Journal profile · INTEGRATIVE & COMPLEMENTARY MEDICINE-PHARMACOLOGY & PHARMACY
Chinese Medicine
ISSN 1749-8546 · BioMed Central · ENGLAND · Founded 2006
Chinese Medicine: CAS Zone 2 · Medicine (2025 upgraded edition); impact factor 7.32; fully open access; APC about USD 3,090; median 107 days to acceptance (106 articles, last 24 months); 217 articles in 2025; indexed in SCIE and Scopus.
Scope
Aims, scope and focus
Chinese Medicine 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 Traditional Chinese Medicine Analysis, Traditional Chinese Medicine Studies and Ginseng Biological Effects and Applications, together about 31.5% of its articles. Its main subfields are Molecular Biology, Complementary and alternative medicine and Pharmacology. (generated from OpenAlex topic counts and CAS ranking data)
Chinese Medicine is an open access journal publishing evidence-based, scientifically justified research and review papers in all aspects of Chinese medicine, including - but not limited to - chemistry, biology, pharmacology, pharmaceutics, engineering, clinical applications and socioeconomics that are relevant and significant to Chinese medicine. We particularly welcome studies using interdisciplinary methods and technologies to: - discover new compounds from Chinese medicinal herbs - elucidate molecular/cellular targets and mechanisms of action for Chinese medicine - develop modern drug delivery and molecular pharmaceutic tools for Chinese medicine - evaluate the outcomes of hypothesis-driven, rationally-designed fundamental, pre-clinical and clinical research We now publish research and review papers, both unsolicited and solicited. We may publish opinion or commentary papers which are by invitation only. Normally, we do not publish such types of papers as case study, technical note or meta-analysis unless the topic is of exceptionally significance and urgency.
From the journal's Aims & Scope
Research area (LetPub): INTEGRATIVE & COMPLEMENTARY MEDICINE-PHARMACOLOGY & PHARMACY
Editor-in-chief Yitao WangPublisher website
Editorial board by country: 259 in mainland China (about 82%); most named Mainland China 259, Macau, China 22, Hong Kong, China 15, United States 10, Singapore 2 (315 members with a country) Editorial board ↗Publisher website ·
Main research topics OpenAlex counts of recent articles; shares are approximate
- Traditional Chinese Medicine AnalysisMedicine15.5%
- Traditional Chinese Medicine StudiesMedicine8.7%
- Ginseng Biological Effects and ApplicationsBiochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology7.3%
- Acupuncture Treatment Research StudiesMedicine7.1%
- Metabolomics and Mass Spectrometry StudiesBiochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology5.9%
- Pharmacological Effects of Natural CompoundsPharmacology, Toxicology and Pharmaceutics4.9%
- Gut microbiota and healthBiochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology4.8%
- Berberine and alkaloids researchMedicine4.4%
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 | Integrative & Complementary Medicine | Zone 2 |
| Minor | Pharmacology & Pharmacy | Zone 2 |
Top journal: noReview journal: no
CAS Xinrui Journal Ranking (March 2026)Medicine Zone 1
| Level | Category | Zone |
|---|---|---|
| Major | Medicine | Zone 1 |
| Minor | Integrative & Complementary Medicine | Zone 1 |
| Minor | Pharmacology & Pharmacy | Zone 1 |
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 | Integrative & Complementary Medicine | Zone 2 |
| Minor | Pharmacology & Pharmacy | Zone 2 |
Top journal: noReview journal: no
Database indexing
SCIEScopusDOAJLetPub
International journal early-warning lists: not listed in any editionLetPub
Indexing the journal's website claims
EmbaseCASCAB 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
- 7.32LetPub ·
- Impact factor (publisher) 2025
- 7.4Publisher website ·
- 5-year impact factor (publisher) 2025
- 7.2Publisher website ·
- CiteScore 2026-06
- 10.4LetPub ·
- SJR 2026-06
- 1.3LetPub ·
- SNIP 2026-06
- 1.49LetPub ·
- h-index
- 34LetPub ·
- h-index
- 88OpenAlex ·
- i10-index
- 1,068OpenAlex ·
- 2-year mean citedness
- 7.32OpenAlex ·
- Self-citation rate
- 2.7%LetPub ·
- Share of gold OA articles
- 100%LetPub ·
Volume
- Articles per year
- 208LetPub ·
- Downloads per year (publisher) 2025
