Journal profile · Medicine-Surgery
HSS Journal
ISSN 1556-3316 · eISSN 1556-3324 · SAGE
HSS Journal: CAS Zone 4 · Medicine (2025 upgraded edition); impact factor 1.44; hybrid open access; APC about USD 4,150; median 49 days to acceptance (86 articles, last 24 months); acceptance rate 30.8% (journal website); 59 articles in 2025; indexed in SCIE and Scopus.
Scope
Aims, scope and focus
HSS Journal is published by SAGE 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 Total Knee Arthroplasty Outcomes, Orthopaedic implants and arthroplasty and Shoulder Injury and Treatment, together about 34% of its articles. Its main subfields are Surgery. (generated from OpenAlex topic counts and CAS ranking data)
HSS Journal®: The Musculoskeletal Journal of Hospital for Special Surgery is a peer-reviewed publication featuring clinical and basic science research, commentaries, and review articles … | 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): Medicine-Surgery
Editor-in-chief Charles N. CornellPublisher website
Editorial board by country: none in mainland China; most named United States 18, Brazil 3, South Korea 2, Germany 2, Italy 2 (36 members with a country) Editorial board ↗Publisher website ·
Main research topics OpenAlex counts of recent articles; shares are approximate
- Total Knee Arthroplasty OutcomesMedicine15.1%
- Orthopaedic implants and arthroplastyMedicine10.8%
- Shoulder Injury and TreatmentMedicine8.2%
- Orthopedic Infections and TreatmentsMedicine6.2%
- Knee injuries and reconstruction techniquesMedicine4.8%
- Hip disorders and treatmentsMedicine4.7%
- Spine and Intervertebral Disc PathologyMedicine4.6%
- Osteoarthritis Treatment and MechanismsMedicine3.8%
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 | Orthopedics | Zone 4 |
| Minor | Surgery | Zone 4 |
Top journal: noReview journal: no
CAS Xinrui Journal Ranking (March 2026)Medicine Zone 4
| Level | Category | Zone |
|---|---|---|
| Major | Medicine | Zone 4 |
| Minor | Orthopedics | Zone 4 |
| Minor | Surgery | Zone 4 |
Top journal: noReview journal: not marked
CAS Journal Ranking, previous upgraded edition (December 2023)Medicine Zone 4
| Level | Category | Zone |
|---|---|---|
| Major | Medicine | Zone 4 |
| Minor | Orthopedics | Zone 4 |
| Minor | Surgery | Zone 4 |
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
- 1.44LetPub ·
- Impact factor (publisher)
- 1.4Publisher website ·
- 5-year impact factor (publisher)
- 1.9Publisher website ·
- CiteScore 2026-06
- 3.3LetPub ·
- SJR 2026-06
- 0.68LetPub ·
- SNIP 2026-06
- 0.98LetPub ·
- h-index
- 63OpenAlex ·
- i10-index
- 556OpenAlex ·
- 2-year mean citedness
- 2.02OpenAlex ·
- Self-citation rate
- 0%LetPub ·
- Share of gold OA articles
- 15.18%LetPub ·
Volume
- Articles per year
- 47LetPub ·
- Articles per year (publisher)
- 3Publisher website ·
Articles by year OpenAlex count · 1,284 in total · the current year is incomplete
| Year | Articles | Open access | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 62 | 59 | 8 |
| 2025 | 59 | 58 | 176 |
| 2024 | 64 | 63 | 190 |
| 2023 | 101 | 101 | 367 |
| 2022 | 49 | 49 | 300 |
| 2021 | 109 | 107 | 1,191 |
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
49 daysMedian, submission to acceptance · P25–P75 29 days – 76 days
- Acceptance to online
- median 79 days (86 articles)
- Submission to online
- median 132 days
- Sample
- 86 articles with submission and acceptance dates (185 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
- Acceptance rate (publisher)
- 30.8%Publisher website ·
- Submission to first decision
- 3 daysPublisher website ·
- Submission to acceptance
- 49 daysPublisher website ·
- Acceptance to publication
- 79 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
- No other fees
- Submission fee
- No submission fee
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 prepare7 items from the author guidelines
- Abstract
- 200–250 words
- Keywords
- ≥ 3
- Manuscript length
- ≤ 3,000 words
- Reference style
- AMA
- First submission
- Free format: the journal's layout is not required
- Suggested reviewers
- Required
- Cover letter
- Required
Article types accepted9
- editorialHSS Journal considers the following article types; EQUATOR reporting guidelines and checklists are required for some article types. Original Research Use the ap…Length not stated
- letterHSS Journal considers the following article types; EQUATOR reporting guidelines and checklists are required for some article types. Original Research Use the ap…Length not stated
- literature reviewHSS Journal considers the following article types; EQUATOR reporting guidelines and checklists are required for some article types. Original Research Use the ap…Length not stated
