Journal profile · Medicine-General Medicine
Frontiers in Health Services
ISSN 2813-0146 · Frontiers Media S.A. · Switzerland
Frontiers in Health Services: CAS Zone 4 · Medicine (2025 upgraded edition); impact factor 2.6 (journal website); fully open access; APC charged, amount not published; median 82 days to acceptance (119 articles, last 24 months); 306 articles in 2025; indexed in ESCI and Scopus.
Scope
Aims, scope and focus
Frontiers in Health Services is published by Frontiers Media S.A. and is in Zone 4 of Medicine in the CAS Journal Ranking (2025 upgraded edition). By OpenAlex counts of its recent articles, its largest topics are Health Policy Implementation Science, Global Maternal and Child Health and Primary Care and Health Outcomes, together about 34.4% of its articles. Its main subfields are General Health Professions. (generated from OpenAlex topic counts and CAS ranking data)
Frontiers in Health Services is a multidisciplinary journal that informs the design and delivery of healthcare, ultimately improving patient experiences, outcomes, and the efficiency of health systems. Led by Field Chief Editor Prof Jose M Valderas (National University of Singapore, Singapore), and indexed in PubMed Central and the DOAJ, Frontiers in Health Services welcomes submissions in all areas of health services, from healthcare inequalities to information systems, which explore and evaluate concrete solutions aiming at maximising value and high-quality health care. Topics include, but are not limited to: health policy and management health system economics and financing health workforce implementation science mental health services patient safety person centered health systems. In particular, the journal welcomes submissions which support and advance the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), notably SDG 3: good health and well-being for all at all ages. Manuscripts that focus solely on the clinical aspects of health care, such as disease diagnosis, treatment, and prevention, are not suitable for publication in this journal. Additionally, studies that are limited to the description or evaluation of individual health services or interventions, without a broader system-level perspective, fall outside the journal's scope. The journal also does not consider papers that focus on health issues without a foundation in health services or systems. Frontiers’ journals require that manuscripts primarily comprising computational studies of public data, must include appropriate validation. Please refer to the Frontiers Standards for research methodology policy, for more information. Manuscripts not adhering to these standards will not be considered. Frontiers in Health Services is committed to advancing developments in the field of health services by allowing unrestricted access to articles, and communicating scientific knowledge to researchers and the public alike, to enable the scientific breakthroughs of the future. Frontiers in Health Services is a member of the Committee on Publication Ethics.
From the journal's Aims & Scope
Research area (LetPub): Medicine-General Medicine
Editorial board by country: none in mainland China; most named Singapore 6, United Kingdom 4, Australia 3, Slovenia 2, United States 1 (20 members with a country) Editorial board ↗Publisher website ·
Main research topics OpenAlex counts of recent articles; shares are approximate
- Health Policy Implementation ScienceHealth Professions19.1%
- Global Maternal and Child HealthMedicine7.9%
- Primary Care and Health OutcomesHealth Professions7.4%
- Mental Health and Patient InvolvementHealth Professions5.7%
- Community Health and DevelopmentHealth Professions4.7%
- Health Systems, Economic Evaluations, Quality of LifeEconomics, Econometrics and Finance4.6%
- Healthcare Systems and ReformsEconomics, Econometrics and Finance4.5%
- Nursing education and managementNursing3.3%
Rankings & indexing
CAS ranking and database indexing
CAS Journal Ranking
CAS Journal Ranking, upgraded edition (March 2025)Medicine Zone 4
| Level | Category | Zone |
|---|---|---|
| Major | Medicine | Zone 4 |
| Minor | Health Care Sciences & Services | Zone 4 |
| Minor | Public, Environmental & Occupational Health | 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 |
| Minor | Public, Environmental & Occupational Health | Zone 3 |
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
Web of SciencePMCPublisher website
Other: EBSCO, ProQuest, Dimensions, CNKI, CLOCKSS, Crossref
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)
- 2.6Publisher website ·
- CiteScore 2026-06
- 3.6LetPub ·
- CiteScore (publisher)
- 3.6Publisher website ·
- SJR 2026-06
- 1.16LetPub ·
- SNIP 2026-06
- 1.16LetPub ·
- h-index
- 26OpenAlex ·
- i10-index
- 158OpenAlex ·
- 2-year mean citedness
- 1.95OpenAlex ·
- Self-citation rate
- 3.8%LetPub ·
- Share of gold OA articles
- 99.82%LetPub ·
Volume
- Articles per year
- 274LetPub ·
Articles by year OpenAlex count · 1,187 in total · the current year is incomplete
| Year | Articles | Open access | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 405 | 405 | 99 |
| 2025 | 306 | 306 | 800 |
| 2024 | 153 | 153 | 785 |
| 2023 | 173 | 173 | 1,745 |
| 2022 | 136 | 136 | 2,386 |
| 2021 | 14 | 14 | 100 |
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