- 2,300,000Publisher website ·
Articles by year OpenAlex count · 1,676 in total · the current year is incomplete
| Year | Articles | Open access | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 224 | 224 | 265 |
| 2025 | 217 | 217 | 1,880 |
| 2024 | 180 | 180 | 2,399 |
| 2023 | 164 | 164 | 3,587 |
| 2022 | 147 | 147 | 4,289 |
| 2021 | 144 | 144 | 4,722 |
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
107 daysMedian, submission to acceptance · P25–P75 78 days – 152 days
- Acceptance to online
- median 22 days (106 articles)
- Submission to online
- median 142 days
- Sample
- 106 articles with submission and acceptance dates (486 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 31 weeksLetPub ·
- Submission to first decision
- 8 daysPublisher website ·
- Submission to publication (journal-reported)
- about 31 weeksDOAJ ·
- Peer review
- Single anonymous 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 2,590 / USD 3,090 / GBP 2,290 | Yes | CC BY, CC0 | |
| OpenAlex | USD 2,990 / EUR 2,490 / GBP 2,190 | — | — | |
| LetPub | GBP 2,190 / USD 2,990 / EUR 2,490 | Yes | — | |
| Publisher website | GBP 2,290 / USD 3,090 / EUR 2,590 | — | — |
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 papers1, by deadline
Publisher websiteWhat to prepare2 items from the author guidelines
- Suggested reviewers
- Optional
- Not considered
- case study; technical note; meta-analysis
Article types accepted4
- brief reportFormatting guidelines for specific article types can be found below. Research Review Comment Brief ReportLength not stated
- commentFormatting guidelines for specific article types can be found below. Research Review Comment Brief ReportLength not stated
- researchFormatting guidelines for specific article types can be found below. Research Review Comment Brief ReportLength not stated
- reviewFormatting guidelines for specific article types can be found below. Research Review Comment Brief ReportLength 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
CC0 data policy 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
CC BY (Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International licence) 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. Chinese Medicine articles are published open access under a CC BY (Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Internat…
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
- Founded
- 2006
- ISSN
- 1749-8546
- Society / sponsor
- International Society for Chinese Medicine
- Official links
- Journal homepage ↗DOAJ
- Submission system ↗Publisher website
- 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 Chinese Medicine
What CAS zone is Chinese Medicine in?
In the 2025 upgraded edition of the CAS Journal Ranking, Chinese Medicine is in Zone 2 of Medicine, and in Zone 2 of the minor category Integrative & Complementary Medicine / Pharmacology & Pharmacy. In the 2026 Xinrui edition it is in Zone 1 of Medicine. Zones from different editions, and from major and minor categories, are not interchangeable.
What is the impact factor of Chinese Medicine?
The latest impact factor listed by LetPub is 7.32; CiteScore 10.4, h-index 88.
How long does peer review take at Chinese Medicine?
Based on the dates recorded on 106 articles published between October 2024 and October 2026 (the last 24 months), the median time from submission to acceptance is 107 days (interquartile range 78–152 days); authors report an average review time of about 31 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.
Where are the editorial board members of Chinese Medicine based?
Of the 315 board members whose country the journal's board page names, 259 (about 82%) are in mainland China; the countries named most often are Mainland China (259), Macau, China (22) and Hong Kong, China (15). Counted from the institutions listed on the board page; for reference only.
Which databases index Chinese Medicine?
According to LetPub and DOAJ records, Chinese Medicine is indexed in SCIE, Scopus and DOAJ. The journal's website also lists Embase, CAS and CAB Abstracts; that list has not been checked against each database.
Is Chinese Medicine open access, and what is the APC?
Chinese Medicine is a fully open-access journal. APC about USD 3,090.
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: .