Journal profile · Social Sciences-Development
Global Transitions
ISSN 2589-7918 · KeAi Communications Co., Ltd. · China
Global Transitions: CAS Zone 4 · Medicine (2025 upgraded edition); impact factor 4.2 (journal website); fully open access; APC about USD 900; review about 20 weeks (community reports); 50 articles in 2025; indexed in ESCI and Scopus.
Scope
Aims, scope and focus
Global Transitions is published by KeAi Communications Co., Ltd. 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 Climate Change and Health Impacts, Energy and Environment Impacts and Air Quality and Health Impacts, together about 24.8% of its articles. (generated from OpenAlex topic counts and CAS ranking data)
Global Transitions is a freely accessible platform hosting up-to-date information on the science, application and impact of major themes that will shape our future. We welcome actionable knowledge oriented to the health and wellbeing of humanity and our planet. Global Transitions connects multiple disciplines while examining a wide range of transformative events and our responses to them. Example research areas include, but are not limited to: Climate change and health Public health emergencies Healthy and sustainable cities The UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and health Global health policy and governance Big data in health Health and engineering Renewable energy and health Biodiversity, agriculture and health Sustainability and development Green and low-carbon transformation Sustainable science and technology The ageing population and social demography
From the journal's Aims & Scope
Research area (LetPub): Social Sciences-Development
Editor-in-chief Wannian LiangPublisher website
Editorial board by country: 51 in mainland China (about 52%); most named Mainland China 51, United States 9, United Kingdom 7, Netherlands 6, India 4 (98 members with a country) Editorial board ↗Publisher website ·
Main research topics OpenAlex counts of recent articles; shares are approximate
- Climate Change and Health ImpactsEnvironmental Science9.5%
- Energy and Environment ImpactsEnvironmental Science8.1%
- Air Quality and Health ImpactsEnvironmental Science7.1%
- Climate Change Policy and EconomicsEconomics, Econometrics and Finance7.1%
- Sustainability and Climate Change GovernanceEnvironmental Science5.7%
- Social Acceptance of Renewable EnergySocial Sciences5.2%
- COVID-19 impact on air qualityEnvironmental Science5.2%
- Energy, Environment, and Transportation PoliciesEnergy4.8%
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 | Public, Environmental & Occupational Health | Zone 4 |
Top journal: noReview journal: no
CAS Xinrui Journal Ranking (March 2026)Environmental Science & Ecology Zone 4
| Level | Category | Zone |
|---|---|---|
| Major | Environmental Science & Ecology | Zone 4 |
| Minor | Public, Environmental & Occupational Health | 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
PubMedPublisher website
Other: Crossref, ScienceDirect
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)
- 4.2Publisher website ·
- CiteScore 2026-06
- 5.1LetPub ·
- CiteScore (publisher)
- 5.1Publisher website ·
- SJR 2026-06
- 0.71LetPub ·
- SNIP 2026-06
- 0.99LetPub ·
- h-index
- 33OpenAlex ·
- i10-index
- 91OpenAlex ·
- 2-year mean citedness
- 5.66OpenAlex ·
- Self-citation rate
- 2.4%LetPub ·
- Share of gold OA articles
- 100%LetPub ·
Volume
- Articles per year
- 44LetPub ·
Articles by year OpenAlex count · 197 in total · the current year is incomplete
| Year | Articles | Open access | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 21 | 21 | 18 |
| 2025 | 50 | 50 | 271 |
| 2024 | 25 | 25 | 254 |
| 2023 | 30 | 30 | 440 |
| 2022 | 10 | 10 | 81 |
| 2021 | 8 | 8 | 355 |
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
- Average review time (community reports)
- about 20 weeksLetPub ·
- Submission to publication (journal-reported)
- about 13 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 900 | Yes | CC BY, CC BY-NC-ND | |
| OpenAlex | USD 900 | — | — | |
| LetPub | USD 900 | Yes | — | |
| Publisher website | USD 900 / USD 1,850 | — | — |
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 papers1, by deadline
Publisher websiteArticle types accepted12
- book reviewContributions falling into the following categories will be considered for publication: full length articles, research papers, review articles, short communicat…Length not stated
- case reportContributions falling into the following categories will be considered for publication: full length articles, research papers, review articles, short communicat…Length not stated
- conference reportContributions falling into the following categories will be considered for publication: full length articles, research papers, review articles, short communicat…Length not stated
- correspondenceContributions falling into the following categories will be considered for publication: full length articles, research papers, review articles, short communicat…Length not stated
- editorialContributions falling into the following categories will be considered for publication: full length articles, research papers, review articles, short communicat…Length not stated
- opinionContributions falling into the following categories will be considered for publication: full length articles, research papers, review articles, short communicat…Length not stated
- research paperContributions falling into the following categories will be considered for publication: full length articles, research papers, review articles, short communicat…Length not stated