- meta-analysisHSS Journal considers the following article types; EQUATOR reporting guidelines and checklists are required for some article types. Original Research Use the ap…Length not stated
- original researchHSS Journal considers the following article types; EQUATOR reporting guidelines and checklists are required for some article types. Original Research Use the ap…Length not stated
- research reportHSS Journal considers the following article types; EQUATOR reporting guidelines and checklists are required for some article types. Original Research Use the ap…Length not stated
- reviewHSS Journal considers the following article types; EQUATOR reporting guidelines and checklists are required for some article types. Original Research Use the ap…Length not stated
- systematic reviewHSS Journal considers the following article types; EQUATOR reporting guidelines and checklists are required for some article types. Original Research Use the ap…Length not stated
- systematic review or scoping reviewSystematic Review or Scoping Review Use the appropriate EQUATOR guidelines in writing your systematic or scoping review.Length not stated
Policy excerpts from the journal's websiteAuthorship, Conflicts of interest, 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 ·- Conflicts of interest AI Disclosure
All papers must include a statement disclosing if any content was generated using AI. If so, clearly indicate which model was used and for what purpose. Please use the Methods or Acknowledgements section, as appropriate.
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
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. Optional open access publishing is available for a fee via the Sage Choice program, and Open Access agreements, where authors can publish open access either discounted or free of charge depending on the agreement with Sage. Find out …
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 reject…
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. All submitted articles are checked with duplication-checking software. Where an article, for example, is found to have copied or inadequately paraphrased other work or included third-pa…
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 Clinical trial registration
The journal endorses the ICMJE requirement that clinical trials are registered in a WHO-approved public trials registry at or before the time of first participant enrollment. However, consistent with the AllTrials campaign, retrospectively registered trials will be considered if the justification for late registration is acceptable. The trial registry name and URL, and registration number must be …
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
- ISSN
- 1556-3316
- Electronic ISSN
- 1556-3324
- Official links
- Journal homepage ↗OpenAlex
- Submission system ↗Publisher website
- Special issues ↗Publisher website
FAQ
Frequently asked questions about HSS Journal
What CAS zone is HSS Journal in?
In the 2025 upgraded edition of the CAS Journal Ranking, HSS Journal is in Zone 4 of Medicine, and in Zone 4 of the minor category Orthopedics / Surgery. In the 2026 Xinrui edition it is in Zone 4 of Medicine. Zones from different editions, and from major and minor categories, are not interchangeable.
What is the impact factor of HSS Journal?
The latest impact factor listed by LetPub is 1.44; CiteScore 3.3, h-index 63.
How long does peer review take at HSS Journal?
Based on the dates recorded on 86 articles published between October 2024 and October 2026 (the last 24 months), the median time from submission to acceptance is 49 days (interquartile range 29–76 days); the journal's website gives an acceptance rate of 30.8%. 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 HSS Journal?
According to the journal's author guidelines: Abstract: 200–250 words; Keywords: ≥ 3; Manuscript length: ≤ 3,000 words; Reference style: AMA; First submission: Free format: the journal's layout is not required; 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 HSS Journal based?
Of the 36 board members whose country the journal's board page names, none are in mainland China; the countries named most often are United States (18), Brazil (3) and South Korea (2). Counted from the institutions listed on the board page; for reference only.
Which databases index HSS Journal?
According to LetPub and DOAJ records, HSS Journal is indexed in SCIE and Scopus.
Is HSS Journal open access, and what is the APC?
HSS Journal 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: .