Journal profile · Orthopedics
Foot & Ankle International
ISSN 1071-1007 · eISSN 1944-7876 · SAGE Publications Inc. · UNITED STATES · Monthly · Founded 1994
Foot & Ankle International: CAS Zone 2 · Medicine (2025 upgraded edition); impact factor 2.25; hybrid open access; APC about USD 4,150; review about 80 days (submission to acceptance, publisher); community-reported acceptance: about 50%; 212 articles in 2025; indexed in SCIE and Scopus.
Scope
Aims, scope and focus
Foot & Ankle International is published by SAGE Publications Inc. 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 Foot and Ankle Surgery, Lower Extremity Biomechanics and Pathologies and Tendon Structure and Treatment, together about 53.5% of its articles. Its main subfields are Orthopedics and Sports Medicine and Surgery. (generated from OpenAlex topic counts and CAS ranking data)
Foot & Ankle International (FAI), in publication since 1980, is the official journal of the American Orthopaedic Foot & Ankle Society (AOFAS). This monthly medical journal emphasizes surgical and medical management as it relates to the foot and ankle with a specific focus on reconstructive, trauma, and sports-related conditions utilizing the … | View full journal description This journal is a member of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).
From the journal's Aims & Scope
Research area (LetPub): Orthopedics
Editor-in-chief Charles L. SaltzmanPublisher website
Editorial board by country: none in mainland China; most named United States 57, Canada 3, Switzerland 3, United Kingdom 2, Germany 2 (79 members with a country) Editorial board ↗Publisher website ·
Main research topics OpenAlex counts of recent articles; shares are approximate
- Foot and Ankle SurgeryMedicine28.5%
- Lower Extremity Biomechanics and PathologiesEngineering13.4%
- Tendon Structure and TreatmentMedicine11.5%
- Orthopedic Surgery and RehabilitationMedicine9.7%
- Bone fractures and treatmentsMedicine6.7%
- Diabetic Foot Ulcer Assessment and ManagementMedicine5.8%
- Sports injuries and preventionMedicine3.1%
- Total Knee Arthroplasty OutcomesMedicine2.7%
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 | Orthopedics | Zone 2 |
Top journal: noReview journal: no
CAS Xinrui Journal Ranking (March 2026)Medicine Zone 3
| Level | Category | Zone |
|---|---|---|
| Major | Medicine | Zone 3 |
| Minor | Orthopedics | Zone 3 |
Top journal: noReview journal: not marked
CAS Journal Ranking, previous upgraded edition (December 2023)Medicine Zone 2
| Level | Category | Zone |
|---|---|---|
| Major | Medicine | Zone 2 |
| Minor | Orthopedics | Zone 2 |
Top journal: noReview journal: no
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
- 2.25LetPub ·
- Impact factor (publisher)
- 2.3Publisher website ·
- 5-year impact factor (publisher)
- 2.6Publisher website ·
- CiteScore 2026-06
- 5.1LetPub ·
- SJR 2026-06
- 1.29LetPub ·
- SNIP 2026-06
- 1.5LetPub ·
- h-index
- 96LetPub ·
- h-index
- 168OpenAlex ·
- i10-index
- 4,391OpenAlex ·
- 2-year mean citedness
- 2.41OpenAlex ·
- Self-citation rate
- 21.7%LetPub ·
- Share of gold OA articles
- 11.76%LetPub ·
Volume
- Articles per year
- 160LetPub ·
- Articles per year (publisher)
- 3Publisher website ·
Articles by year OpenAlex count · 6,885 in total · the current year is incomplete
| Year | Articles | Open access | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 146 | 44 | 40 |
| 2025 | 212 | 68 | 440 |
| 2024 | 186 | 56 | 832 |
| 2023 | 190 | 67 | 1,476 |
| 2022 | 162 | 25 | 1,738 |
| 2021 | 215 | 18 | 3,099 |
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
Publisher-reported review time from the journal's website
80 dayssubmission to acceptance · community reports about 2 months
The publisher's own definition applies; dates from this journal's articles in the last 24 months are not available yet, so the publisher's figure is used.
Figures by source
- Average review time (community reports)
- about 2 monthsLetPub ·
- Average acceptance (community reports)
- 50%LetPub ·
- Acceptance rate (publisher)
- 18.3%Publisher website ·
- Submission to first decision
- 4 daysPublisher website ·
- Submission to acceptance
- 80 daysPublisher website ·
- Acceptance to publication
- 71 daysPublisher website ·
- Peer review
- Double 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 4,150 / GBP 3,043 | — | — | |
| Publisher website | Yes, amount not published | — | — |
A hybrid journal charges the APC only when the author chooses open access; publishing under the subscription model is usually free.
