Journal profile · Critical Care Medicine
Critical Care
ISSN 1466-609X · eISSN 1364-8535 · BioMed Central · ENGLAND · Bimonthly · Founded 1997
Critical Care: CAS Zone 1 · Medicine (2025 upgraded edition, Top journal); impact factor 11.33; fully open access; APC about USD 4,390; median 56 days to acceptance (134 articles, last 24 months); community-reported acceptance: about 37.5%; 570 articles in 2025; indexed in SCIE and Scopus.
Scope
Aims, scope and focus
Critical Care is published by BioMed Central and is in Zone 1 of Medicine in the CAS Journal Ranking (2025 upgraded edition, Top journal). By OpenAlex counts of its recent articles, its largest topics are Sepsis Diagnosis and Treatment, Respiratory Support and Mechanisms and Intensive Care Unit Cognitive Disorders, together about 36.1% of its articles. Its main subfields are Critical Care and Intensive Care Medicine. (generated from OpenAlex topic counts and CAS ranking data)
Critical Care is a high-quality, peer-reviewed, international clinical medical journal. Critical Care aims to improve the care of critically ill patients by acquiring, discussing, distributing, and promoting evidence-based information relevant to intensivists. Critical Care aims to provide a comprehensive overview of the intensive care field.
From the journal's Aims & Scope
Research area (LetPub): Critical Care Medicine
Editor-in-chief Jean-Louis VincentPublisher website
Editorial board by country: 5 in mainland China (about 5%); most named United States 25, France 14, United Kingdom 7, Italy 6, Canada 6 (108 members with a country) Editorial board ↗Publisher website ·
Main research topics OpenAlex counts of recent articles; shares are approximate
- Sepsis Diagnosis and TreatmentMedicine17.3%
- Respiratory Support and MechanismsMedicine11.1%
- Intensive Care Unit Cognitive DisordersMedicine7.7%
- Hemodynamic Monitoring and TherapyMedicine7.4%
- Cardiac Arrest and ResuscitationMedicine6.5%
- Nosocomial Infections in ICUMedicine4.9%
- Trauma, Hemostasis, Coagulopathy, ResuscitationMedicine4.4%
- Cardiac, Anesthesia and Surgical OutcomesMedicine4.1%
Rankings & indexing
CAS ranking and database indexing
CAS Journal Ranking
CAS Journal Ranking, upgraded edition (March 2025)Medicine Zone 1
| Level | Category | Zone |
|---|---|---|
| Major | Medicine | Zone 1 |
| Minor | Critical Care Medicine | Zone 2 |
Top journal: yesReview journal: no
CAS Xinrui Journal Ranking (March 2026)Medicine Zone 1
| Level | Category | Zone |
|---|---|---|
| Major | Medicine | Zone 1 |
| Minor | Critical Care Medicine | Zone 2 |
Top journal: yesReview journal: not marked
CAS Journal Ranking, previous upgraded edition (December 2023)Medicine Zone 1
| Level | Category | Zone |
|---|---|---|
| Major | Medicine | Zone 1 |
| Minor | Critical Care Medicine | 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
MEDLINEEmbaseCASCAB 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
- 11.33LetPub ·
- Impact factor (publisher) 2025
- 11.4Publisher website ·
- 5-year impact factor (publisher) 2025
- 11Publisher website ·
- CiteScore 2026-06
- 16LetPub ·
- CiteScore (publisher)
- 1.6Publisher website ·
- SJR 2026-06
- 3LetPub ·
- SNIP 2026-06
- 3.18LetPub ·
- h-index
- 146LetPub ·
- h-index
- 290OpenAlex ·
- i10-index
- 7,605OpenAlex ·
- 2-year mean citedness
- 7.9OpenAlex ·
- Self-citation rate
- 5.3%LetPub ·
- Share of gold OA articles
- 100%LetPub ·
Volume
- Articles per year
- 373LetPub ·
- Downloads per year (publisher) 2025
- 14,100,000Publisher website ·
Articles by year OpenAlex count · 21,474 in total · the current year is incomplete
| Year | Articles | Open access | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 540 | 540 | 441 |
| 2025 | 570 | 570 | 3,978 |
| 2024 | 444 | 444 | 7,862 |
| 2023 | 497 | 497 | 15,100 |
| 2022 | 444 | 444 | 15,342 |
| 2021 | 511 | 511 | 20,894 |
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
56 daysMedian, submission to acceptance · P25–P75 38 days – 78 days
- Acceptance to online
- median 13 days (134 articles)
- Submission to online
- median 73 days
- Sample
- 134 articles with submission and acceptance dates (1,217 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 1.5 monthsLetPub ·
- Average acceptance (community reports)
- 37.5%LetPub ·
- Submission to first decision
