, technology, and medicine. It is the aim of Chemical Biology & Drug Design to publish significant research that highlights new concepts, insight and findings covering all aspects of the multidisciplinary fields of chemical biology and drug design. The following scientific topics will exemplify the scope of the journal: Design, synthesis, and evaluation of novel receptor agonist/antagonists Synthetic methods for the investigation of chemical space relevant to chemical biology and drug discovery Natural product isolation and identification for chemical biology and drug design Macromolecule (protein, peptide, peptidomimetic, nucleic acid, lipids, carbohydrate) chemical biology and drug design Novel structure-based drug design techniques utilizing molecular modeling, virtual screening, and related in silico chemoinformatic technologies Application of biophysical technologies for chemical biology and drug design including NMR, X-ray crystallography, and calorimetry Proteomics, chemical genomics and molecular screening technologies for target identification Emerging concepts of significance to toxicity, pharmacology, ADMET, and drug delivery Structure activity relationship (SAR) studies that lead to significantly improved efficacy, toxicology or pharmacokinetic properties of known biologically active scaffolds Types of articles published in CB&DD: Research Article Review Commentary Editorial Perspective Research Letter Tools and Technology Special features will include: Special issue on Drugging RNA and RNA-based Therapies in Cancer Special issue on Recent Advances in Marine Drug and Toxin Research in Medical Biotechnology
From the journal's Aims & Scope
Research area (LetPub): Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Editor-in-chief Roberta Melander ResearchPublisher website
Editorial board by country: 4 in mainland China (about 11%); most named United States 10, Mainland China 4, United Kingdom 3, Japan 3, India 2 (35 members with a country) Editorial board ↗Publisher website ·
Main research topics OpenAlex counts of recent articles; shares are approximate
- Computational Drug Discovery MethodsComputer Science15.4%
- Synthesis and biological activityChemistry11.3%
- Chemical Synthesis and AnalysisBiochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology5.4%
- Synthesis and Biological EvaluationChemistry5.3%
- Click Chemistry and ApplicationsChemistry5.1%
- Cancer therapeutics and mechanismsBiochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology5%
- Cholinesterase and Neurodegenerative DiseasesMedicine3.8%
- Bioactive Compounds and Antitumor AgentsPharmacology, Toxicology and Pharmaceutics3.6%
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 | Biochemistry & Molecular Biology | Zone 4 |
| Minor | Chemistry, Medicinal | Zone 4 |
Top journal: noReview journal: no
CAS Xinrui Journal Ranking (March 2026)Medicine Zone 4
| Level | Category | Zone |
|---|---|---|
| Major | Medicine | Zone 4 |
| Minor | Biochemistry & Molecular Biology | Zone 3 |
| Minor | Chemistry, Medicinal | Zone 3 |
Top journal: noReview journal: not marked
CAS Journal Ranking, previous upgraded edition (December 2023)Medicine Zone 4
| Level | Category | Zone |
|---|---|---|
| Major | Medicine | Zone 4 |
| Minor | Biochemistry & Molecular Biology | Zone 4 |
| Minor | Chemistry, Medicinal | Zone 4 |
Top journal: noReview journal: no
Database indexing
SCIEScopusLetPub
International journal early-warning lists: not listed in any editionLetPub
Indexing the journal's website claims
MEDLINEPubMedEmbaseCASCAB AbstractsPublisher website
Other: EBSCO, AGRICOLA
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
- 3.27LetPub ·
- Impact factor (publisher)
- 3.3Publisher website ·
- Impact factor (publisher) 2025
- 3.3Publisher website ·
- CiteScore 2026-06
- 6.1LetPub ·
- CiteScore (publisher)
- 6.1Publisher website ·
- CiteScore (publisher) 2025
- 6.1Publisher website ·
- SJR 2026-06
- 0.67LetPub ·
- SNIP 2026-06
- 0.77LetPub ·
- h-index
- 71LetPub ·
- h-index
- 99OpenAlex ·
- i10-index
- 2,060OpenAlex ·