Other charges and waivers (author guidelines)
- Other fees
- USD 800
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 accepted6, with length limits
- clinical and biomedical scientific manuscriptsWhat We Publish Clinical and Biomedical Scientific Manuscripts Short Scientific Reports Systematic Review/Meta-Analyses Contemporary Reviews Letters to the Edit…Length not stated
- contemporary reviewsWhat We Publish Clinical and Biomedical Scientific Manuscripts Short Scientific Reports Systematic Review/Meta-Analyses Contemporary Reviews Letters to the Edit…Length not stated
- letterReplies by authors should not exceed 400 words of text, one (1) figure, and 5 references (including a required citation to the related article). The text should…main text ≤ 400 words · references ≤ 5
- letters to the editorWhat We Publish Clinical and Biomedical Scientific Manuscripts Short Scientific Reports Systematic Review/Meta-Analyses Contemporary Reviews Letters to the Edit…Length not stated
- short scientific reportsWhat We Publish Clinical and Biomedical Scientific Manuscripts Short Scientific Reports Systematic Review/Meta-Analyses Contemporary Reviews Letters to the Edit…Length not stated
- systematic review/meta-analysesWhat We Publish Clinical and Biomedical Scientific Manuscripts Short Scientific Reports Systematic Review/Meta-Analyses Contemporary Reviews Letters to the Edit…Length not stated
Policy excerpts from the journal's websiteAI use, Authorship, Conflicts of interest, Data availability, Publication ethics, Open access, Peer review, Plagiarism, Preprints, Trial registration / reporting guidelines
- AI use Large Language Models (LLM) evaluations
Submissions evaluating Large Language Models (LLMs) such as ChatGPT, Claude, or Perplexity and their ability to answer patient questions about orthopaedic conditions will only be considered for publication in Foot & Ankle Orthopaedics (FAO), rather than Foot & Ankle International (FAI), which prioritizes hypothesis-driven clinical research.
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Authorship Author contributions
The corresponding author is required at submission to verify that the work has been submitted solely to FAI and is not published, in press, or submitted elsewhere. It is to be clearly understood that each author has participated in the design of the study, has contributed to the collection of the data, has participated in the writing of the manuscript, and assumes full responsibility for the conte…
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Conflicts of interest Conflict of Interest
All authors submitting a manuscript to this peer-reviewed journal must disclose any conflicts of interest (COI) related to the submitted paper, using the FAI/FAO Disclosure Forms (Updated April 2026). A conflict of interest typically involves financial relationships (most commonly payments to surgeons or authors) that could reasonably be perceived as influencing the submitted work, whether receive…
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Data availability Data availability
The Journal is committed to facilitating openness, transparency and reproducibility of research, and has the following research data sharing policy. For more information, including FAQs please visit the Sage Research Data policy pages. Subject to appropriate ethical and legal considerations, authors are encouraged to: Share your research data in a relevant public data repository Include a data ava…
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Publication ethics Ethical considerations
Member of the Committee on Publication Ethics Model summary
Please include your ethics approval statements under this heading, even if you have already included ethics approval information in your methods section. If ethical approval was not required, you need to explicitly state this. All papers reporting studies involving human participants, human data or human tissue must state that the relevant Ethics Committee or Institutional Review Board approved th…
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Open access Publishing fees and open access
There are no fees payable to submit or publish in this journal. Figures submitted in color will be published in color in the online version of the journal at no cost. If you wish to have color figures in the printed version, the following fees apply: $800 for first image in print; $200 for subsequent color print images. Please see “Preparing Your Manuscript for Submission” section for more informa…
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Peer review Peer review policy
Double anonymized peer review Model summary
The following summary describes the peer review process for this journal: Identity transparency: Double-anonymized Reviewer interacts with: Editor Review information published: None Your manuscript will undergo an initial evaluation. If it does not conform to the requirements laid out in these guidelines, it will be returned to you for amendments prior to peer review. Manuscripts may be desk rejec…
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Plagiarism Plagiarism
The journal and Sage take issues of copyright infringement, plagiarism or other breaches of best practice in publication very seriously. Please read Sage's complete policy on plagiarism and the actions we may take.
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Preprints Preprints
The journal will consider submissions of manuscripts that have been posted on preprint servers. Please enter the preprint DOI in the designated field when submitting your manuscript. We advise that you inform the Journal Editorial office about your posted preprint at submission. Note that you should not post an updated version of your manuscript on a preprint server while it is being peer reviewed…
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Trial registration / reporting guidelines Reporting Guidelines Checklist
All full-length original clinical submissions require a checklist to be completed. The following checklists should be completed and submitted for these types of study:
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
- SAGE Publications Inc.
- Country or region
- UNITED STATES
- Language
- English
- Frequency
- Monthly
- Founded
- 1994
- ISSN
- 1071-1007
- Electronic ISSN
- 1944-7876
- Society / sponsor
- American Orthopaedic Foot & Ankle Society
- Official links
- Journal homepage ↗OpenAlex
- Submission system ↗Publisher website
- Special issues ↗Publisher website
FAQ
Frequently asked questions about Foot & Ankle International
What CAS zone is Foot & Ankle International in?
In the 2025 upgraded edition of the CAS Journal Ranking, Foot & Ankle International is in Zone 2 of Medicine, and in Zone 2 of the minor category Orthopedics. 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 Foot & Ankle International?
The latest impact factor listed by LetPub is 2.25; CiteScore 5.1, h-index 168.
How long does peer review take at Foot & Ankle International?
The publisher reports about 80 days (submission to acceptance); authors report an average review time of about 2 months; the community-reported acceptance is “about 50%”; the journal's website gives an acceptance rate of 18.3%. 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 Foot & Ankle International based?
Of the 79 board members whose country the journal's board page names, none are in mainland China; the countries named most often are United States (57), Canada (3) and Switzerland (3). Counted from the institutions listed on the board page; for reference only.
Which databases index Foot & Ankle International?
According to LetPub and DOAJ records, Foot & Ankle International is indexed in SCIE and Scopus.
Is Foot & Ankle International open access, and what is the APC?
Foot & Ankle International is a hybrid journal. For open-access publication: APC about USD 4,150.
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 2026-08-25). Last updated: .