Journal profile · Psychology-Clinical Psychology
Health Psychology Open
ISSN 2055-1029 · SAGE · United Kingdom
Health Psychology Open: CAS Zone 4 · Psychology (2025 upgraded edition); impact factor 1.9 (journal website); fully open access; APC about USD 2,000; median 313 days to acceptance (32 articles, last 24 months); acceptance rate 13.1% (journal website); 17 articles in 2025; indexed in ESCI and Scopus.
Scope
Aims, scope and focus
Health Psychology Open is published by SAGE and is in Zone 4 of Psychology in the CAS Journal Ranking (2025 upgraded edition). By OpenAlex counts of its recent articles, its largest topics are Eating Disorders and Behaviors, Behavioral Health and Interventions and Health, psychology, and well-being, together about 23.8% of its articles. (generated from OpenAlex topic counts and CAS ranking data)
Health Psychology Open is a peer-reviewed, open access journal providing rapid publication. Health Psychology is dedicated to publishing cutting-edge research from around the world 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): Psychology-Clinical Psychology
Editorial board by country: 3 in mainland China (about 5%); most named United Kingdom 21, United States 19, New Zealand 4, Mainland China 3, Belgium 2 (66 members with a country) Editorial board ↗Publisher website ·
Main research topics OpenAlex counts of recent articles; shares are approximate
- Eating Disorders and BehaviorsPsychology9.1%
- Behavioral Health and InterventionsPsychology8.2%
- Health, psychology, and well-beingHealth Professions6.5%
- Psychological Well-being and Life SatisfactionPsychology5.5%
- Health disparities and outcomesSocial Sciences5.3%
- Obesity and Health PracticesHealth Professions4.9%
- COVID-19 and Mental HealthPsychology4.6%
- Obesity, Physical Activity, DietMedicine4.4%
Rankings & indexing
CAS ranking and database indexing
CAS Journal Ranking
CAS Journal Ranking, upgraded edition (March 2025)Psychology Zone 4
| Level | Category | Zone |
|---|---|---|
| Major | Psychology | Zone 4 |
| Minor | Psychology, Clinical | Zone 4 |
Top journal: noReview journal: no
CAS Xinrui Journal Ranking (March 2026)Psychology Zone 4
| Level | Category | Zone |
|---|---|---|
| Major | Psychology | Zone 4 |
| Minor | Psychology, Clinical | 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
PMCPublisher 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)
- 1.9Publisher website ·
- 5-year impact factor (publisher)
- 3.7Publisher website ·
- CiteScore 2026-06
- 2.6LetPub ·
- SJR 2026-06
- 0.5LetPub ·
- SNIP 2026-06
- 0.74LetPub ·
- h-index
- 45OpenAlex ·
- i10-index
- 209OpenAlex ·
- 2-year mean citedness
- 2.14OpenAlex ·
- Self-citation rate
- 0%LetPub ·
- Share of gold OA articles
- 100%LetPub ·
Volume
- Articles per year
- 17LetPub ·
- Articles per year (publisher)
- 3Publisher website ·
Articles by year OpenAlex count · 373 in total · the current year is incomplete
| Year | Articles | Open access | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 17 | 17 | 1 |
| 2025 | 17 | 17 | 29 |
| 2024 | 16 | 16 | 77 |
| 2023 | 17 | 17 | 112 |
| 2022 | 13 | 13 | 113 |
| 2021 | 34 | 34 | 554 |
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
313 daysMedian, submission to acceptance · P25–P75 167 days – 381 days
- Acceptance to online
- median 22 days (32 articles)
- Submission to online
- median 341 days
- Sample
- 32 articles with submission and acceptance dates (39 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 12 weeksLetPub ·
- Acceptance rate (publisher)
- 13.1%Publisher website ·
- Submission to first decision
- 12 daysPublisher website ·
- Submission to acceptance
- 309 daysPublisher website ·
- Acceptance to publication
- 21 daysPublisher website ·
- Submission to publication (journal-reported)
- about 12 weeksDOAJ ·
- Peer review
- Double 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 2,000 | Yes | CC BY, CC BY-NC | |
| OpenAlex | USD 2,000 | — | — | |
| LetPub | USD 2,000 | Yes | — | |
| Publisher website | USD 2,400 | — | — |
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
- Reference style
- APA
- Suggested reviewers
- Required
- Cover letter
- Required
Article types accepted11
- brief report(a) Reports of empirical studies likely to further our understanding of health psychology (b) Critical reviews of the literature (c) Theoretical contributions a…Length not stated
- brief reports(e) Brief reportsLength not stated
- commentary(a) Reports of empirical studies likely to further our understanding of health psychology (b) Critical reviews of the literature (c) Theoretical contributions a…Length not stated
- critical reviews of the literature(b) Critical reviews of the literatureLength not stated