82 daysMedian, submission to acceptance · P25–P75 56 days – 117 days
- Acceptance to online
- median 18 days (119 articles)
- Submission to online
- median 106 days
- Sample
- 119 articles with submission and acceptance dates (730 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 11 weeksLetPub ·
- Submission to publication (journal-reported)
- about 11 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 | CHF 2,550 | Yes | CC BY | |
| OpenAlex | CHF 2,550 | — | — | |
| LetPub | USD 2,125 | 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)
What to prepare3 items from the author guidelines
- Keywords
- 5–8
- Reference style
- Harvard
- Templates
- LaTeX and Word
Policy excerpts from the journal's websiteAI use, Conflicts of interest, License & copyright, Open access, Peer review
- AI use Use of AI to create written or visual content
Authors should not list a generative AI technology as a co-author or author of any submitted manuscript. Generative AI technologies cannot be held accountable for all aspects of a manuscript and consequently do not meet the criteria required for authorship. If the author of a submitted manuscript has used written or visual content produced by or edited using a generative AI technology, this use mu…
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Conflicts of interest Safeguards against financial conflicts of interest
Only leading researchers acting as Associate Editors, who are not part of Frontiers' staff, can make acceptance decisions based on reviews performed by external experts acting as Community Reviewers or Reviewers. None have a financial incentive to accept articles, i.e. they are not paid for their role as Associate Editor or community Reviewer, and any award scheme is not linked to acceptances of m…
Source ↗Publisher website ·- License & copyright Open access and copyright
All Frontiers' articles from July 2012 onwards are published with open access under the Creative Commons CC-BY license (the current version is CC-BY, version 4.0). This means that the author(s) retains copyright, but the content is free to download, distribute, and adapt for commercial or non-commercial purposes, given appropriate attribution to the original article. Upon submission, the author(s)…
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Open access Open access and copyright
APCs apply to accepted articles. Model summary
All Frontiers' articles from July 2012 onwards are published with open access under the Creative Commons CC-BY license (the current version is CC-BY, version 4.0). This means that the author(s) retains copyright, but the content is free to download, distribute, and adapt for commercial or non-commercial purposes, given appropriate attribution to the original article. Upon submission, the author(s)…
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Peer review Peer review
Our rigorous, transparent peer review process combines expert review and constructive dialogue to strengthen your manuscript.
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
- Frontiers Media S.A.
- Country or region
- Switzerland
- Language
- English
- ISSN
- 2813-0146
- Official links
- Journal homepage ↗LetPub
- Submission system ↗Publisher website
- 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 Frontiers in Health Services
What CAS zone is Frontiers in Health Services in?
In the 2025 upgraded edition of the CAS Journal Ranking, Frontiers in Health Services is in Zone 4 of Medicine, and in Zone 4 of the minor category Health Care Sciences & Services / Public, Environmental & Occupational Health. 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 Frontiers in Health Services?
The journal's website gives an impact factor of 2.6; this is the journal's own figure, as LetPub lists none for it; CiteScore 3.6, h-index 26.
How long does peer review take at Frontiers in Health Services?
Based on the dates recorded on 119 articles published between October 2024 and October 2026 (the last 24 months), the median time from submission to acceptance is 82 days (interquartile range 56–117 days); authors report an average review time of about 11 weeks. 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 Frontiers in Health Services?
According to the journal's author guidelines: Keywords: 5–8; Reference style: Harvard; Templates: LaTeX and Word. 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 Frontiers in Health Services based?
Of the 20 board members whose country the journal's board page names, none are in mainland China; the countries named most often are Singapore (6), United Kingdom (4) and Australia (3). Counted from the institutions listed on the board page; for reference only.
Which databases index Frontiers in Health Services?
According to LetPub and DOAJ records, Frontiers in Health Services is indexed in ESCI, Scopus and DOAJ. The journal's website also lists Web of Science and PMC; that list has not been checked against each database.
Is Frontiers in Health Services open access, and what is the APC?
Frontiers in Health Services is a fully open-access journal. APC charged, amount not published.
Sources and updates
The facts on this page come from LetPub, OpenAlex, Publisher website, 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: .