Journal profile · HEALTH CARE SCIENCES & SERVICES
Drug Healthcare and Patient Safety
ISSN 1179-1365 · Dove Medical Press · United Kingdom
Drug Healthcare and Patient Safety: CAS Zone 3 · Medicine (2025 upgraded edition); impact factor 3.5 (journal website); JCR Q1 (journal website); fully open access; APC about USD 3,940; median 105 days to acceptance (48 articles, last 24 months); acceptance rate 15% (journal website); 21 articles in 2025; indexed in ESCI and Scopus.
Scope
Aims, scope and focus
Drug Healthcare and Patient Safety is published by Dove Medical Press 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 Pharmaceutical Practices and Patient Outcomes, Antibiotic Use and Resistance and Pharmacovigilance and Adverse Drug Reactions, together about 38.2% of its articles. (generated from OpenAlex topic counts and CAS ranking data)
Editor-in-Chief: Professor Rajender Aparasu Drug, Healthcare and Patient Safety is an international, peer-reviewed, open-access journal exploring patient safety issues in the healthcare continuum from diagnostic and screening interventions through to treatment, drug therapy, and surgery. Drug, Healthcare and Patient Safety will no longer consider meta-analyses for publication. The journal is characterized by the rapid reporting of reviews, original research, clinical, epidemiological, and post-marketing surveillance studies, risk management, health literacy, and educational programs across all areas of healthcare safety. Also, guidelines on data requirements to assure acceptable safety levels in license applications, post-marketing protocols on monitoring safety, adverse reaction case reports, and managing associated morbidity and mortality are key topics. Drug utilization studies, intervention research, and policy research focusing on healthcare safety are also welcome. Balancing risk, effectiveness, patient satisfaction, quality of life, and the development and testing of new interventions to optimize safety outcomes in disease management are major areas of interest for the journal. Study protocols, animal and in vitro toxicity studies are out of scope for the journal. Updated 26 September 2025
From the journal's Aims & Scope
Research area (LetPub): HEALTH CARE SCIENCES & SERVICES
Editor-in-chief Rajender AparasuPublisher website
Editorial board by country: 2 in mainland China (about 5%); most named United States 20, Malaysia 9, Italy 4, India 3, Mainland China 2 (44 members with a country) Editorial board ↗Publisher website ·
Main research topics OpenAlex counts of recent articles; shares are approximate
- Pharmaceutical Practices and Patient OutcomesMedicine15.6%
- Antibiotic Use and ResistanceImmunology and Microbiology12.4%
- Pharmacovigilance and Adverse Drug ReactionsPharmacology, Toxicology and Pharmaceutics10.2%
- Patient Safety and Medication ErrorsHealth Professions10%
- Pharmaceutical Quality and CounterfeitingMedicine6.7%
- Medication Adherence and ComplianceMedicine4.6%
- Drug-Induced Adverse ReactionsMedicine4%
- Pharmaceutical studies and practicesMedicine3.8%
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 | Health Care Sciences & Services | Zone 4 |
Top journal: noReview journal: no
CAS Xinrui Journal Ranking (March 2026)Medicine Zone 3
| Level | Category | Zone |
|---|---|---|
| Major | Medicine | Zone 3 |
| Minor | Health Care Sciences & Services | Zone 3 |
Top journal: noReview journal: not marked
CAS Journal Ranking, previous upgraded edition (December 2023)Not covered
Not covered by this edition.