- intervention studies(d) Intervention studiesLength not stated
- protocol(a) Reports of empirical studies likely to further our understanding of health psychology (b) Critical reviews of the literature (c) Theoretical contributions a…Length not stated
- registered report(a) Reports of empirical studies likely to further our understanding of health psychology (b) Critical reviews of the literature (c) Theoretical contributions a…Length not stated
- registered reports – post-dataRegistered Reports – Post-Data, i.e., before already existing data have been examined and analysed.Length not stated
- registered reports – pre-dataRegistered Reports – Pre-Data, i.e., before any data have been gatheredLength not stated
- review(a) Reports of empirical studies likely to further our understanding of health psychology (b) Critical reviews of the literature (c) Theoretical contributions a…Length not stated
- theoretical contributions and commentaries(c) Theoretical contributions and commentariesLength not stated
Policy excerpts from the journal's websiteAuthorship, Data availability, Publication ethics, Open access, Peer review, Plagiarism, Preprints, Trial registration / reporting guidelines
- Authorship Author contributions
You will be asked to list the contribution of each author as part of the submission process. Please include the Author Contributions heading within your submission after the Acknowledgements section. The information you give on submission will then show under the Author Contributions heading later at the proofing stage.
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
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
Online-only journal Model summary
Health Psychology Open is an open access, peer-reviewed journal. All accepted articles are made freely available online immediately upon publication, are published under a Creative Commons license, and hosted online in perpetuity. If, after peer review, your manuscript is accepted for publication, a one-time article processing charge (APC) is payable to cover the cost of publishing, paid by the fu…
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
Your manuscript must follow the relevant EQUATOR Network reporting guidelines, depending on the type of study. The EQUATOR wizard can help identify the appropriate guideline. You will need to upload the appropriate checklist with your submission. Other resources can be found at NLM’s Research Reporting Guidelines and Initiatives.
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
- Country or region
- United Kingdom
- Language
- English
- ISSN
- 2055-1029
- 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 Health Psychology Open
What CAS zone is Health Psychology Open in?
In the 2025 upgraded edition of the CAS Journal Ranking, Health Psychology Open is in Zone 4 of Psychology, and in Zone 4 of the minor category Psychology, Clinical. In the 2026 Xinrui edition it is in Zone 4 of Psychology. Zones from different editions, and from major and minor categories, are not interchangeable.
What is the impact factor of Health Psychology Open?
The journal's website gives an impact factor of 1.9; this is the journal's own figure, as LetPub lists none for it; CiteScore 2.6, h-index 45.
How long does peer review take at Health Psychology Open?
Based on the dates recorded on 32 articles published between October 2024 and October 2026 (the last 24 months), the median time from submission to acceptance is 313 days (interquartile range 167–381 days); authors report an average review time of about 12 weeks; the journal's website gives an acceptance rate of 13.1%. 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 Health Psychology Open?
According to the journal's author guidelines: Reference style: APA; Suggested reviewers: Required; Cover letter: Required. 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 Health Psychology Open based?
Of the 66 board members whose country the journal's board page names, 3 (about 5%) are in mainland China; the countries named most often are United Kingdom (21), United States (19) and New Zealand (4). Counted from the institutions listed on the board page; for reference only.
Which databases index Health Psychology Open?
According to LetPub and DOAJ records, Health Psychology Open is indexed in ESCI, Scopus and DOAJ. The journal's website also lists PMC; that list has not been checked against each database.
Is Health Psychology Open open access, and what is the APC?
Health Psychology Open is a fully open-access journal. APC about USD 2,000.
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 2026-08-26). Last updated: .