- 2-year mean citedness
- 3.08OpenAlex ·
- Self-citation rate
- 3%LetPub ·
- Share of gold OA articles
- 11.71%LetPub ·
Volume
- Articles per year
- 186LetPub ·
- Articles per year (publisher) 2025
- 186Publisher website ·
- Downloads per year (publisher) 2025
- 409,250Publisher website ·
Articles by year OpenAlex count · 4,257 in total · the current year is incomplete
| Year | Articles | Open access | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 180 | 91 | 52 |
| 2025 | 216 | 98 | 511 |
| 2024 | 254 | 100 | 1,442 |
| 2023 | 251 | 96 | 2,216 |
| 2022 | 188 | 32 | 2,699 |
| 2021 | 209 | 34 | 3,351 |
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
117 daysMedian, submission to acceptance · P25–P75 77 days – 207 days
- Acceptance to online
- median 18 days (97 articles)
- Submission to online
- median 139 days
- Sample
- 97 articles with submission and acceptance dates (419 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 5 monthsLetPub ·
- Average acceptance (community reports)
- 75%LetPub ·
- Acceptance rate (publisher)
- 14%Publisher website ·
- Acceptance rate (publisher) 2025
- 14%Publisher website ·
- Submission to first decision
- 4 daysPublisher website ·
- Submission to first decision 2025
- 4 daysPublisher website ·
- Submission to acceptance 2025
- 150 daysPublisher website ·
- Acceptance to publication 2025
- 16 daysPublisher website ·
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
Hybrid open accessLetPub
A subscription journal in which authors can pay to publish their article open access.
| Source | APC | Fee waiver | License | Observed |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| OpenAlex | USD 3,920 / EUR 3,290 / GBP 2,620 | — | — |
A hybrid journal charges the APC only when the author chooses open access; publishing under the subscription model is usually free.
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 prepare4 items from the author guidelines
- Abstract
- ≤ 200 words
- Keywords
- ≥ 5
- First submission
- Free format: the journal's layout is not required
- Graphical abstract
- Required
Article types accepted6
- commentariesCommentaries will be invited by the Editors to provide focused viewpoints of specific topics of interest, and written as continuous text with no subheadings.Length not stated
- correspondenceChemical Biology & Drug Design welcomes correspondence in the following categories:Length not stated
- research articlesResearch Articles will provide detailed description of scientific findings within the scope of the journal and be formatted according to the guidance highlighte…Length not stated
- research lettersResearch Letters will be a short version of a Research Article, but should be continuous text (subheadings for 'Results and Discussion' and 'Conclusions and Fut…Length not stated
- reviews and perspectivesReviews and Perspectives will be focused on a significantly important theme to chemical biology and drug design. Reviews should incorporate judicious use of tab…Length not stated
- tools and protocols in chemical biologyTools and protocols in chemical biology - The central idea of this new journal section is to assemble a definitive collection of protocols and methods that can …Length not stated
Policy excerpts from the journal's websiteAuthorship, Conflicts of interest, Data availability, Publication ethics, Open access, Peer review, Preprints, Trial registration / reporting guidelines
- Authorship Authorship
Please refer to the journal’s Authorship policy in the Editorial Policies and Ethical Considerations section for details on author listing eligibility.
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Conflicts of interest Conflict of Interest Statement
Authors will be asked to provide a conflict of interest statement during the submission process. For details on what to include in this section, see the ‘Conflict of Interest’ section in the Editorial Policies and Ethical Considerations section below. Submitting authors should ensure they liaise with all co-authors to confirm agreement with the final statement.
