Journal profile · intersection of health and social sciences
Discover Social Science and Health
ISSN 2731-0469 · Springer Nature · Switzerland
Discover Social Science and Health: CAS Zone 3 · Sociology (2026 Xinrui edition); impact factor 1.5 (journal website); fully open access; APC about USD 1,790; median 135 days to acceptance (109 articles, last 24 months); 196 articles in 2025; indexed in ESCI and Scopus.
Scope
Aims, scope and focus
Discover Social Science and Health is published by Springer Nature and is classed under Sociology in the CAS Journal Ranking. By OpenAlex counts of its recent articles, its largest topics are Global Maternal and Child Health, Health disparities and outcomes and Child Nutrition and Water Access, together about 25.4% of its articles. (generated from OpenAlex topic counts and CAS ranking data)
Discover Social Science and Health is a fully open access, interdisciplinary journal that publishes papers at the intersection of the social and biomedical sciences. Papers should integrate, in both theory and measures, a social perspective (reflecting anthropology, criminology, economics, epidemiology, policy, sociology, etc) and a concern for health (mental and physical). Health, broadly construed, includes biological and other indicators of overall health, symptoms, diseases, diagnoses, treatments, treatment adherence, and related concerns. Drawing on diverse, sound methodologies, submissions may include reports of new empirical findings (including important null findings) and replications, reviews and perspectives that construe prior research and discuss future research agendas, methodological research (including the evaluation of measures, samples, and modeling strategies), and short or long commentaries on topics of wide interest. All submissions should include statements of significance with respect to health and future research. Discover Social Science and Health is an open access journal that supports the pre-registration of studies. Topics Papers suitable for Discover Social Science and Health will include both social and biomedical theory and data. Illustrative examples of themes include race/ethnicity, sex/gender, socioeconomic, geographic, and other social disparities in health; migration and health; spatial distribution of risk factors and access to healthcare; health and social relationships; interactional processes in healthcare, treatments, and outcomes; life course patterns of health and treatment regimens; cross-national patterns in health and health policies; characteristics of communities and neighborhoods and health; social networks and treatment adherence; stigma and disease progression; methodological studies including psychometric properties of measures frequently used in health research; and commentary and analysis of key concepts, theories, and methods in studies of social science and biomedicine. The journal welcomes submissions that draw on biomarkers of health, genetically-informed and neuroimaging data, psychophysiological measures, and other forms of data that describe physical and mental health, access to health care, treatment, and related constructs. Content Types Discover Social Science and Health welcomes a variety of article types – please see our submission guidelines for details. The journal also publishes guest-edit
From the journal's Aims & Scope
Research area (LetPub): intersection of health and social sciences
Editor-in-chief Michael J ShanahanPublisher website
Main research topics OpenAlex counts of recent articles; shares are approximate
- Global Maternal and Child HealthMedicine10%
- Health disparities and outcomesSocial Sciences7.7%
- Child Nutrition and Water AccessNursing7.7%
- Obesity, Physical Activity, DietMedicine5%
- Vaccine Coverage and HesitancySocial Sciences4.8%
- COVID-19 and Mental HealthPsychology4.5%
- Migration, Health and TraumaPsychology4.5%
- Poverty, Education, and Child WelfareSocial Sciences4.5%
Rankings & indexing
CAS ranking and database indexing
CAS Journal Ranking
CAS Journal Ranking, upgraded edition (March 2025)Not covered
Not covered by this edition.
CAS Xinrui Journal Ranking (March 2026)Sociology Zone 3
| Level | Category | Zone |
|---|---|---|
| Major | Sociology | Zone 3 |
| Minor | Public, Environmental & Occupational Health | Zone 4 |
| Minor | Social Sciences, Biomedical | Zone 4 |
Top journal: noReview journal: not marked
CAS Journal Ranking, previous upgraded edition (December 2023)Not covered
Not covered by this edition.