- reviewContributions falling into the following categories will be considered for publication: full length articles, research papers, review articles, short communicat…Length not stated
- review articleContributions falling into the following categories will be considered for publication: full length articles, research papers, review articles, short communicat…Length not stated
- short communicationContributions falling into the following categories will be considered for publication: full length articles, research papers, review articles, short communicat…Length not stated
- short reviewContributions falling into the following categories will be considered for publication: full length articles, research papers, review articles, short communicat…Length not stated
- technical noteContributions falling into the following categories will be considered for publication: full length articles, research papers, review articles, short communicat…Length not stated
Policy excerpts from the journal's websiteAI use, Authorship, Conflicts of interest, Publication ethics, Open access, Peer review, Preprints
- AI use Declaration of generative AI in scientific writing
Authors are encouraged to declare the use of generative AI in scientific writing upon submission of the paper. The following guidance refers only to the writing process, and not to the use of AI tools to analyse and draw insights from data as part of the research process: Generative AI and AI-assisted technologies should only be used in the writing process to improve the readability and language o…
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Authorship Authorship Statement
Maximum of 6 keywords. Model summary
For transparency, we encourage authors to submit an author statement file outlining their individual contributions to the paper using the relevant CRediT roles: Conceptualization; Data curation; Formal analysis; Funding acquisition; Investigation; Methodology; Project administration; Resources; Software; Supervision; Validation; Visualization; Roles/Writing - original draft; Writing - review & edi…
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
Plagiarism screening with iThenticate CrossCheck. Model summary
Submissions to KeAi journals are automatically screened using iThenticate's CrossCheck within the editorial system to detect plagiarism issues including instances of overlapping and similar text in submitted manuscripts.
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Open access Open access
Open access journal. Model summary
This is an open access journal: all articles will be immediately and permanently free for everyone to read and download. To provide open access, this journal has an open access fee (also known as an article publishing charge, APC) which needs to be paid by the authors or on their behalf e.g. by their research funder or institution. The open access publication fee for this journal is USD 900, plus …
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Peer review Peer review
Single blind peer review process. Model summary
This journal operates a single blind review process. All contributions will be initially assessed by the editor for suitability for the journal. Papers deemed suitable are then typically sent to a minimum of two independent expert reviewers to assess the scientific quality of the paper. The Editor is responsible for the final decision regarding acceptance or rejection of articles. The Editor's dec…
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Preprints Preprints
Please note that preprints can be shared anywhere at any time, in line with Elsevier's sharing policy. Sharing your preprints e.g. on a preprint server will not count as prior publication (see 'Multiple, redundant or concurrent publication' for more information).
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
- KeAi Communications Co., Ltd.
- Country or region
- China
- Language
- English
- ISSN
- 2589-7918
- Official links
- Journal homepage ↗DOAJ
- 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 Global Transitions
What CAS zone is Global Transitions in?
In the 2025 upgraded edition of the CAS Journal Ranking, Global Transitions is in Zone 4 of Medicine, and in Zone 4 of the minor category Public, Environmental & Occupational Health. In the 2026 Xinrui edition it is in Zone 4 of Environmental Science & Ecology. Zones from different editions, and from major and minor categories, are not interchangeable.
What is the impact factor of Global Transitions?
The journal's website gives an impact factor of 4.2; this is the journal's own figure, as LetPub lists none for it; CiteScore 5.1, h-index 33.
How long does peer review take at Global Transitions?
Authors report an average review time of about 20 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.
Where are the editorial board members of Global Transitions based?
Of the 98 board members whose country the journal's board page names, 51 (about 52%) are in mainland China; the countries named most often are Mainland China (51), United States (9) and United Kingdom (7). Counted from the institutions listed on the board page; for reference only.
Which databases index Global Transitions?
According to LetPub and DOAJ records, Global Transitions is indexed in ESCI, Scopus and DOAJ. The journal's website also lists PubMed; that list has not been checked against each database.
Is Global Transitions open access, and what is the APC?
Global Transitions is a fully open-access journal. APC about USD 900.
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: .