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Data availability Data Sharing and Data Accessibility
Data citation policy: mandatory data citation; data cited in the same way as article, book, and web citations and included in the reference list. Model summary
Chemical Biology & Drug Design recognizes the many benefits of archiving research data. Chemical Biology & Drug Design expects you to archive all the data from which your published results are derived in a public repository. The repository that you choose should offer you guaranteed preservation (see the registry of research data repositories at https://www.re3data.org/) and should help you make i…
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Publication ethics Publication Ethics
This journal is a member of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). Note this journal uses iThenticate’s CrossCheck software to detect instances of overlapping and similar text in submitted manuscripts. Read Wiley’s Top 10 Publishing Ethics Tips for Authors here. Wiley’s Publication Ethics Guidelines can be found here.
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Open access Open Access
This journal is a subscription journal that offers open access options. You’ll have the option to choose to make your article open access after acceptance, which will be subject to an APC. For more information on this journal’s APCs, please see the Open Access page.
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Peer review Peer Review and Acceptance
The acceptance criteria for all papers are the quality and originality of the research and its significance to journal readership. Papers will only be sent to review if the Editor-in-Chief determines that the paper meets the appropriate quality and relevance requirements.
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Preprints Preprint Policy
Preprint policy: considers preprints on non-commercial servers; authors may post submitted version at any time and should update pre-publication versions with a link to the final published article. Model summary
Wiley believes that journals publishing for communities with established pre-print servers should allow authors to submit manuscripts which have already been made available on a non-commercial preprint server. Allowing submission does not, of course, guarantee that an article will be sent out for review. It simply reflects our belief that journals should not rule out reviewing a paper simply becau…
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Trial registration / reporting guidelines Clinical Trial Registration
The journal requires that clinical trials are prospectively registered in a publicly accessible database and clinical trial registration numbers should be included in all papers that report their results. Authors are asked to include the id of the trial register and the clinical trial registration number at the end of the abstract. If the trial is not registered, or was registered retrospectively,…
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
- Blackwell
- Country or region
- ENGLAND
- Language
- English
- Frequency
- Monthly
- Founded
- 2006
- ISSN
- 1747-0277
- Electronic ISSN
- 1747-0285
- Latest issue on the website
- Volume 108, Issue 3 (September 2026)
- Official links
- Journal homepage ↗OpenAlex
- Submission system ↗LetPub
- Special issues ↗Publisher website
FAQ
Frequently asked questions about Chemical Biology & Drug Design
What CAS zone is Chemical Biology & Drug Design in?
In the 2025 upgraded edition of the CAS Journal Ranking, Chemical Biology & Drug Design is in Zone 4 of Medicine, and in Zone 4 of the minor category Biochemistry & Molecular Biology / Chemistry, Medicinal. In the 2026 Xinrui edition it is in Zone 4 of Medicine. Zones from different editions, and from major and minor categories, are not interchangeable.
What is the impact factor of Chemical Biology & Drug Design?
The latest impact factor listed by LetPub is 3.27; CiteScore 6.1, h-index 99.
How long does peer review take at Chemical Biology & Drug Design?
Based on the dates recorded on 97 articles published between October 2024 and October 2026 (the last 24 months), the median time from submission to acceptance is 117 days (interquartile range 77–207 days); authors report an average review time of about 5 months; the community-reported acceptance is “about 75%”; the journal's website gives an acceptance rate of 14% (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 Chemical Biology & Drug Design?
According to the journal's author guidelines: Abstract: ≤ 200 words; Keywords: ≥ 5; First submission: Free format: the journal's layout is not required; Graphical abstract: Required. 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 Chemical Biology & Drug Design based?
Of the 35 board members whose country the journal's board page names, 4 (about 11%) are in mainland China; the countries named most often are United States (10), Mainland China (4) and United Kingdom (3). Counted from the institutions listed on the board page; for reference only.
Which databases index Chemical Biology & Drug Design?
According to LetPub and DOAJ records, Chemical Biology & Drug Design is indexed in SCIE and Scopus. The journal's website also lists MEDLINE, PubMed, Embase, CAS and CAB Abstracts; that list has not been checked against each database.
Is Chemical Biology & Drug Design open access, and what is the APC?
Chemical Biology & Drug Design is a hybrid journal. For open-access publication: APC about USD 3,920.
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: .