Journal profile · Pharmacology & Pharmacy
Drug Discovery Today
ISSN 1359-6446 · eISSN 1878-5832 · Elsevier Ltd · ENGLAND · Semimonthly · Founded 1996
Drug Discovery Today: CAS Zone 2 · Medicine (2025 upgraded edition); impact factor 8.58; hybrid open access; APC about USD 4,720; median 98 days to acceptance (110 articles, last 24 months); community-reported acceptance: fairly hard; 285 articles in 2025; indexed in SCIE and Scopus.
Scope
Aims, scope and focus
Drug Discovery Today is published by Elsevier Ltd 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 Computational Drug Discovery Methods, Pharmaceutical Economics and Policy and Biotechnology and Related Fields, together about 28.3% of its articles. (generated from OpenAlex topic counts and CAS ranking data)
Drug Discovery Today delivers informed and highly current reviews for the discovery community. The magazine addresses not only the rapid scientific developments in drug discovery associated technologies but also the management, commercial and regulatory issues that increasingly play a part in how R&D is planned, structured and executed.Features include comment by international experts, news and analysis of important developments, reviews of key scientific and strategic issues, overviews of recent progress in specific therapeutic areas and conference reports. Coverage includes: • Novel therapeutic strategies • High-throughput screening • Therapeutic targets • Combinatorial chemistry, parallel synthesis and library design • Drug delivery • ADME/Tox • Advances in key compound classes and therapeutic areas • Genomics and proteomics • Automation and technology • Virtual chemistry • Informatics • Business strategy • Clinical trials and other aspects of drug discovery.Ethics in Publishing: General StatementThe Editor(s) and Publisher of this Journal believe that there are fundamental principles underlying scholarly or professional publishing. While this may not amount to a formal 'code of conduct', these fundamental principles with respect to the authors' paper are that the paper should: i) be the authors' own original work, which has not been previously published elsewhere, ii) reflect the authors' own research and analysis and do so in a truthful and complete manner, iii) properly credit the meaningful contributions of co-authors and co-researchers, iv) not be submitted to more than one journal for consideration, and v) be appropriately placed in the context of prior and existing research. Of equal importance are ethical guidelines dealing with research methods and research funding, including issues dealing with informed consent, research subject privacy rights, conflicts of interest, and sources of funding. While it may not be possible to draft a 'code' that applies adequately to all instances and circumstances, we believe it useful to outline our expectations of authors and procedures that the Journal will employ in the event of questions concerning author conduct. With respect to conflicts of interest, the Publisher now requires authors to declare any conflicts of interest that relate to papers accepted for publication in this Journal. A conflict of interest may exist when an author or the author's institution has a financial or other relationship with other people or organizations that may inappropriately influence the author's work. A conflict can be actual or potential and full disclosure to the Journal is the safest course. All submissions to the Journal must include disclosure of all relationships that could be viewed as presenting a potential conflict of interest. The Journal may use such information as a basis for editorial decisions and may publish such disclosures if they are believed to be important to readers in judging the manuscript. A decision may be made by the Journal not to publish on the basis of the declared conflict.For more information, please refer to: https://www.elsevier.com/conflictsofinterest.Submission to Drug Discovery Today is by invitation only. If you are interested in submitting an article please first send us a proposal with a brief description of the main theme of the article (approx. 100 - 200 words), listing the article type and if possible some key references.