Database indexing
ESCIScopusDOAJLetPub
International journal early-warning lists: not listed in any editionLetPub
Indexing the journal's website claims
CAB AbstractsPublisher website
Other: Google Scholar, EBSCO, ProQuest, Dimensions, CNKI, Baidu, Naver, OCLC, Portico, CLOCKSS
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 (publisher) 2025
- 1.5Publisher website ·
- 5-year impact factor (publisher) 2025
- 1.5Publisher website ·
- CiteScore 2026-06
- 1.3LetPub ·
- SJR 2026-06
- 0.47LetPub ·
- SNIP 2026-06
- 0.56LetPub ·
- h-index
- 13OpenAlex ·
- i10-index
- 22OpenAlex ·
- 2-year mean citedness
- 1.64OpenAlex ·
- Self-citation rate
- 0%LetPub ·
- Share of gold OA articles
- 100%LetPub ·
Volume
- Articles per year
- 192LetPub ·
- Articles per year (publisher)
- 2,025Publisher website ·
- Downloads per year (publisher) 2025
- 363,200Publisher website ·
Articles by year OpenAlex count · 465 in total · the current year is incomplete
| Year | Articles | Open access | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 133 | 133 | 26 |
| 2025 | 196 | 196 | 349 |
| 2024 | 82 | 82 | 298 |
| 2023 | 27 | 27 | 216 |
| 2022 | 25 | 25 | 135 |
| 2021 | 2 | 2 | 4 |
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
135 daysMedian, submission to acceptance · P25–P75 104 days – 184 days
- Acceptance to online
- median 14 days (109 articles)
- Submission to online
- median 153 days
- Sample
- 109 articles with submission and acceptance dates (364 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
- Submission to first decision
- 14 daysPublisher website ·
- Submission to publication (journal-reported)
- about 10 weeksDOAJ ·
- Peer review
- Double 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 1,490 / USD 1,790 / GBP 1,290 | Yes | CC BY, CC BY-NC-ND | |
| OpenAlex | USD 1,490 / EUR 1,140 / GBP 990 | — | — | |
| LetPub | GBP 940 / USD 1,390 / EUR 1,090 | 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)
Open calls for papers3, by deadline
- Nature and Human Development: Pathways to Health and Wellbeing Across the LifespanDeadline
- Digital and Community-Based Approaches to Dementia Prevention and Healthy Cognitive AgeingDeadline
- Social Determinants, Health Systems, and Community Innovations for Maternal, Newborn, Child, and Adolescent Health in LMICsDeadline
What to prepare5 items from the author guidelines
- Abstract
- ≤ 250 words
- Suggested reviewers
- Optional
- Highlights
- Optional
- Graphical abstract
- Optional
- Cover letter
- Required
Article types accepted14
- brief reportWhen you first submit in Snapp you will need to choose the correct article type.This journal accepts the following article types: Research Research articles pre…Length not stated
- case studyWhen you first submit in Snapp you will need to choose the correct article type.This journal accepts the following article types: Research Research articles pre…Length not stated
- commentComment articles can focus on policy, science and society, or purely scientific issues. They should be of immediate interest to a broad readership and should be…Length not stated
- data noteWhen you first submit in Snapp you will need to choose the correct article type.This journal accepts the following article types: Research Research articles pre…Length not stated
- full research articleWhen you first submit in Snapp you will need to choose the correct article type.This journal accepts the following article types: Research Research articles pre…Length not stated
- matters arisingMatters Arising articles are interesting and timely scientific or academic comments and clarifications on original research papers published in the journal.Length not stated
- methodologyMethodologies should present a new experimental or computational method, test or procedure. The method described may either be completely new, or may offer a be…Length not stated
- original paperWhen you first submit in Snapp you will need to choose the correct article type.This journal accepts the following article types: Research Research articles pre…Length not stated
- original research paperWhen you first submit in Snapp you will need to choose the correct article type.This journal accepts the following article types: Research Research articles pre…Length not stated
- perspectiveA Perspective is a scholarly review and discussion of the primary research literature that does not meet the criteria for a review article because: the scope is…Length not stated
- registered reportRegistered Reports are a publication format in which the research question and the quality of methodology are peer reviewed before the data are collected and an…Length not stated
- researchResearch articles present new scientific results within the scope of the journal that have not been published previously and are not being considered for public…Length not stated
- research articleWhen you first submit in Snapp you will need to choose the correct article type.This journal accepts the following article types: Research Research articles pre…Length not stated
- reviewReview articles provide critical accounts and comprehensive surveys of topics of major current interest within the scope of the journal.Length not stated
Policy excerpts from the journal's websiteLicense & copyright, Open access, Peer review
- License & copyright Step 4 - Understand your copyright
If your submission is accepted for publication, you will need to sign a licence agreement with Springer Nature to allow us to publish your article. According to this agreement:authors of articles published in this journal retain the copyright of their articles.authors grant Springer Nature a licence to publish the article and identify itself as the original publisher.authors retain full re-use rig…
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Open access Open access publishing
Open access Model summary
To find out more about publishing your work Open Access in Discover Social Science and Health, including information on fees, funding and licences, visit our Open access publishing page. Back to top Did you find what you were looking for? Share feedback.
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Peer review Step 3 - Understand the peer review policy
Single-anonymous peer review Model summary
This journal follows a single-anonymous peer review procedure, where the reviewers are aware of the names and affiliations of the authors, but the reviewer reports provided to authors are anonymous. Peer review process All manuscripts undergo technical checks upon submission. Manuscripts that pass technical checks undergo suitability checks by our in-house editorial team. Eligible manuscripts are …
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
- Springer Nature
- Country or region
- Switzerland
- Language
- English
- ISSN
- 2731-0469
- Official links
- Journal homepage ↗OpenAlex
- 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 Discover Social Science and Health
What CAS zone is Discover Social Science and Health in?
In the 2026 Xinrui edition it is in Zone 3 of Sociology. Zones from different editions, and from major and minor categories, are not interchangeable.
What is the impact factor of Discover Social Science and Health?
The journal's website gives an impact factor of 1.5 (2025); this is the journal's own figure, as LetPub lists none for it; CiteScore 1.3, h-index 13.
How long does peer review take at Discover Social Science and Health?
Based on the dates recorded on 109 articles published between October 2024 and October 2026 (the last 24 months), the median time from submission to acceptance is 135 days (interquartile range 104–184 days). 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 Discover Social Science and Health?
According to the journal's author guidelines: Abstract: ≤ 250 words; Suggested reviewers: Optional; Highlights: Optional; Graphical abstract: Optional; Cover letter: 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.
Which databases index Discover Social Science and Health?
According to LetPub and DOAJ records, Discover Social Science and Health is indexed in ESCI, Scopus and DOAJ. The journal's website also lists CAB Abstracts; that list has not been checked against each database.
Is Discover Social Science and Health open access, and what is the APC?
Discover Social Science and Health is a fully open-access journal. APC about USD 1,790.
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: .