- 5 daysPublisher website ·
- Submission to publication (journal-reported)
- about 14 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 3,590 / USD 4,390 / GBP 3,090 | Yes | CC BY, CC BY-NC-ND | |
| OpenAlex | USD 4,190 / EUR 3,490 / GBP 2,990 | — | — | |
| LetPub | GBP 2,790 / USD 3,890 / EUR 3,290 | Yes | — | |
| Publisher website | GBP 3,090 / USD 4,390 / EUR 3,590 | — | — |
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 papers2, by deadline
Publisher websiteArticle types accepted11
- brief reportResearch Review Comment Debate Correspondence Brief Report Perspective Guidelines Editorial Matters Arising ConsensusLength not stated
- commentResearch Review Comment Debate Correspondence Brief Report Perspective Guidelines Editorial Matters Arising ConsensusLength not stated
- consensusResearch Review Comment Debate Correspondence Brief Report Perspective Guidelines Editorial Matters Arising ConsensusLength not stated
- correspondenceResearch Review Comment Debate Correspondence Brief Report Perspective Guidelines Editorial Matters Arising ConsensusLength not stated
- debateResearch Review Comment Debate Correspondence Brief Report Perspective Guidelines Editorial Matters Arising ConsensusLength not stated
- editorialResearch Review Comment Debate Correspondence Brief Report Perspective Guidelines Editorial Matters Arising ConsensusLength not stated
- guidelinesResearch Review Comment Debate Correspondence Brief Report Perspective Guidelines Editorial Matters Arising ConsensusLength not stated
- matters arisingResearch Review Comment Debate Correspondence Brief Report Perspective Guidelines Editorial Matters Arising ConsensusLength not stated
- perspectiveResearch Review Comment Debate Correspondence Brief Report Perspective Guidelines Editorial Matters Arising ConsensusLength not stated
- researchResearch Review Comment Debate Correspondence Brief Report Perspective Guidelines Editorial Matters Arising ConsensusLength not stated
- reviewResearch Review Comment Debate Correspondence Brief Report Perspective Guidelines Editorial Matters Arising ConsensusLength 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
Data availability statement required; datasets should be deposited in public repositories or included in the paper. 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
Open access articles published under CC BY-NC-ND or CC BY licences. 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. Critical Care articles are published open access under a CC BY-NC-ND (Creative Commons Attribution Non-Comme…
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
- Frequency
- Bimonthly
- Founded
- 1997
- ISSN
- 1466-609X
- Electronic ISSN
- 1364-8535
- 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 Critical Care
What CAS zone is Critical Care in?
In the 2025 upgraded edition of the CAS Journal Ranking, Critical Care is in Zone 1 of Medicine, and in Zone 2 of the minor category Critical Care Medicine; it is a Top journal. 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 Critical Care?
The latest impact factor listed by LetPub is 11.33; CiteScore 16, h-index 290.
How long does peer review take at Critical Care?
Based on the dates recorded on 134 articles published between October 2024 and October 2026 (the last 24 months), the median time from submission to acceptance is 56 days (interquartile range 38–78 days); authors report an average review time of about 1.5 months; the community-reported acceptance is “about 37.5%”. 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 Critical Care based?
Of the 108 board members whose country the journal's board page names, 5 (about 5%) are in mainland China; the countries named most often are United States (25), France (14) and United Kingdom (7). Counted from the institutions listed on the board page; for reference only.
Which databases index Critical Care?
According to LetPub and DOAJ records, Critical Care is indexed in SCIE, Scopus and DOAJ. The journal's website also lists MEDLINE, Embase, CAS and CAB Abstracts; that list has not been checked against each database.
Is Critical Care open access, and what is the APC?
Critical Care is a fully open-access journal. APC about USD 4,390.
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 2026-08-26). Last updated: .