From the journal's Aims & Scope
Research area (LetPub): Pharmacology & Pharmacy
Editor-in-chief Stephen L. CarneyPublisher website
Editorial board by country: 5 in mainland China (about 14%); most named United States 15, United Kingdom 7, Mainland China 5, Germany 3, Singapore 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 Science17.6%
- Pharmaceutical Economics and PolicyEconomics, Econometrics and Finance5.4%
- Biotechnology and Related FieldsMedicine5.4%
- Monoclonal and Polyclonal Antibodies ResearchMedicine5.2%
- RNA Interference and Gene DeliveryBiochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology4.7%
- Human auditory perception and evaluationEngineering4.6%
- Diverse Scientific and Economic StudiesEconomics, Econometrics and Finance4.4%
- Pharmacogenetics and Drug MetabolismPharmacology, Toxicology and Pharmaceutics4.1%
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 | Pharmacology & Pharmacy | Zone 2 |
Top journal: noReview journal: yes
CAS Xinrui Journal Ranking (March 2026)Medicine Zone 2
| Level | Category | Zone |
|---|---|---|
| Major | Medicine | Zone 2 |
| Minor | Pharmacology & Pharmacy | Zone 2 |
Top journal: yesReview journal: not marked
CAS Journal Ranking, previous upgraded edition (December 2023)Medicine Zone 2
| Level | Category | Zone |
|---|---|---|
| Major | Medicine | Zone 2 |
| Minor | Pharmacology & Pharmacy | Zone 2 |
Top journal: noReview journal: yes
Database indexing
SCIEScopusLetPub
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
- Impact factor
- 8.58LetPub ·
- Impact factor (publisher)
- 8.7Publisher website ·
- CiteScore 2026-06
- 16.8LetPub ·
- CiteScore (publisher)
- 16.8Publisher website ·
- SJR 2026-06
- 1.93LetPub ·
- SNIP 2026-06
- 1.81LetPub ·
- h-index
- 157LetPub ·
- h-index
- 251OpenAlex ·
- i10-index
- 4,114OpenAlex ·
- 2-year mean citedness
- 8.75OpenAlex ·
- Self-citation rate
- 2.3%LetPub ·
- Share of gold OA articles
- 34.32%LetPub ·
Volume
- Articles per year
- 259LetPub ·
Articles by year OpenAlex count · 7,793 in total · the current year is incomplete
| Year | Articles | Open access | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 222 | 99 | 210 |
| 2025 | 285 | 132 | 1,761 |
| 2024 | 275 | 127 | 4,875 |
| 2023 | 266 | 95 | 6,416 |
| 2022 | 253 | 104 | 9,031 |
| 2021 | 326 | 127 | 12,675 |
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
98 daysMedian, submission to acceptance · P25–P75 70 days – 165 days
- Acceptance to online
- median 4 days (110 articles)
- Submission to online
- median 101 days
- Sample
- 110 articles with submission and acceptance dates (593 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 6 monthsLetPub ·
- Average acceptance (community reports)
- Fairly hardLetPub ·
- Submission to first decision
- 4 daysPublisher website ·
- First decision after review
- 38 daysPublisher website ·
- Submission to acceptance
- 90 daysPublisher website ·
- Acceptance to publication
- 5 daysPublisher website ·
- Peer review
- Single anonymous peer reviewPublisher 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 4,720 / EUR 4,420 / GBP 3,780 / JPY 585,420 | — | — | |
| Publisher website | USD 4,530 | — | — |
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
- ≤ 250 words
- Keywords
- 1–7
- Reference style
- Numbered, in order of citation
- Graphical abstract
- Optional
Article types accepted6
- editorialGuest Editorial articles provide a forum for a personal perspective on contemporary issues and controversies - something you are passionate about or that you th…Length not stated
- foundation reviewsFoundation Reviews provide an introduction and comprehensive review of fundamental principles in drug discovery, forming an indispensable educational resource. …Length not stated
- guest editorialGuest Editorial articles provide a forum for a personal perspective on contemporary issues and controversies - something you are passionate about or that you th…Length not stated
- perspectiveGuest Editorial articles provide a forum for a personal perspective on contemporary issues and controversies - something you are passionate about or that you th…Length not stated
- reviewGuest Editorial articles provide a forum for a personal perspective on contemporary issues and controversies - something you are passionate about or that you th…Length not stated
- short reviewGuest Editorial articles provide a forum for a personal perspective on contemporary issues and controversies - something you are passionate about or that you th…Length not stated
Policy excerpts from the journal's websiteAI use, Authorship, Conflicts of interest, Publication ethics, License & copyright, Open access, Peer review, Preprints
- AI use Declaration of generative AI use
Authors must declare the use of generative AI tools in the manuscript preparation process upon submission of the paper.Generative AI and AI-assisted technologies (“AI tools”) have been rapidly adopted in research and scholarly publishing, offering significant benefits while requiring clear standards for responsible and transparent use.Authors preparing a manuscript for this journal may use AI tool…
