Journal profile · Social Sciences-Law
Contemporary Drug Problems
ISSN 0091-4509 · SAGE
Contemporary Drug Problems: CAS Zone 3 · Medicine (2025 upgraded edition); hybrid open access; APC about USD 3,400; 56 articles in 2025; indexed in ESCI and Scopus.
Scope
Aims, scope and focus
Contemporary Drug Problems is published by SAGE and is in Zone 3 of Medicine in the CAS Journal Ranking (2025 upgraded edition). By OpenAlex counts of its recent articles, its largest topics are Substance Abuse Treatment and Outcomes, HIV, Drug Use, Sexual Risk and Alcohol Consumption and Health Effects, together about 50.7% of its articles. Its main subfields are Sociology and Political Science. (generated from OpenAlex topic counts and CAS ranking data)
Research area (LetPub): Social Sciences-Law
Main research topics OpenAlex counts of recent articles; shares are approximate
- Substance Abuse Treatment and OutcomesMedicine31.5%
- HIV, Drug Use, Sexual RiskMedicine12.8%
- Alcohol Consumption and Health EffectsMedicine6.3%
- Opioid Use Disorder TreatmentMedicine6.3%
- Global Public Health Policies and EpidemiologyBusiness, Management and Accounting6.3%
- Youth, Drugs, and ViolenceSocial Sciences5.8%
- Homelessness and Social IssuesHealth Professions4.7%
- Criminal Law and PolicySocial Sciences4%
Rankings & indexing
CAS ranking and database indexing
CAS Journal Ranking
CAS Journal Ranking, upgraded edition (March 2025)Medicine Zone 3
| Level | Category | Zone |
|---|---|---|
| Major | Medicine | Zone 3 |
| Minor | Substance Abuse | Zone 4 |
Top journal: noReview journal: no
CAS Xinrui Journal Ranking (March 2026)Medicine Zone 2
| Level | Category | Zone |
|---|---|---|
| Major | Medicine | Zone 2 |
| Minor | Substance Abuse | Zone 3 |
Top journal: noReview journal: not marked
CAS Journal Ranking, previous upgraded edition (December 2023)Not covered
Not covered by this edition.
CiteScore quartiles (Scopus, June 2026 release)
| Subject | Quartile | Rank | Percentile |
|---|---|---|---|
| Law | Q1 | 97/1162 | 91st |
| Health (social science) | Q1 | 80/387 | 79th |
| Health Policy | Q2 | 88/330 | 73rd |
| Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health | Q2 | 200/725 | 72nd |
Scopus ranks journals by CiteScore within each subject: the 75th percentile and above is Q1, then a quartile every 25 points. A different system from the CAS zones.LetPub
Database indexing
ESCIScopusLetPub
International journal early-warning lists: not listed in any editionLetPub
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
- CiteScore 2026-06
- 4.6LetPub ·
- SJR 2026-06
- 1LetPub ·
- SNIP 2026-06
- 1.45LetPub ·
- h-index
- 49OpenAlex ·
- i10-index
- 434OpenAlex ·
- 2-year mean citedness
- 1.56OpenAlex ·
- Self-citation rate
- 12.1%LetPub ·
- Share of gold OA articles
- 63.72%LetPub ·
Volume
- Articles per year
- 63LetPub ·
Articles by year OpenAlex count · 1,149 in total · the current year is incomplete
| Year | Articles | Open access | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 63 | 49 | 737 |
| 2025 | 56 | 39 | 905 |
| 2024 | 26 | 24 | 882 |
| 2023 | 28 | 18 | 862 |
| 2022 | 27 | 16 | 863 |
| 2021 | 30 | 16 | 717 |
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 PubMed · to
Too few articlesOnly 4 articles from the last 24 months carry both submission and acceptance dates, too few for a median
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".
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 3,400 / GBP 2,493 | — | — |
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.
Profile
Publication details and official links
- Publisher
- SAGE
- ISSN
- 0091-4509
- Official links
- Journal homepage ↗OpenAlex
FAQ
Frequently asked questions about Contemporary Drug Problems
What CAS zone is Contemporary Drug Problems in?
In the 2025 upgraded edition of the CAS Journal Ranking, Contemporary Drug Problems is in Zone 3 of Medicine, and in Zone 4 of the minor category Substance Abuse. 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.
Which databases index Contemporary Drug Problems?
According to LetPub and DOAJ records, Contemporary Drug Problems is indexed in ESCI and Scopus.
Is Contemporary Drug Problems open access, and what is the APC?
Contemporary Drug Problems is a hybrid journal. For open-access publication: APC about USD 3,400.
Sources and updates
The facts on this page come from LetPub, 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 2026-08-26). Last updated: .