JCR / CiteScore quartiles on the journal's website
- JCR Q1 · best quartile · 2025
- CiteScore Q1 · 2025
Publisher-reported: JCR figures are Clarivate's and CiteScore figures Scopus's to confirm; both are a different system from the CAS zones.Publisher website
Database indexing
ESCIScopusDOAJLetPub
International journal early-warning lists: not listed in any editionLetPub
Indexing the journal's website claims
SJR, CiteScore, Impact FactorPublisher website
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
- 3.5Publisher website ·
- 5-year impact factor (publisher)
- 5.3Publisher website ·
- CiteScore 2026-06
- 5.3LetPub ·
- CiteScore (publisher) 2025
- 1.08Publisher website ·
- SJR 2026-06
- 0.67LetPub ·
- SNIP 2026-06
- 1.08LetPub ·
- h-index
- 40OpenAlex ·
- i10-index
- 190OpenAlex ·
- 2-year mean citedness
- 2.34OpenAlex ·
- Self-citation rate
- 2.3%LetPub ·
- Share of gold OA articles
- 100%LetPub ·
Volume
- Articles per year
- 21LetPub ·
- Downloads per year (publisher)
- 60,849Publisher website ·
Articles by year OpenAlex count · 341 in total · the current year is incomplete
| Year | Articles | Open access | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 26 | 26 | 15 |
| 2025 | 21 | 21 | 72 |
| 2024 | 15 | 15 | 58 |
| 2023 | 16 | 16 | 316 |
| 2022 | 19 | 19 | 207 |
| 2021 | 25 | 25 | 564 |
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
105 daysMedian, submission to acceptance · P25–P75 85 days – 146 days
- Acceptance to online
- median 14 days (48 articles)
- Submission to online
- median 133 days
- Sample
- 48 articles with submission and acceptance dates (49 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 16 weeksLetPub ·
- Acceptance rate (publisher)
- 15%Publisher website ·
- Desk decision
- 32 daysPublisher website ·
- Submission to publication (journal-reported)
- about 16 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 | USD 3,940 | Yes | CC BY, CC BY-NC | |
| OpenAlex | USD 2,320 | — | — | |
| LetPub | USD 2,990 | Yes | — |
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)
Article types accepted2
- case reportAuthors may use these detailed descriptions of different paper types accepted by Dove Medical Press (case reports, reviews, etc) to decide how to label their pa…Length not stated
- reviewAuthors may use these detailed descriptions of different paper types accepted by Dove Medical Press (case reports, reviews, etc) to decide how to label their pa…Length not stated
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
- Dove Medical Press
- Country or region
- United Kingdom
- Language
- English
- ISSN
- 1179-1365
- Official links
- Journal homepage ↗OpenAlex
- 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 Drug Healthcare and Patient Safety
What CAS zone is Drug Healthcare and Patient Safety in?
In the 2025 upgraded edition of the CAS Journal Ranking, Drug Healthcare and Patient Safety is in Zone 3 of Medicine, and in Zone 4 of the minor category Health Care Sciences & Services. In the 2026 Xinrui edition it is in Zone 3 of Medicine. Zones from different editions, and from major and minor categories, are not interchangeable.
What is the impact factor of Drug Healthcare and Patient Safety?
The journal's website gives an impact factor of 3.5 (2025); this is the journal's own figure, as LetPub lists none for it; CiteScore 5.3, h-index 40.
How long does peer review take at Drug Healthcare and Patient Safety?
Based on the dates recorded on 48 articles published between October 2024 and October 2026 (the last 24 months), the median time from submission to acceptance is 105 days (interquartile range 85–146 days); authors report an average review time of about 16 weeks; the journal's website gives an acceptance rate of 15%. 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 JCR quartile is Drug Healthcare and Patient Safety in?
The journal's website gives JCR Q1 (best quartile). JCR quartiles are Clarivate's to confirm and a different system from the CAS zones; in the CAS ranking the journal is in Zone 3 of Medicine.
Where are the editorial board members of Drug Healthcare and Patient Safety based?
Of the 44 board members whose country the journal's board page names, 2 (about 5%) are in mainland China; the countries named most often are United States (20), Malaysia (9) and Italy (4). Counted from the institutions listed on the board page; for reference only.
Which databases index Drug Healthcare and Patient Safety?
According to LetPub and DOAJ records, Drug Healthcare and Patient Safety is indexed in ESCI, Scopus and DOAJ.
Is Drug Healthcare and Patient Safety open access, and what is the APC?
Drug Healthcare and Patient Safety is a fully open-access journal. APC about USD 3,940.
Sources and updates
The facts on this page come from LetPub, Publisher website, OpenAlex, DOAJ; 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: .