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Authorship Group authorship
Group authorship refers to the attribution of an article to a defined and named group of authors whose members have contributed to the work. Examples include research consortia, clinical trial groups, collaborative networks, task forces or working groups, expert panels or consensus groups, and participatory research groups. Group authorship must be declared on the title page at submission. When av…
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Conflicts of interest Declaration of competing interests
All authors must disclose any financial and personal relationships with other people or organizations that could inappropriately influence or bias their work. Examples of potential competing interests include:EmploymentConsultanciesStock ownershipHonorariaPaid expert testimonyPatent applications or registrationsGrants or any other fundingAffiliation with the journal as an Editor or Advisory Board …
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Publication ethics
Authors must follow Elsevier's Publishing Ethics Policy. Model summary
Authors must follow ethical guidelines stated in Elsevier's Publishing Ethics Policy.
Source ↗Publisher website ·- License & copyright License options
Authors will be offered open access user license options which will determine how you, and third parties, can reuse your open access article. We advise that you review these options and any funding body license requirements before selecting a license option.
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Open access Open access
We refer you to our open access information page to learn about open access options for this journal.
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Peer review Peer review
Single anonymized review process; minimum of two reviewers; editors make final decision. Model summary
This journal follows a single anonymized review process. Your submission will initially be assessed by our editors. If your submission is deemed suitable, it will typically be sent to be reviewed by a minimum of two reviewers for an independent expert assessment of the scientific quality. The decision as to whether your article is accepted or rejected for publication will be made by our editors.Re…
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Preprints Preprints
Preprint sharingAuthors may share preprints in line with Elsevier's article sharing policy. Sharing preprints, such as on a preprint server, will not count as prior publication.We advise you to read our policy on multiple, redundant or concurrent publication.
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
- Elsevier Ltd
- Country or region
- ENGLAND
- Language
- English
- Frequency
- Semimonthly
- Founded
- 1996
- ISSN
- 1359-6446
- Electronic ISSN
- 1878-5832
- Official links
- Journal homepage ↗OpenAlex
- Submission system ↗LetPub
- Special issues ↗Publisher website
FAQ
Frequently asked questions about Drug Discovery Today
What CAS zone is Drug Discovery Today in?
In the 2025 upgraded edition of the CAS Journal Ranking, Drug Discovery Today is in Zone 2 of Medicine, and in Zone 2 of the minor category Pharmacology & Pharmacy. 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.
What is the impact factor of Drug Discovery Today?
The latest impact factor listed by LetPub is 8.58; CiteScore 16.8, h-index 251.
How long does peer review take at Drug Discovery Today?
Based on the dates recorded on 110 articles published between October 2024 and October 2026 (the last 24 months), the median time from submission to acceptance is 98 days (interquartile range 70–165 days); authors report an average review time of about 6 months; the community-reported acceptance is “Fairly hard”. 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 Drug Discovery Today?
According to the journal's author guidelines: Abstract: ≤ 250 words; Keywords: 1–7; Reference style: Numbered, in order of citation; Graphical abstract: Optional. 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 Drug Discovery Today based?
Of the 35 board members whose country the journal's board page names, 5 (about 14%) are in mainland China; the countries named most often are United States (15), United Kingdom (7) and Mainland China (5). Counted from the institutions listed on the board page; for reference only.
Which databases index Drug Discovery Today?
According to LetPub and DOAJ records, Drug Discovery Today is indexed in SCIE and Scopus.
Is Drug Discovery Today open access, and what is the APC?
Drug Discovery Today is a hybrid journal. For open-access publication: APC about USD 4,720.
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 2026-08-26). Last updated: .